Samson Gladstone founded a school – known locally as the St Paul Academy – in the year 2010. This name can be seen on the desks and on the sign outside.
Samson resides in Karatu town with his wife, Lilian, and their four children.
Their first-born is called Gift (born in 2007), the second child is called Annette (2011), the third child is called Joan (2016) and their most recent addition is Trisha (2023).
Samson is a qualified teacher who gained his teaching qualifications in Iringa, Tanzania. He has been a qualified teacher for 14 years, and has served as Headmaster in two local Government Schools, namely Meali and Midabini.
Samson has, in addition to his teaching roles, been a voluntary support worker assisting in a number of important local projects and issues concerning water supply, sanitation and nutrition, benefiting hundreds of children in the Karatu District.
The Karatu Early Learning School is his principle mission.
Any foreign tourist travelling through Karatu, en-route to the Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti Plains, could not fail to notice how poor and needy some of the town’s children are. Some are foot-loose, some resort to begging and some can often be seen scavenging for food on the town’s dump site.
Only the few have any access to early learning before Government-funded education commences, as of right, at age 7 or 8. The St Paul Academy fills the void in those early years of a child’s life and, with limited resources, our Karatu Early Learning School provides a start for some young ones.
The school lies roughly 2 kilometres south-east of the Post Office in Karatu. The Post Office is on the left-hand side of the main road leading westwards to the Ngorongoro Crater. Karatu is the last stop before the Ngorongoro Crater and thence to the Serengeti Plains. It is a 35 minute drive to the Crater Gate. There are a number of very good Lodges to stop-over, before or after a wildlife safari.
