Pablo

Monica

Our tasks are as varied as the people we’ll meet. Pablo will be teaching science to our students at the Mwaji Secondary School — we have a couple of new microscopes, 200 prepared slides, and fifty blank slides for him to work with. He’ll also be partnering with Monica on videography. (Pablo’s been to Bujela before and has worked with our students there. You can see videos of his previous volunteer trip by first clicking Part I, then Part II.) Besides videography, Monica will be the official photographer. She’ll also work with Michele on business ideas for widows, and the possibilities of creating a school farm for students to tend so as to supplement their diet.

Leslie

Paige

Leslie and her sister, Paige, will be handing out 145 reusable feminine hygiene kits, hand-sewn by Days For Girls as well as by some of our own absolutely amazing volunteers. Along with handing out the kits, Leslie and Paige will be teaching about personal hygiene and answering questions. Leslie will also be assisting Michele in going through the accounting books at the various projects. And if all that isn’t enough, Leslie and Paige will also be investigating the possibilities of soap-making using materials available on-site, plus planning some recreational activities with the kids. They’re going to be busy!

Dave

Dave will be a busy fellow as well. He’ll be working with Carl to build housing over our water wells. Plus, he’s developed a solar oven prototype that he will teach and demonstrate. He’ll also be handing out 90 calculators to our secondary school students and teaching a class on how to operate a calculator. All of this is in addition to teaching classes on basic engineering and aerodynamics! Holy moly! Way to go, Dave!

(L to R): Carl, Michele, Liza, Ezekia, and Wilfred

Carl, Michele, and Liza will be assisting volunteers, as well as working on various administrative tasks, including assessment of a future health care worker project. Of course, they can’t do much without their amazing, dedicated team of Tanzanian volunteers and staff, who interpret, drive, cook, clean, guide, advise, build, teach, and pray! Together with the visiting volunteers and the on-site personnel, Orphans Africa should make some significant strides this year.

We’ll return on September 25th, and in the meantime, we’ll be unable to communicate with those of you here. But keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Once we return, we’ll have our stories and photos to share with you.

P.S. Thank you to all of you who committed your resources toward helping make this trip possible, from providing money for excess shipping, the purchasing of school supplies such as microscopes, and for giving us much-needed clothing, shoes, and supplies, to give to our students. THANK YOU! And an extra-special shout-out to all the folks who sewed their fingers to the bones (all on a deadline) making those amazing feminie hygiene kits. What a difference these kits will make in the lives of disadvantaged girls and women! YOU ROCK!!

God’s blessings to everyone who helps Orphans Africa achieve its mission of educating orphans and empowering widows.

Together, we are making a difference.

So this is my official group hug. To each of you who gave, thank you and God bless you. And for those of you who attended the auction and purchased book baskets, wow! We raised over $17,000 at our auction, enough to nearly complete a kitchen and dining hall at our nursery and primary boarding school for orphans! Even now, our official group hug is reaching across the ocean to embrace children who otherwise wouldn’t have a chance at a quality education. It is essential to their well-being to know that people care about them.

The following authors generously donated books. As an extended group hug, I invite you to visit their websites, peek around, and post your accolades and appreciation. They deserve it.

Kobbie Alamo

Andrea Torrey Balsara

Anjali Banerjee

Carole Stevens Bibisi

David Bouchard

Martha Brockenbrough

Royce Buckingham

Dia Calhoun

Janet Lee Carey

Nina Durfee

Marilou Flinkman

Heather Vogel Frederick

Kathryn Galbraith

Ron Hirschi

Peg Kehret

Judith Laik

Kirby Larson

Margaret Lippert

Susan Marlow

Clare Hodgson Meeker

Gretchen Olson

Craig Orback (illustrator)

Terry Persun

Colleen Reece

Joni Sensel

In July and August, 2009, we once again packed our bags and traveled to Tanzania where we spent several weeks visiting the projects sites and meeting with team leaders. We hiked the hills of Bujela, gathered around the cookfires at night, visited with orphan children, and sang and danced with the various communities. (Oh and by the way, did you know Tanzanians love to sing and dance? Click here for a video.)

Weary around the edges, we nevertheless returned home overjoyed with progress. Never before have we felt such hope for our projects in Tanzania. From new brick classrooms to children with books in arms, it was amazing to see. More than anything we were struck with the spirit of unity, with the passion and conviction in the hearts of those whose job it is to carry the projects to fruition.

Currently, we have three bricks-and-mortar projects, all schools, and one microlending project for widows, which is in the pilot stage. Here is a summary of our progress, our year in review:

Financial Overview

In 2009, 93% of OA’s expenditures went to funding programs in Tanzania. That’s an amazing figure, considering the average charity only spends between 70 and 80% on programs. Yes, we run a lean, mean philanthropic machine!

Click here to read the full financial report.

Mwaji Secondary School

Previous to 2009, the orphan students of the Mwaji Secondary School sat in a classroom made of bamboo, thatch, and bark. They crowded together on benches hewn from logs, their notebooks on their laps. When it rained, they had to use umbrellas. Their toilet was a hole in the ground, surrounded by walls of sticks and grasses woven together. When they asked Orphans Africa for help, we agreed to build them a more permanent structure.

