Supporting Gombe High School in Tanzania
Friends of GOSESO (Gombe School of Environment & Society) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to supporting education in Tanzania by providing essential resources to Gombe High School in the rural Kigoma region. Our goal is to support the founder's (Yared Fubusa) vision of bridging the environment with the local economy, thus educating young people and collaborating with the local villagers.
Virginia, USA
the 1990s
Yared's Story
Yared Fubusa & Jane Goodall
As a teenager in the 1990s, Yared worked with Jane Goodall in her Roots & Shoots program at Gombe National Park in western Tanzania. There he met an American teacher, Cathy Cottrell, and her young students from Farmville, Virginia, who were visiting to learn about chimpanzees. They invited him to Farmville, where he finished high school and went on to study at Longwood University. Later he attended the University of Utah and Utah State University, where he earned a Ph.D. in Environment & Society. His dream was to support his local village, Kiganza, by building a school that would teach students from all over Tanzania. He founded Gombe High School (aka GOSESO, Gombe School of Environment & Society), which promotes environmental education as well as economic opportunities for the local residents. Yared died in 2025, the same year as his mentor, Jane Goodall.
Yared's Vision
"A core tenet of the GOSESO mission is the notion that educating and training rural people will yield long-term sustainable livelihoods."
Dr. Yared J. Fubusa
"Yared's model of community learning promotes environmental stewardship, community stability, and economic sustainability." Our mission is to support his model.
Key components of GOSESO (Gombe School of Environment & Society):
• a small residential school
• an agricultural demonstration farm
• a study-abroad program
• wildlife & cultural tourism
• a conservation outreach program, or "school without walls"
Contact us if you can help with any of the above: friendsofgoseso@gmail.com
Gallery
Contact Us friendsofgoseso@gmail.com
For inquiries, partnerships, or to learn more about our initiatives, please feel free to reach out. Your support can make a significant impact on the lives of the students at the school. There is currently a need for donations in order to drill a water well, provide electricity, build a dining hall, and purchase used computers.
We are also looking for partnerships in the following areas:
• study abroad
• cultural and eco-tourism (e.g., bird-watching & visiting Gombe National Park to see where Jane Goodall did her research on chimpanzees)
• tree planting
• organic farming
• research projects (e.g., studying the local "bush babies")
