Traveler's Philanthropy Conference Dec 2008

Two weeks ago I attended the Traveler’s Philanthropy Conference www.travelersphilanthropy.org here in Arusha. The Centre on Ecotourism and Sustainable Development (CESD) www.ecotourismcesd.org hosted the three day event, in Arusha at the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge. At the core of Travelers Philanthropy (TP) is the idea of “giving back” of time, talent and treasure to tourism destinations, with Arusha being the gateway to Mt. Kilimanjaro and the Northern Safari circuit in Tanzania, it provided an ideal venue! TP is slowly gaining ground as an important form of development assistance flowing from tourism businesses and travelers into projects that support local communities, our focus however, was on giving a hand up rather than a hand out.

There were two key note speakers:
Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai, Ph.D.
Maathai founded Kenya’s Green Belt Movement http://www.greenbeltmovement.org planting over 40 million trees and becoming a leading force in Kenya’s pro-democracy struggles. In 2004, when Dr. Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts, she became the first environmentalist and only African women to receive this prize!

David Western, Ph.D.
David Western is the former Director of the Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS), and founder of the East African Conservation Centre http://www.conservationafrica.org and founding President of The International Ecotourism Society (TIES). Western’s particular interest lies in pastoralism and community participation in conservation.

I attended a number of different workshops, from “the rights and wrongs of Philanthropy” to “Using the internet and media to promote and solicit donations”. What came up again and again was the need for community ownership, and the importance of the process of engaging with the community.
One company that stood out for me was The Intrepid Foundation www.theintrepidfoundation.org, which highlights the importance of income generating projects, to foster empowerment, and develop self-reliance. This I believe the first step towards TRADE NOT AID.

Wangari Maathai’s Key note speech was focused around the need for sustainable management of our limited resources, and the promotion of equity in the distribution of those resources through good governance. Very much tied into this is the culture of creating capacity and to what extent an organization can answer the question-has your project empowered a community? To what extent are we creating ownership? So that we can move from dependency to becoming a partner in development, where there is no sense of entitlement in the relationship.

For me one the most interesting workshop was about moving from Charity to Social Empowerment. The speaker that stood out for me here was Trisha Barnett from Tourism Concern, UK, http://www.tourismconcern.org.uk
who again highlighted the need for community empowerment, but not through Philanthropy or aid, but through trade, ethical tourism and enabling entrepreneurship.

I took a great deal from & Beyond (formerly CC Africa) http://www.ccafrica.com about the importance for working with communities and not for them. Accepting that respect takes time, relationships need to be nurtured.

How does all of this relate to TFFT and the valuable work that we do with orphans? I have a few ideas that I came up with from the conference:
Full Circle After school Program: Have the older children tell us what they think they need to learn , and what they would like to learn after school!
Developing an income generating project, that empowers our students and teaches them the basic principles of running ones own business.

Feeding Table for Nkoaranga Orphanage

Nkoaranga Orphanage, a partner orphange of The Foundation For Tomorrow, has recently received a very useful and helpful donation from the Bianucci Family. The Bianucci family spent some time this past summer volunteering at Nkoaranga Oraphange and helping out in any way possible. They have become very involved with various projects to help improve the facilities and way of life at the orphanage.

The Bianucci's realized the need for a safer and more managable approach to feeding time. On an average day, there are two to three Mama's working at the orphange with the 25 children, all who are under the age of five. As you can imagine, every day is quite an adventure... especially when it comes time to eat. The older children have got it down, they all sit at the miniture table in their miniature chairs and are able to feed themselves for the most part. You will have the occasional fast eater who will have finished their own food and try to snatch someone else's but for the most part it all goes pretty smoothly. The infants and toddlers are were it gets a little tricky. There are 8 of them right now and with only a few adults, there aren't enough arms for everyone to be held and fed at the same time. The orphange does have some smaller high chairs for this age group; however, they tend to be a little topsy-turvy.

After a visiting Cradle of Love, a local orphange for infants to two year olds, the Bianucci's had the perfect solution. Cradle of Love uses a feeding table for all of their meals and it works brilliantly. I arranged for ADRA, an organization working on a variety of development projects across Tanzania, to build the table for us - they did an awesome job! The table is high off the ground and shaped like a horse-shoe, allowing for the Mama to stand in the middle to easily reach all the children facing her. The table holds 6 children at a time, who are all securely seated in individual seat holders from which they can't fall out or escape from. It has been an amazing addition to the orphange, everybody seems to be really enjoying it....

Mama Pendo serving lunch

The boys hanging out & loving the table

Thanks so much to the Bianucci family for this generous donation!