At first things went well. But then, in April, 2009, progress abruptly came to a halt when the government closed the Mwaji Secondary School until a more permanent toilet facility could be built. The students were, literally, in tears. Thank goodness we had an OA volunteer on-site, Pablo Rodriguez, from Brazil. Pablo had volunteered to teach science, but when the school closed, he sprang into a different kind of action. With his own funds, Pablo built a two-hole toilet facility for the teachers, enough of a stop-gap so the school could temporarily reopen. In the meantime, the OA team in the USA was scrambling for emergency funding. And boy, did our donors ever come through! By the time we visited in August, we had gathered enough funds to witness the completion of two additional toilet facilities: an 8-hole toilet for girls, and an 8-hole toilet for boys. Our deepest thanks to Pablo for his capable action, and to our donors for responding to the emergency!

Other accomplishments for 2009 include:

Completion of one classroom to include brick walls plastered and painted, cement floor, 20-year tin roof, metal guards and screens on windows, a locking steel door, desks and chairs.

A second classroom ready for plastering and painting.

Form Two students sat for their National Exams (results are pending).

A fully operational water well, also open to the community.

Salaries for teachers.

130 orphan students in attendance, all with uniforms.

Donated school supplies and some textbooks, thanks to OA donors.

More textbooks on the way! (Thanks to Freedom Through Learning)

Click here to see a video of the students at the Mwaji Secondary School.

Marilynn Primary and Nursery School

As our OA volunteer, Connie Fishel, can attest, when one steps onto the campus of the Marilynn Primary and Nursery School in Majohe, Tanzania, children get pretty excited. They all want to hold your hand!

This school was the first of OA’s bricks-and-mortar projects and is, consequently, the most mature. While there remains much to be done, accomplishments in 2009 were significant:

No longer crammed three to a desk, each student has his or her desk with chair.

Unlike before when the shelves were almost bare, the library is now filled with books and supplies. Children can check out books to take home.

Students of Standard Four sat for their National Examinations in November. Not only did each student pass, but the Marilynn Primary and Nursery School scored the fourth best out of one hundred schools in the Ilala District!

Installation of a well pump and water tower. Water no longer has to be purchased and brought in from the outside. The well is open to the community during off-school hours.

All classrooms have been refurbished with plaster, paint, cement floors, and locking steel doors.

Two out of three dormitories have been completed, to include plaster, paint, cement floors, tin roofs, metal bars and screens for windows, and wiring for electricity.

Third dormitory has walls.

A second septic tank was installed for the toilet facilities. The 10-hole toilet facility was completed and is now in operation.

Received government inspection; school is scheduled to be officially registered and orphans can live on campus pending completion of kitchen and dining hall facilities, and pending the furnishing of the dormitories.

Textbooks on the way! (Thanks to Freedom Through Learning)

Click here to see a video showing the construction and progress at the Marilynn Primary and Nursery School.

Isandula Center

What can you do with eighty acres? If you’re in Tanzania, you can do a lot! For instance, you can build a school that will educate and house hundreds of orphans, teaching them agriculture and animal husbandry in addition to the “three R’s.” That’s exactly what OA is planning to do at the Isandula Center in Vwawa, located in Western Tanzania near the border of Zambia.

The most ambitious of OA’s projects, the Isandula Center will require approximately $200,000 over the course of the next five years. Although the project is still in its first phase, in 2009, OA accomplished the following:

Constructed a water well.

Erected two permanent signs indicating land ownership and intended purpose.

Began construction on a caretaker’s cottage, which is now ready for roofing.

Developed a master plan for the complex.

Donated school supplies. (Thanks to OA donors!)

Click here for a video regarding the Isandula Center.

Business Development for Widows

This year, OA began a pilot project in Tanzania to benefit the widows. Most widows in Tanzania have no means of earning a living, and yet they must somehow support their children, provide food and water, and pay the rent. Part of OA’s mission is to provide skills and resources to widows to enable them to become self-sustaining and to send their children to school.

Using money from a donor earmarked for this purpose, OA provided eighteen widows with microloans so they could begin their own businesses. All eighteen widows rely on one another for support and encouragement, and as a group, are financially responsible for the repayment of their loan on a monthly basis. This system of checks and balances, plus monthly monitoring by an OA employee, helps to ensure repayment of the loan and ultimate success of the project.

The businesses are varied– tailoring, piggeries, shopkeeping, and the selling of charcoal, to name a few. If this project proves successful, OA plans to use donations from the general funds to provide microloans to another group of widows. All funds received as repayment will also be funneled back into microloans, providing an ongoing, sustainable investment in the future of these women and their children.

Click here to see a video of one of the businesses OA helped to create for one of the widows.

]]> http://orphansafrica.org/orphans-africa-at-work/feed/ 0 http://orphansafrica.org/take-heart/ http://orphansafrica.org/take-heart/#comments Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:08:25 +0000 MicheleTorrey http://orphansafrica.org/?p=216 We received an email from Wilfred, our OA employee in Tanzania. Besides sharing the news about the test results for our orphans, he had this to say, “We do appreciate the great work you are doing to make the future of orphans and widows have a defined destiny. The lost hope has been restored, the sun which was setting for them is now rising.”

Even in the midst of such tragedy in our world, with much suffering and grief, let us not forget that the sun is indeed rising. So take heart! Wherever there are people who still care, who love, who share the goodness they have received with others, hope is reborn.