Classroom Resource Painting 9% Girl Impact 6%
October - December Volunteer Hours NAFGEM 3%
Computer Skills 3% Shiners PreSchool 11% Maasai Empowerment Womens Support 12% Group - Wakipa 5% LANGUAGE LESSON:
Kiswahili: ‘Heri ya Mwaka Mypa’’ Means ‘Happy New Year!’
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School for the Deaf 2%
Local Business Development 2% Langoni Old Folks Home 15%
WHAT’S NEW ON THE GROUND? We welcomed 2 new Project Coordinators to the team – Bertha from Tanzania and Tyne from the UK. In partnership with the local District Education Office, we’ve added a new Girl Empowerment initiative in a local school that covers child rights, abuse and helps signpost children to where they can get support. It was greatly appreciated by the school and children alike. The Women’s Group we work with, WAKIPA, had their earnings from bunting sales from throughout the year distributed to them. Each received $55 and will use the money to send their children to school.
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In the second week of December, 10 volunteers, 4 members of staff and our 2 new tour guide trainees (Tuma & Zakayo), visited the rural village of Kitenden in West Kilimanjaro. The weekend trip provides the tour guides an opportunity to use their new skills and gives volunteers real insight into the traditional Maasai tribe way of life. A win-win for all!
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Volunteers delivered a 4-week empowerment program at aBefore local the secondary school during school holidays, annual graduation of ourthe English classes, we offered where students their knowledge of gender2 weeks of extra increased tuition to our Maasai students. This is the first based violence by 19%! time we have completed tuition with our Maasai students and they were fully engaged in the sessions, happy to gain We’re very English proud of the Women’s Group we support as additional language practice. they continue to expand their business, having partnered
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Adult English Literacy & Tuiton 32%
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From resources donated earlier in the year to complete an emergency security wall for the local nursery school, Shiners, we had enough left to renovate a whole new classroom! This month, the classroom has been ready for volunteers to get creative and lots of new resources are now adorning the walls.
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At the end of November, we received our first volunteers coming from Egypt and Indonesia. While visiting the local Old People’s Home, the residents were very interested to hear about their countries, so we completed a 3-day curriculum discussing folk stories from America, Egypt and Indonesia. The residents - as you can imagine – were fascinated and had many, many questions!
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Graduations and celebrations! December is a big month for our nursery and community students as they write their exams and hope to progress into the next class. This month we had 12 nursery graduates - all who received certificates and vital education packs - and 9 community class graduates, who all received an English to Kiswahili Dictionary as a graduation gift.
“If you truly want to get involved with a community and feel like you're a part of something great, this is the place for you. The staff and the projects are all incredible and you will feel welcome every day. You really get to make this experience into what you want it to be, and you will for sure feel like you're doing something important when you see the smile on the community member’s faces and the curiosity in the eyes of your students. A once in a lifetime experience that will leave you thinking.”
Julia Pigg, Girl Impact Volunteer December 2017
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We introduced a new session to a local primary school that focused on child rights, abuse and how to seek help. It was a huge success, so we then set to work adapting it for Msandaka School for the Deaf. The students engaged in role plays, debates and word games. They were thoroughly engaged with the topics, and teacher Valentine (our signtranslator) commented on how important these topics are.
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Our Womens’ Group, WAKIPA, reported that one of their biggest barriers in developing their business is their lack of knowledge in the English language. We’ve now brought our Foundation and Intermediate English Language Lessons to their weekly meetings and will be conducting exams and a graduation in the new year!
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We’ve returned to NAFGEM (A center for girls at risk from female genital mutilation) this December to continue the computer course that we started earlier this year. The girls are designing Christmas Cards using different programs, so we’re all waiting in line for a card from the girls!
MEET MARY: Mary is part of our Kiboroloni Tailors Business Development Group. For the past 6 years, Mary has been trying many different businesses - selling everything from shoes to tomatoes – but none of them were making enough money to get by. So, she decided to join our Business Development Course: “I learnt from the business classes to think about everyday items that won't go bad quickly, because it's better to make small money every day than big money every few days. When I first started my new business, so many people said I couldn't do anything with the small money I had, but now I'm running a successful spice business, selling to the biggest supermarket in our community and 3 different regions in Tanzania!"
Our project highlight this quarter definitely has to be the graduation for our Community and Maasai Tribe classes. We saw our new volunteer house security guard, Paulo, graduate from Foundation Class into Intermediate because of his hard work and dedication. To top it off, the students always have incredible, humbling speeches for us: “If you attended primary education, then that is your luck. If you herd cattle like me, that is also your luck, but we’ve all met here for a common goal – to learn. We have different levels of understanding but we should all support each other. I want to say thank you to all of the teachers, it’s not easy to teach adults who have a lot in their mind, and a lot of responsibilities. You are very kind and patient with us and it helps us learn. Thank you to African Impact for these classes, many people in this room could not read and write before but now they can. Thank you.� – Joshua, Student
In November, Juliana and Brit headed out to explore the wilderness on a 3-Day Ngorogoro Crater and Tarangire National Park safari with our trusted safari partner, Nyange Adventures. They were picked up directly from the African Impact volunteer house early on the first morning and returned on Sunday evening - in time for a rest before project on Monday morning. Juliana and Brit fell in love with Ngorogoro Crater, ticked off seeing the Big 5 and had a brilliant and knowledgeable guide! What else could you ask for on your weekend off?!
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