WANTED! Swahili to English Translators

Hello all.

This is a video of someone who received a loan from us to start an Income Generation Project (IGP).


For Translation - Hoja IGP Tailor from Phil Hatchard on Vimeo.

There's just one problem with it. It's in Swahili. In fact, I have an awful lot of video footage from Tanzania that's yet to be translated. It turns out hunting down people to translate videos from Swahili into English is harder than I thought.

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.

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.