Living in a village in Iringa Rural region is notoriously hard. Almost all villagers are subsistence farmers, relying completely on the promise of coming rain for their crops to grow and ultimately their own survival. Electricity has not yet reached these peripheral areas and water supply is often sporadic with the added threat of typhoid and other water borne diseases. Medical supplies and hospitals are difficult to access even when the villagers have the financial capabilities to obtain treatment.

Students who are unable to attend secondary school are forced to face bleak future prospects in the village. Many female primary school leavers decide to seek their fortune as house-girls in the capital city Dar Es Salaam. Sadly most find themselves in situations where their employer sexually abuses and mistreats them and they are forced to return to their village often HIV+ or pregnant and in a far worse state than when they left. Others settle for staying in the village, getting married, producing children and generally have a life of hardship and constant struggle.

But students who are fortunate enough to be provided with the opportunity to attend secondary boarding school escape the dire straights of village life. Female students who leave the village for boarding school no longer have the pressure of social expectations of doing domestic chores such as fetching water and firewood, cooking, cleaning, and looking after siblings and grandparents. Boarding school is especially beneficial to orphan students who have very little financial and moral support in the village and need opportunities to develop themselves.

S.E.E.D. believes that the only way life in the villages will improve is by educating the children away from their difficult village environment who will then return to share their new found knowledge.