Zanzibar Projects Updates and Achievements from Q4 2017 - African Impact

TEACHING PROJECT HOURS

MARINE PROJECT HOURS

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KISWAHILI LESSON:

AVG SEA TEMP: 28°C

“Ninataka kujifunza” means “I want to learn”

Marine Project: “The most rewarding, humbling and exciting experience of my life. It was the most wonderful feeling knowing that the work I contributed was really making a difference to the dolphins’ wellbeing and to the local community” – Natalie Melna, Australia Teaching Project: “This experience changed a lot of things in me. I got to know myself and the world better. I wanted the experience to broaden my horizons, and it definitely did, not only that, but I also discovered myself.” – Jamil Khoja, Saudi Arabia

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This quarter, volunteers undertook 57 dolphin tourist monitoring sessions, where we monitored a whopping 1,627 tourists’ behavior whilst interacting with both bottlenose and humpback dolphins. While it’s hard to watch the boats harassing the dolphins, we can learn what behavior should be avoided and study the impact.

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Word of our Ethical Dolphin Tour workshops is spreading around the Kizimkazi community. We started our 4th round of workshops; over 12 hours we trained 5 new boat drivers in ethical driving practices for dolphin tours. They are ready to take their practical assessments in January!

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39 Creative Conservation Club students completed their Reduce, Reuse, Recycle module. They were rewarded with a field trip to a solar power facility and a mushroom farm, where they are harvested using recycled compost.

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We have been busy completing coral reef bleaching surveys around the East and West coast of Zanzibar. 10 hours were spent carrying out 14 surveys on 3 coral reefs for CORDIO, a coral reef monitoring company in East Africa.

We are proud to be the sole data collectors for these areas.

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We spent over 9 hours at the fish market in Kizimkazi collecting data about all the different species of fish our friendly fishermen caught each morning. The data we collect is used to update our research partner Dr Narriman about the fishing activity in the area!

For our final community project of 2017, we wanted the community to have a day to remember. So, we hosted a Dhow Race with our incredible Community Manager Dulla, (now known as the Afri-Dulla Dhow Race), for fishermen in the Jambiani community. 16 boats competed for 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize, which were kindly funded by local hotels.

People came in their hundreds to cheer the winners, and every competing boat had to collect 1 large bag of plastic from the beach. Our volunteers then collaborated with Zanrec, Zanzibar’s only waste management organization, to clean up the beach.

Even tourists and hotel staff wanted to get involved, making it a true community effort.

A total of 38 huge bags of recyclable waste were collected from the beach, which will now be reused instead of littering our beautiful ocean. What a way to end the year, thank you to everyone who took part!

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10th Birthday - We celebrated our 10th Birthday – a huge achievement to have been teaching and making a positive impact in Jambiani for a decade. We had a huge celebration with over 200 people including staff, volunteers, students and many members of the community. We also set up a fundraising platform to finish building our school. So far, we have raised $589!

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Tippy-Tap Community Project – Volunteers and local coordinators made 4 fantastic tippy-taps at the nursery schools we teach at. They are a huge success and the students love to use them to wash their hands and brush their teeth – the perfect complement to “Washy Washy Week”. (Check out what a tippy-tap looks like on the right!) This quarter has witnessed

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Adult English Class sat their final exams in October and we congratulated all students accordingly at a big graduation celebration!

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A First Aid curriculum was developed and delivered for the nursery teachers with great results and feedback. All 6 nursery schools we teach at received First Aid boxes and manuals. The teachers were taught how to handle any situation where you might need to perform First Aid, tailored specifically for Zanzibarian nursery schools.

Volunteers tested their knowledge with surprise “emergency role plays”, which showed the teachers learned so much during the training.

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We received a huge donation pack from Bryanna Jongeneel who volunteered with us for 3 weeks in April, 2017. Bryanna fundraised for the Teaching and Community Project by carrying out 24 hours of silence. “This is because basic education can help to give anyone a voice.” An incredible $550 was donated!

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We hosted our first quiz nights at Spice Island Hotel – A beautiful local resort who has been an amazing support to our projects.

Over two nights, we raised $248.

Total money raised on ground: $628

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