December is Hot in Tanzania

December 11^th – Not that the title has anything to with this blog, but it’s been a busy past two weeks here on the ground in Tanzania (notwithstanding the fact that it really is just really hot in Arusha right now). Starting at the end of last week where TFFT exhibited at the Traveler’s Philanthropy Conference hosted here in Arusha, there’s been a lot of busy work to be done (including having a banner made post haste and printing out some pictures of the kids to decorate our stall). While there were some very interesting people presenting – including Wangari Maathai who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, in part for her work founding the Green Belt Movement which plants trees to combat soil erosion – I can honestly say that a majority of the stalls were focused on selling kitsch to the visiting conference attendees. In one case, a Tanzanian man asked me if he could get a job with TFFT – though he hardly knew what we did. Then, when I informed him that there were currently no positions open here in TZ he seemed completely baffled, spelling out the name on our banner saying “This is ‘the Foundation for Tomorrow’, right? Well, what about my tomorrow? Aren’t you concerned with my tomorrow?!?” Mayhaps we should change the name of our foundation to ‘the Foundation for This Particular Guy’s Future’ (TFFTPGF).

Then, on the Sunday after the conference I was invited to attend a baptism ceremony for Emmy and Ndemno’s granddaughter Deborah, as well as for Omari – a worker at Matonyok who converted from Islam to Christianity. Technically, I was invited to the party after the actual ceremony – but it was quite the experience nonetheless. Imagine – a tent in the middle of the brush, Omari, Omari’s wife, and Deborah at the head table all dressed in their Sunday best. Then the Matonyok gang all done up in matching orange and white baseball shirts, singing and dancing all the while. Then Omari’s (though now called Emmanuel) extended family, occasionally ululating whenever someone took the podium to extol Emmanuel’s virtues. Let me tell you folks, Emmanuel’s grandmamma can really cut a rug even though she must be upwards of seventy years!

It was quite the experience and one which I can honestly say was unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed. Between the boldly colored dresses, the dancing, the singing, the cake – there was an almost palpable feeling of community to this occasion. One quick note about Tanzanian parties in case you ever find yourself attending one. Whenever there’s cake, the person for whom the cake is made is served last. In fact, the quest of honor is obliged to feed everyone else before he or she can even begin thinking of chowing down on some cake. So make sure to get your cake beforehand if someone throws you a party here in TZ. That’s all I have for this Thursday. Hope everyone’s looking forward to their respective holidays (though, yes I know that Ramadan has already past – BUT Eid al Adha has just taken place, so that counts).

December!

12/1 – Hello everyone and happy December. I must apologize for my delayed blogging… I’ve been through about three computers this month as well as two power bricks and all of this technological difficulty has taken its toll on my ability to write for an extended period of time. So here it is.

As always, Matonyok is proceeding nicely. Aside from the workers’ wages and some incidental materials that seem to always pop up at the end of a construction project, it looks like the sanitation facility will be completed under budget and close to two months in advance of schedule. I say this as the short rainy season begins, but the roof has been up for about three weeks and has already weathered some heavy storms (most notably last Friday night where it rained torrentially for close to three hours. The local authorities advised people with goats and sheep in their yards to take them all inside, as the rain might be too much for them to handle).

But the structure held up and should be good to go. The electrician has already come and gone, and the plumber is back this week to connect the bio-gas tanker to the sanitation facility. After this, there should be only minimal work to be done – though the electrician has left wires available for the installation of a solar panel system (more on that later).

As this project comes to a close, I can’t help but look back at the expediency with which the workers executed their responsibilities. Everyone, from the timber man to the hardware store to the electrician to Emmy and Ndemno have been completely dependable and have worked diligently to see this project to its conclusion. I now know that since I’ve put it in writing that something will come up. But we’ll deal with as best we can, as always.

It’s actually been a busy month for teachers’ training. Beginning with meeting with the US consulate staff in Dar in early November, the wheels have really got going – and I think that going back to the drawing board and reinventing the program is a great idea. I’ve been able to meet with some leading educators in Arusha, and they all agree that working on a smaller scale closer to home is a much better idea (and much more marketable since it undercuts the need for six $3,000+ flights to America) and some have even advocated keeping it within Arusha, while working with the international schools. But I’ve been able to get some contact and have gone back to revise the proposal time and again. It’s currently known (rather aptly) as ‘Work in Progress’.

However, I’ve gotten some good feedback and will have something tangible to offer by mid-December. Even if we start the program in early February, there’s still much time to work out the kinks and select motivated teachers from our affiliate schools. Most recently, I met up an ex-pat who operates a teacher’s college in Magugu (yes, that’s a real place) and has been a great help on this project. She thinks that it’s a much better idea to streamline the program to include only one academic field per year – starting with maths, then science, then English and so on for an extended period of time.

