You are here: Home / Project News

Project News

January 2012 – What is going on?
Our tailoring group has just finished producing its first order for 50 yoga mat bags.
The hostel has had a lick of paint to welcome girls for the new academic year.
The moringa tree seedlings have been transplanted onto our land and many given to primary schools.
Our volunteers Nicole and Lily are doing a great job and best of all Nicole has extended her stay by 10 months. Lily is extending hers by 2 weeks because “it is going to be quite an exciting period”. Indeed as we also welcome Ellie at the end of January. Ellie is due to stay with us for a year and is a craft designer. So the Upendo Group are over the moon. More products to be made available, more women benefitting. Exciting times ahead indeed.
Follow the stories below and check out our picture gallery under Media & Resources.

Girls’ hostel opens, 1st February 2012

February 16, 2012 By kanga Leave a Comment
The opening of a hostel for girls

"For me and Gloria, the head of Rural Women Development Association, there could not have been a more wonderful end to Wednesday 1st February, while we were actually conversing on Skype. A rather long email from one of our volunteers Nicole arrived packed with news and ideas. Near the end of it, Nicole announced, rather casually, that “the girls have moved into the hostel this evening”. This seemingly ordinary event for Nicole was to Gloria and me the final chapter of a nearly 3 year long drawn out battle with the authorities. Of course, we knew we had won the battle when last November we finally … read more »

Filed Under: Latest News, Project News Tagged With: , ,

Yoga mat bags

January 29, 2012 By kanga Leave a Comment
sewing (4)

Early in June 2011, a few women asked if we could help them learn to sew using pedal powered machines and may be start businesses. We asked around to see who else would be interested and soon had 15 women, mostly young ones keen to give it a go. We asked Sister Michaela and her staff Lidia and Anna from the local Catholic Mission if they would provide for an intensive 3 months course for them as they had sewing machines lying idle most of the time. In return the Mission would benefit from an additional income to help them with running their school for disabled girls. Classes were attended 4 times … read more »

Filed Under: Latest News, Project News Tagged With:

Suzanne has left some of our village leaders, gobsmacked

September 4, 2011 By kanga Leave a Comment
moringa seedlings1

A few months ago, Suzanne our latest volunteer told us about the spectacular nutritional claims of the Moringa tree and asked if she could introduce it to the community during her stay if they were not already aware of its immense properties. If, like us, you have never heard of it, its potentials will just amaze you. The Moringa tree or horseradish tree or Mlonge tree (in Swahili) is best known for its exceptional usefulness as a food and medicinal plant. Nearly every part of it can be used in one way or another to benefit humans and provide food and other valuable materials for farming and fuel … read more »

Filed Under: Latest News, Project News Tagged With:

Our little miracle by Renee Martin

July 10, 2011 By kanga Leave a Comment
IMG_6882

I am very pleased to announce that despite school holidays and closures as well as my limited time here, we were able to launch a peer educator train-the-trainer programme on June 27th with ten students. (check here for pictures) We started with 5 O-level girls and 5 A-level boys nominated by peers and the headmasters, but have ended the first week of training with 7 A level boys and only 3 O level girls. A few of the nominated girls ended up being too shy to participate productively let alone consider facilitating sessions of their own. Although the groups are being trained in … read more »

Filed Under: Latest News, Project News Tagged With:

By popular demand

July 1, 2011 By kanga Leave a Comment
tailoring class

15 women have started learning the skills of tailoring. Early June they joined Sister Michaela and her staff Lidia and Anna for an intensive 3 months course. They are attending classes at the Catholic Mission 4 times a week for 3H. In return the Mission gets an additional income of nearly £500 to help them with running their school for disabled girls. We need to get sewing machines for these women to keep the momentum going after the training and most importantly to enable them to start producing a range of products to sell. Our next volunteer Suzanne due to arrive on 14th July is preparing some … read more »

Filed Under: Latest News, Project News Tagged With: ,

Fuel efficient stoves project gets started

March 26, 2011 By kanga Leave a Comment
building a mud stove

Thanks to a generous grant from The Souter Charitable Trust, we were able to kick start this project as planned. So recently RWDA sent Maria Francis, their project supervisor and Brown Pagani, a future stove builder and trainer, to Dodoma to undergo a week's training with Sunseed Tanzania Trust in how to build a fuel efficient Rocket mud stove. Although I know they were very happy with the training, we have not had their full report yet due to the very frequent electricity rationing which makes it very difficult to communicate at the moment. We have however received a few photos that you can see … read more »

Filed Under: Latest News, Project News Tagged With:

Turning shit into dinners

December 19, 2010 By kanga Leave a Comment
bio

Sorry to sound so rude, but for one of our 2011 projects, this description hits it on the head and I bet it grabbed your attention too. We want to install a biogas system at Ilongero Secondary School so that students may be fed at least 1 meal in the course of the day. Most of the 1000 students at Ilongero Sec. School in Tanzania start the long walk to school early on an empty stomach and have to wait until home time to eat as there are no cooking facilities at the school. Results: poor concentration, fragile health and academic under achievement. Running a kitchen using wood and charcoal is costly, … read more »

Filed Under: Latest News, Project News Tagged With:

our centre needs a name

October 25, 2010 By kanga 3 Comments
training school incubator room

we want you to join in our search for a suitable name for the "soon to be" training centre. Hot debates are going on in Tanzania but we thought we could add our two pennies worth. Fancy having a go? Not an easy choice when only one or two words have to express so much hope and dreams. There are already a few to choose from, here they are with their closest translations. Nenda Zako Training Centre "Be on your way" Tunza Training Centre "To take care of" Wezesha Training Centre "To empower – To enable" Amsha Training Centre "To awaken someone" … read more »

Filed Under: Notice Board, Project News

The 1000 egg incubator is in place

October 14, 2010 By kanga Leave a Comment
1000 egg incubator

July was a momentous time for our ladies as a brand new egg incubator arrived at the poultry training school thanks to the amazing fundraising efforts of 2 great girls. It can accommodate up to 1000 eggs and has been designed to work on solar. Unfortunately, the guys who made the incubator and the guys who made the solar panels did not exchange much information, even though their workshops are just a few meters away from each other in the outskirts of Dar es Salaam. The result is a solar system not powerful enough. But not to worry, I am told, an additional panel set up will do the trick so long … read more »

Filed Under: Project News Tagged With: , ,