Update - Permaculture & Graduations

Hello all.  Welcome to another Hoja update.

Permaculture

Hoja has been looking into ways to help local farmers in Tanga ward work sustainably and Oswin has been telling us about some of the impact in his monthly reports:

NEGESO Rice Farm, Songea

Permaculture being the new thing to Songea community, but many people have proved that it is very important.  An IGP group NEGESO attended the course and have applied the knowledge in the rice growing.  They were doing this even before but they were using fertilizers.  But this year they have done it without using fertilizers, instead they have used composite manures, the results have been very positive.

Hoja Update!

It's been a little while since I updated you all on Hoja goings-on, but sifting through my emails there has been a raft of activity.

Our Sponsored Secondary School Students took their Mock National Exams in May 2010, in which all schools participate. The students who attend the Non-Formal Education at our VTC all passed with an average of C grade, the only school out of 176 in Ruvuma region to achieve this.

12 of our students at the local Lupunga Secondary School, where we send many of our students, failed their practice exams, and we'll be working closely with Lupunga to help improve the standard of education they provide.

They'll be taking their real National Exams in November.

Painting the VTC - Hoja and COCO Logos finished

Aside from some of the inside pictures I have already shown you, there have for the last week and a bit been some outside goings-on also.

This is the nearly complete first wall of the yellow and red (the ring beam is yet to be painted white), and the pink end wall with the COCO and Hoja logos painted on them. It's a veritable feast of colours, I'm sure you'll agree.

Hoja Volunteers to Leave Songea Tomorrow

The last month has been a very busy one for everyone here in Songea. We have been lucky enough to have acquired three extra volunteers in that time - Krista and Liz, from the UK, and Giza, a Malawian artist whom the girls met whilst traveling.



Very quickly we were stuck into starting to paint the VTC, progress on which slowed down once Krista, Liz and I started teaching. For the last two and a half weeks, and the two weeks to come, Hoja are providing extra tutoring for all our sponsored secondary school students, at the VTC. Painting has now started on the outside of the building, and I've been reproducing the Hoja and COCO logos as well.

Giza left a week ago after doing some fantastic artwork inside some of the rooms, and Krista and Liz are leaving Songea tomorrow. We'll be sad to see them go, they've been a great help and haven't been shy to cast a critical eye over the project.



Last week we also held a workshop for Hoja's two performance groups, on the issues of HIV and Malaria, which culminated in us holding a two hour event at the VTC for the sponsored students. Then on Sunday, the Kimamba group took part in a village health event in Litisha, using many of the things we covered in the workshop.



Krista, Liz and I also took part in two fun days for a special needs class at Mitawa Primary School the last two Wednesdays.

Unfortunately I'm running out of Internet time now, so I'll end with THANK YOU KRISTA LIZ AND GIZA!

Hello From A UK Volunteer in Tanzania

Hello from Tanzania.

For the last week I have been staying with the village chairman in Mpandangindo village, and I will be for another ten weeks.

I've come back to Tanzania to visit the Hoja Project and help out as much as I can for the maximum time a tourist visa will allow.

I will be helping (and teaching) in the Vocational Training Centre (VTC) in Sanangula mostly, but I will also be working in the office in Songea Town, and filming for making a Hoja documentary.

So far I have been welcomed by the Hoja Performance Group, and the secondary and vocational training pupils of the VTC, and we have been starting to organise the sports competitions, which this year will include women's football, and include teams from three wards, rather than only the villages that make up Tanga ward.

I have been in meetings with the VTC about their success and how I will help there, and also one very long but fruitful meeting in the Hoja Office, about IGPs, sponsored students, training seminars for Hoja Tanzania staff, and what to do about the growing number of people from outside Tanga ward who are taking note of Hoja's work and asking for help in their communities too.

I'm very impressed with the joined up thinking that underpins the VTC at Sanangula - building and carpentry students are helping construct the much needed new kitchen, both learning in the process and making the cost of the building much cheaper. The building will also include a shop whose profits will be fed back into the VTC.

The students on the secondary school course there are benefitting from a good student to teacher ratio and are performing much better in tests than many of the local government secondary schools.

Yesterday we watched students at Sanangula VTC play local sports matches against Lukala Secondary School, and while the girls battled to a 5-7 defeat in the netball, the boys took a 2-0 lead to half time in the football. Lukala pulled one back midway through the second half, and Sanangula missed three good late chances to finish off their opponents, before a controversial red card in the last few minutes gave Lukala the opportunity to pull of a 3-2 win.

Earlier in the day we had been filming with some members of IGP (Income Generation Project) groups, who were kind enough to talk to us about how Hoja has helped them. We captured some good footage, I think, though we were a little short on women who have been helped, so we shall have to visit some of those projects.

I shall try to keep you up to date with my adventures, and about the sharp end of Hoja's work.

More VTC Pictures & Mosquito Nets

I've acquired some more photos from Oswin relating to the Vocational Training Centre, and I thought it would be nice to put them up on here.

This is the Principal of the VTC, in his office.


A lady named Susan Vernon generously donated money for VTC equipment and mosquito nets for 36 VTC students, and we had enough nets left over to give to some of the students we sponsor in secondary school.


Above is a photo of some of the VTC students receiving their nets. This could be really important to them, because if they get sick it would stop them attending school (and even worse, of course, could be life-threatening).

Tailoring Students benefitting from Hoja's Vocational Training Centre

I just received an email from Oswin containing only this picture. At the recent UK volunteers' meeting on Sunday 1st March, we all learnt that the VTC was already open for booklearning, and that practical classes would begin in two weeks.

The VTC is an opportunity for local students who don't have a place at secondary school, to learn a trade or skills from which they can earn a living.

I'm happy to see that in the last week or so the VTC has indeed got up and running properly, as shown in this picture of students studying tailoring.

Great news.