April 2009 NTC Newsletter

April 28, 2009
Dear Friend,

Yard SaleFinal Reminder – NTC Spring Fair This Coming Weekend!

Don’t forget, NTC club at Newton South is hosting a spring fair and yard sale at Mason Rice Elementary School this Saturday, May 2nd between 9 AM and 3 PM. There will be lots of great stuff for sale, and students from NTC club at Oak Hill Middle School will be selling refreshments and NTC wristbands.

Also, please stop by on Friday, May 1st between 6 PM and 9 PM to drop off any gently used stuff you want to donate! This is a great time for Spring cleaning! All proceeds from the event will be used to complete Newton South’s fundraising efforts to build 12 new latrines at Kwala Secondary School

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NTC Library and Textbook Project Nearing Completion at Kwala Secondary School
Kwala Students Carrying Books into the School
Last year, students from Newton South and Newton North raised money to purchase textbooks for Kwala Secondary School after learning from visiting Kwala teacher Athuman Msangi that the school had only a few textbooks for its 350 students. Students raised $4,000 to purchase textbooks, and one of NTC’s partner organizations, Plan USA, supplemented an additional $4,000 to build a school library and purchase additional textbooks.

NTC is happy to report that Plan Tanzania has delivered 1,300 textbooks to Kwala Secondary School this week! While more textbooks are needed to reach NTC and Kwala’s goal of having one textbook for each student in all nine subjects, the textbooks will significantly improve the learning and teaching environment for students and teachers at Kwala. Construction of the library is set to be completed next week.

NTC and students and teachers at Kwala Secondary School want to thank everyone who contributed to this project.

Kwala Secondary School Has Internet Access!
Headmaster Lulandala and the school secretary

Kwala Secondary School has become the first public secondary school in Tanzania to have internet access. NTC has purchased a second computer on which the staff at Kwala Secondary School will access the Web, with plans to expand accessibility to Kwala’s students in the future. Providing internet access to Kwala is a landmark success in NTC’s mission to increase communication between Newton and Kwala.

NTC Girls’ Scholarship Recipient

Each month, we will feature one of our scholarship recipients so you can get to know these inspiring young women from Kwala Secondary School. This month, we introduce Catherine Reonard, a Form 2 student at Kwala Secondary School, sponsored by Lynda and Doug Thal from West Bloomfield, Michigan.
Catherine

Catherine was born in 1993 in Kisalawe and lives with her mother, 2 sisters and her brother; her father passed away in 2004. Catherine’s favorite subject in school is Biology.
“I will be so happy if I will be sponsored for all studies from now up to university, and after that I would like to be a doctor. I would like to support and help my family because its life is very poor. Thanks for your help.
It’s your friend,
Catherine Reonard”

NTC’s Long-Term Plans
In the upcoming months, here’s what you can expect from NTC!NTC-Kwala Bracelets
  • Updates to the NTC website in May, including videos about our completed projects;
  • Our first community group trip to Kwala in July;
  • NTC’s first long-term volunteer working on the ground in Kwala in beginning in September;
  • A visit from Kwala teacher and NTC Tanzania advisor Athuman Msangi in October;
  • Our annual kickoff event and fundraiser in October

Thank you for your continuing support of NTC!  We appreciate your help in spreading the word about our activities. Using the Forward email button below lets us know you are sharing our newsletter.
As always, please keep in touch and let us know how you would like to be involved.

Best wishes,

Ross Lohr
NTC President
Newton Tanzania Collaborative is a  secular,

US-based 501(c)(3) non-profit  organization.

All donations to NTC are tax deductible.