January 17, 2010

Happy New Year from NTC!  Thanks to the generous support of our donors in 2009, we are looking forward to many new projects in 2010:

NTC and Smallbean Team Up to Create Solar Powered Computer Lab

Representatives from NTC and Smallbean, Inc. will travel to Kwala this month to create a solar powered computer lab at Kwala Secondary School and launch the Citizens Archivist Project (CAP) in Kwala. The project will train ten students and several teachers from Kwala Secondary School to use computers, cameras, and digital recorders to document aspects of their own lives and culture, and provide a small salary for a Kwala Secondary School teacher to run the computer lab and teach additional computer classes. The computer lab will feature ten netbook laptop computers and a solar suitcase created by We Care Solar that will power the computers. The computer lab will also allow the school to introduce computer classes.  These classes are already part of the Tanzanian national school curriculum, but very few government schools have the resources to participate. Students with computers skills have a greater advantage in finding jobs or continuing their education.

Another Successful Holiday Fundraiser at Peets

A BIG “THANK YOU goes out to the staff and customers of Peet’s Coffee and Tea in Newton Centre. This year’s Christmas Eve Holiday Fundraiser was a great success, raising over $2,400 for NTC and Smallbean’s computer lab and CAP project at Kwala Secondary School.

Representatives from NTC, Smallbean, and NTC Clubs at Newton South and Oak Hill Middle School helped at the event, which provided free coffee to all Peet’s customers in exchange for donations. Peet’s also generously matched the first $1,000 of donations from the event. This was the second year Peet’s supported NTC – in 2008, close to $2000 was raised for building new latrines for Kwala Secondary School.

NTC Continues Girls’ Scholarship Program in 2010

Thanks to the generosity of families and individuals, NTC will be able to provide full scholarships for twelve at-risk girls for the entire 2010 school year.  Eight girls from last year’s group of 20 scholarship girls graduated from Kwala Secondary School last year. Scholarships include housing, three meals per day, school uniforms, school materials, and school fees.  Recipients are chosen by the female staff at the school. Scholarship girls also meet weekly with NTC’s Project Director in Kwala Lisa Walker for support around personal issues and to get extra help in school. NTC would like to thank this year’s sponsors for your incredibly important support – and please check our website later next month to meet this year’s scholarship girls.

NTC Launches the International Children’s Literature Project

NTC has partnered with Mkuki na Nyoya Publishing Company in Tanzania to pilot the International Children’s Literature Program (ICLP).  This initiative offers children’s books written by Tanzanian authors at a “get one, give one free” rate of $10 in the United States – so that each child in Kwala can own his or her own book. Most children in Tanzania do not enjoy reading as a leisure activity simply because they lack books. Instead of shipping culturally-irrelevant children’s books from the USA to Kwala, the ICLP allows Americans to learn about Tanzanian culture while giving the gift of reading to children in Kwala, one child at a time. To promote the idea of reading as a leisure activity, participants in NTC’s Girls’ Scholarship Program at Kwala Secondary School will present the book to a primary school student and read it with them.

NTC is seeking elementary school classrooms in the United States that are interested in partnering with a classroom at Mahundi Primary School to raise money to purchase books for students in both classrooms and complete a cultural exchange project after reading the same book. $200 dollars can purchase enough books for both classrooms! We are also looking for bookstores and book fairs here in the United States to display and sell the books. Please visit the ICLP page on our website for more information on these great books, and let us know if you or someone you know is interested in helping out.

NTC’s Project Director Returns to Kwala with Second Volunteer

Lisa Walker, NTC Project Dir.Lisa Walker, NTC’s Project Director in Kwala, has returned to Kwala for the second part of her stay in the community after visiting friends and family in the United States while school was out for the holidays in Tanzania. For the next several months, she will be joined by Adrian Coyne, a senior at Boston University who will assist with teaching English at Kwala Secondary School and facilitating NTC projects in Kwala. Lisa’s blog, Live From Kwala, gives a highly readable, honest, first-hand account of her experiences in the Kwala School Community. We’re thrilled to have both Lisa and Adrian on board this year!

Website Updates and New NTC Brochure

NTC Banner The NTC website has recently been updated, adding a new page that displays budgets for our on-going and past projects and updates to our community projects. Check back for more updates next month, including travel brochures for individual and group travelers interested in visiting Kwala.

We have also completed NTC’s first official brochure. If you are interested in spreading the word about NTC to friends, families, or customers, please contact us and we will send you some.