Needless to say, there’s been a lot of editing and re-editing which I believe is for the best, since I’d like the program to be implemented as effectively as possible. Though, there’s still the question of quantifiability – something that I’m currently working on this month. So, that’s all I have for now. If you’ve gotten this far, congratulations! I’ll try to be more diligent in writing.

Sports Day at LouLou's!!!

Lou Course is the newest volunteer addition to TFFT Tanzania, she initially became involved to help me with our tutoring program at Fikiria Kwanza but that was just the beginning! In just the past couple weeks, she has started tutoring, hosted a Sports Day at her home in Usa River, and is organizing a Christmas Carol Fundraiser to benefit TFFT. The kids adore her, completely adopting her as their own, LouLou as they call her. Needless to say, she has been a delight, bringing excitement and enthusiasm to every activity!

This past Tuesday, Lou hosted our Fikiria Kwanza scholarship children at her home for a fun filled afternoon of sports. Lou had her house decked out for sports day - including a chalk track for all the races! It was a huge success and the kids has an amazing time. I sorted the children into teams, having the five older children (Amani, Eliupendo, Joyce Mbise, Jesca, & Joackim) as our awesome team captains. They did a phenomenal job helping to keep the little ones on track and leading their teams to success!

Lou and I planned to have several different games, we started out with a relay race first to get everyone's blood flowing...

Rosemary is in the lead with Odemary giving her a run for her money...

Then we had several games of Tug-of-War, in which Blue Team were the champions. They managed to beat every other team and were so happy to be able to say they were they "weeeennas!"

It was a scorching day, so we had to have at least one water activity. Lou set up a water and cup race, in which each team starts with a bucket of water then has to fill one cup at a time and race down to the finish line where an empty is waiting to be filled. The first team to fill their bucket (with the most water) are the winners. The kids all loved this game, some deciding the water was better used on themselves rather than the buckets, but in the end the Pink Team was number one.

After everyone had exhausted themselves, Lou and her fabulous team of cooks and helpers provided us with a delicious feast of beef stew, rice, chapati, cabbage, and bananas! She even had vanilla and chocolate ice cream cones for dessert, the kids were in heaven!

A very, very special thanks to Lou and her awesome team for making Sport Day possible!!!

I have been spending more time at FK recently, it has been magic! I really like the new tutor, Raphael, who is doing a phenomenal job with the kids. Yusuf finally knows the alphabet! R is a massive, gentle giant and I think the kids have a lot of respect for him! I took the kids old tennis balls this week to play with, and it was amazing watching them, we had balls flying every where. We need to work on hand eye co-ordination! So with the help of our new volunteer-Lou, we are planning a little sports day at her house next week, where we will do slip n’ slide, tug of war, egg and spoon races and ball games! I can’t wait, it will be such a nice break for them to get out of the school and have a fun afternoon running around! I don’t think Lou quite knows what she is in for!
I also finally feel like TFFT is “coming out” in Arusha, I now have people calling me wanting to introduce me to people, and come and see what we are doing, it is really exciting to finally feel like I have more local support and people recognize us and what we are doing here. We will be having a little Christmas Carol evening fundraiser mid December which will be a good opportunity to get to know more people in the Usa River Area.

Fikiria Kwanza Library

Fikiria Kwanza students have been enjoying their new library donated by TFFT for almost a month and a half now! It was a slow beginning to the library due to delays in furniture construction and internet installation but it's all coming together quite nicely now. After the furniture was completed in September, I had a goal of opening the library to the children on October 1st. There was a lot to be done: unpack and alphabetize the books so generously donated by Scholastic, create a coding system for all the books, label all 8,500 books!, shelve them, and also train the new librarian. It was a lot of tedious work and long days but I managed to have it up and running by October 1st! The library looks great - we have 6 large bookshelves and one small one filled with books, a reading corner with a low table surrounded with pillows, and an area that will serve as the computer center. SatCom will be doing our internet installation which we hope is on track to be completed by the end of the year.

View of the library from the reading corner

Eliupendo enjoying the reading corner

I have never seen kids so excited to be visiting a library and reading! Fikiria Kwanza sends every class at least once a week to visit the library and you will see them racing to be the first ones in and with a book in their hands. It's been amazing to see their enthusiasm and excitement for the library, making all the hard work very worthwhile. I am currently working with the librarian to setup a reading club where there will be a book of the week for the children to read and discuss together. The library has been an enormous addition to Fikiria Kwanza's educational resources and will immensely benefit the children's learning progress - we're all very excited to have it up and running!!!

