Under Construction

For the last few months we have been working with an extremely talented and generous web designer Jalena Penaligon. It's been a long process as every inch of our old website needed work. Jen Rosenberg and Sean Leyva have lent a helping hand with our temp website as well as organizing the overload of MB of pictures and video. Although, I'm not completely done with all the language, we are plugging away and hope to go live in a month or so.

Jalena and I had another meeting to work through some of the design details. She made a beautiful new logo that I can wait to use for everything. I'm really looking forward to the next stages of this org and couldn't be happier with the new logo/website to represent that.

I know I'm not the only one that is ready for a website that can truly reflect all the hard work and dedication everyone has put into TEP from day one. I am forever grateful to Jalena not only for lending us her talents for months on end but for continuing to give TEP's voice a platform (and pretty one at that).

Stay tuned for the official release date but until then check us out on facebook at tzeducationproject, on twitter @tz_educ_project and even on linkden at 'tanzanian education project'!

-Cassie

Looking Back

Lately I have been hit with the bout of nostalgia while combing through the pictures I took in Tanzania. Granted it hasn't been that long since I left Bunju, but places like Bunju leave an indelible mark on your life. As TEP lays the groundwork for a new website, I have been tasked to select a few pictures of my own for the site. The amount of pictures I have from my trip is staggering and each one brings to mind Bunju, FANAKA, and all the loving people I had the opportunity to spend time with. Every picture I come across reminds of all the hard fought success TEP has had with FANAKA. Not every picture one is a gem but the few that are will always have a special place in my conscious. Pictures of smiling students, hard working TEP volunteers and tireless administrators really puts the challenge of scouring thousands of pictures into perspective. I take immense pride in choosing the best pictures that represent the massive effort put into making TEP and FANAKA the organizations they are today. With that said I hope that the mountains of pictures I have now are just the start of an ever growing collection that I hope to one day maintain with future trips to Bunju. I cherish every friend that I made and every stranger who welcomed me with open arms while in Tanzania and my photos are what tie me to those memories and people on the other side of the world. I very proud of the work I have done and hope all who visit TEP’s new site in the future share in that feeling. We are all looking forward to the future of TEP with the future launch of the new website; I hope you all do to.  

Sean Leyva 

2013 Focus - Help Us Raise $25K

The Tanzanian Education Project continues to focus on self-sustainable education projects in the East African Nation of Tanzania. In 2013 TEP is working to develop solutions for a problem that most children encounter even after successfully being a part of our programs – a lack of skills. The majority of the population is unable to make it through the secondary education system however for those few that have, even fewer are able to go onto to school from there. Over the past four years, TEP has witnessed many bright, dedicated students fall into crime, prostitution, free labor and idleness because their options for vocational training are few and expensive.

Micro business runs the Tanzanian economy and although TEP has seen success in these endeavors the aspect of training and skill building has been an enormous challenge. A program with trained craftsmen and teachers paired with an active business model is believed to serve the greatest amount of students in the most meaningful way.  This program will offer the development of business and marketing skills in addition to valuable vocational training.

TEP is hoping to develop two programs in the outskirts of Dar es Salaam. One is a health clinic that is located just outside the gates of Olof Bethsaida Girls Secondary School and Orphanage. This dispensary will provide much needed medical services to the village but also will give the students of Olof a place to learn and develop skills in the health field. The dispensary will provide services at a competitive price which will be used to keep the business operations running.

The second is an education program in Tegeta that combines business with arts. The students will learn business skills such as marketing, inventory management, staff management and customer service in addition to vocational training in the Arts. This will include, basket weaving, painting, wood carving, sewing, fabric making, jewelry making and other crafts to gain skills and certificates that are applicable and valuable to their society. The school will run a storefront business as well as send students into local tourist areas to sell their work in order to offset some of the operating costs which will keep school fees competitive. The storefront and traveling sales will provide on the job training and additional internships will be required to in order to obtain additional certificates and networking opportunities.

The Tanzanian Education Project knows much of the success for both programs will be up to the local staff and partner groups that will join us in this mission. Although both projects are in their infancy, TEP volunteers and partner schools are looking forward to watching these projects develop. We are confident that one day these vocational training programs will flourish as other TEP projects have in the past.