Mandu and Yusufu

In the photo above, you see Mandu sporting the 3-D shades to be worn while reading Polar Bears 3-D Adventure. However, the kids love to wear them no matter what book they happen to be reading, its hysterical.

Usa River Academy Parent's Visiting Day

Last Saturday, Usa River Academy hosted a day full of singing and dancing preformances, speeches, food, and christmas carols for the families of student's attending the school. Parent's Visiting Day is really special because Usa River administration does not allow for any parental visits throughout the course of the term except on this day. So all of the children have been anxiously awaiting this day. Luckily, since The Foundation For Tomorrow has 32 children attending Usa River I get some special treatment and am permitted to visit more than just this one day. Although I frequently visit the schools and TFFT students there, this did not decrease their excitment for the celebration. I was getting reminders every week from them since the beginning of term not to miss November 1st!

My Mom was in Arusha visiting, so we spent the day with the children listening to stories of teachers, school, friends, and families after the performances were complete. It was great to spend some down time with all the kids, as I am normally there giving out school supplies or tutoring in a more formal setting. I was able to get a little bit more insight into some of their personalities - for example, Zacharia wants to be a photographer. He had my Mom's camera for two hours just snapping every possible scene and got some amazing shots! Ombeni Elia wants to be a teacher or the President, I also learned that he is an excellent tour guide as he took my Mom around campus telling her all about it.

Parent's Visiting Day brought other visitors for the children as well. Aunts and Uncles, Mama's and Aunties, and friends for Violethi, Simon, Isack, Zacharia, Richard, Aminelly, Happy, Glory, and Irene also joined in on the festivities. Most of the visitors were new faces for me, so I was really happy to meet everyone and so appreciative that they made the long journey to visit the children - the endess smiles were enough for me to know that it made their weekend!

Working to Get Greater Support

This past week has been busy. I started off the week in Dar es Salaam, following a forum last Friday in Dar, run by the East African Association of Grant Makers (EAAG), on mobilizing philanthropic resources in Tanzania. Whilst everyone acknowledges the help Tanzania needs, it seems few local companies are willing to support local NGO’s like The Foundation For Tomorrow. It was exciting to meet with some of the movers and shakers in the region. I was definitely the youngest person in the room! I then spent a few days in Dar meeting with various companies, such as DTB, Knight Frank, KLM finding out about their CSR programs and presenting proposals.
Back in Arusha, we have had huge dust storms, rain storms and all weather in between, making our internet connection erratic to say the least! Change is in the air! It looks like our rainy season has started. I am headed to Matonyok this afternoon to check on the progress of the sanitation block which is going up at lightening speed, the roof is already being put on and it looks like it will be done and ready by the end of the month, which is so exciting!

Updates at Matonyok

Howdy peoples. Sorry for the delay, but I’m currently working on my third computer in as many months and even this one is a bit temperamental. So, again even though there is a blog there are no pictures. But I’m sure that you can use your imagination…

Everything is going incredibly well with the Matoyok sanitation facility. Currently, the entire foundation is finished and the brickwork is nearly completed, which means that the next big step is the roofing and extensive plumbing. This, Ndemno tells me, will be completed the first week of November which means that the tiling, grouting, and finishing touches will be done by – at the latest – the third week of November. Since the timeline projected that the sanitation facility be functional by February, we can hope to have the entire building operating well before the projected opening date.

On that note, the workers have been putting in a lot of time on this project and the progress is staggering. In less than 10 days, they put in over eighteen rows of bricks which, at face value, doesn’t seem that impressive until you couple that with the fact that the number of bricks being used is well over 3,000. Using my recently acquired math teaching skills, this means that the workers put in over 300 bricks a day (a long process including the soaking of the bricks, mixing the cement, cutting bricks to fill awkward gaps in the rows – while keeping all the rows of bricks level – and sticking the entire business together with copious amounts of said cement). Further, using some advanced math teaching techniques, I can deduce that each row of bricks is comprised of between 166 and 167 bricks – a staggering number, especially in light of the fact that these men have done more with 3,000 bricks over the past 10 days then I could hope to accomplish in my life.

And while you might suspect that the quality of construction would be shoddy due to the rapid pace of building, the contractor makes it a point to spend time with the workers every day to make sure that the work is progressing quickly and solidly. He is unafraid to make a worker take out a row of bricks that he feels is not up to snuff – a fact that might irritate the laborer, but in the end will make the entire building that much better. So, that’s all from Eastern Africa. Hope everyone’s enjoying their end of October and have their costumes all picked out for the All Hallows’ Eve celebration. I’m going to be a ninja.