June 30th Newsletter

NTC Fundraiser at the Biltmore in Newton, July 13
Biltmore Bar & GrillJackie Schon, a member of this summer’s group trip to Kwala, will host a fundraiser at The Biltmore Bar and Grille in Newton Upper Falls (1205 Chestnut St.) to help purchase art supplies for this summer’s mural project at Kwala Secondary School and to raise money for future NTC projects. Please join us at 7:00 PM on Monday, July 13th for great food and drink specials! Jackie’s artwork depicting life in Kwala from last November’s NTC Kick-Off Event will also be on display and for sale. We hope to see you there. Click here for directions and a map.

Latrines Project Underway at Kwala Secondary School
Eight new latrines are under construction at Kwala Secondary School thanks to the fundraising efforts NTC Club members at Newton South High School throughout the 2008-09 school year. The club reached their fundraising goal of $4,200 in early May when NTC hosted a yard sale and spring fair at Mason-Rice Elementary School and raised over $2,000. The latrines will be completed by Newton community members as part of NTC’s first group trip to Kwala this July. Many thanks to Newton South’s NTC Club, Mason-Rice principal Mark Springer and the Mason-Rice PTO for hosting the event, the generous folks who donated goods for the yard sale, and those who came to shop!
Click here to view a short video about the current latines at KWASS.

Gearing Up for NTC’s First Group Trip to Kwala
Headmaster GundaSeven community members from Newton are set to embark for Tanzania on July 14 for a two-week community service and cultural exchange experience. The group will undertake two projects while staying at Kwala Secondary School – completing the Newton South’s NTC Club latrine project and painting a large, student-designed mural on one of the walls at the school. The group will also visit Kwala Secondary School and Mahundi Primary School, live in Kwala village for 8 days, tour Dar es Salaam, and embark on a short safari in Mikumi National Park. Many thanks to United Planet for organizing and supporting our group trip this July.

Mural Wall

Introducing Our New In-Field Project Director
Lisa WalkerNTC is pleased to introduce Lisa Walker as NTC’s new In-Field Project Director. Lisa, who received her degree in international relations from Boston University (2009), will spend the next 14 months as a volunteer living and teaching in Kwala.

In addition to teaching English at the Kwala Secondary School Mahundi Primary School, Lisa will work on NTC projects with NTC Tanzania Advisor Athuman Msangi.  We are pleased and exremely grateful for Lisa’s contribution, commitment and generosity toward Kwala and NTC!
Lisa will be keeping a weekly blog while in Kwala, and can be reached at LisaWalkerNTC@gmail.com. We’ve asked Lisa to take this opportunity to introduce herself.

Dear NTC Supporters,

My name is Lisa Walker and it is my pleasure to introduce myself as NTC’s new In-field Project Director.  As a recent graduate of Boston University’s International Relations and African Studies program, I feel fortunate to have this opportunity to get directly involved with Tanzania’s education system – a subject that has been my interest for many years. My passion for working with children and young adults has been an evolving theme throughout my life. My commitment to African development has been more recent, and confirmed during my most recent trip to Tanzania in the Summer of 2008, during which I worked as a teaching assistant with mentally and physically handicapped children under the auspices of Cross Cultural Solutions. My experience provided me with the opportunity to challenge my teaching skills and expand my cultural and educational horizons. The experience also reinforced my belief that Tanzania, with a stable government and a functional economy, is on the brink of a new day.  As such, a focus on educational development will provide the necessary tools for the next generation of Tanzanians, empowering students to take an active role within their families, communities, and country.

I will be leaving Boston for Kwala on September 1st 2009. During my stay in Kwala, I have many goals that I hope to accomplish for NTC. These include:

* Creating student based NTC Clubs at Kwala that will correspond with pre-established clubs and student interest within the Newton schools, aimed at enhancing cultural links between our two communities.
* Learning about the Tanzanian bilingual education system by working with students and teachers at Kwala Secondary School and Mahundi Primary School.
* Creating a peer-mentoring initiative designed to enhance Kwala students’ English conversational skills
* Working with Kwala staff to further NTC’s development goals for the Kwala School Community
* Creating a holistic educational model to ensure the ongoing success of NTC’s Girls Scholarship Project

We live in a global world. To recognize this fact is to acknowledge our collaborative responsibility to each other and to generations to come. With this in mind, I plan to keep an ongoing weekly blog that will be posted on NTC’s website.  I look forward to receiving input from the larger NTC community, and hope that together we can have a positive impact on the community of Kwala, the community of Newton, and each other.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to continuing our conversation.

Best wishes,

Lisa Walker
In-field Project Director
LisaWalkerNTC@gmail.com

Reading for All LogoBoston Teachers to Visit Kwala;  Kwala Teachers to Attend Conference
Retired Madison Park High School teacher Judith Baker is bringing fifteen Boston area teachers to visit Tanzania and Kwala in August. The teachers will share ideas with teachers at Kwala and learn about the education system in Tanzania. Judith’s group has also generously raised money to support the entire Kwala Secondary School staff attending the 6th annual Pan-African Reading For All Conference at the University of Dar es Salaam. According to the conference’s website, the goal of the conference is to “gather participants from all over the world to share their experiences in literacy and reading promotion initiatives and practices from different countries and to present, examine, analyze, and seek ways of surmounting the various challenges preventing successful transmission of literacy through formal and non-formal systems of education.” NTC and the Kwala Secondary School staff are very appreciative of Judith and her group’s work to provide this wonderful opportunity to Kwala’s teachers. For more information on the conference, click here.

NTC Web Site Undergoing a Makeover

We are currently in the process of rennovating our website. The new site will allow us to update more frequently and keep you informed about NTC’s projects at Kwala Secondary School. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the lack of recent updates.
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NTC Clubs at Newton South, Oak Hill, and Mason-Rice Finish Productive School Year
NTC would like to thank all the students who participated in NTC clubs at their respective schools this year, including new involvement from students at Oak Hill Middle School and Mason-Rice Elementary School. Students engaged in cultural exchange activities and fundraising initiatives that resulted in funding for NTC’s Latrines Project at Kwala Secondary School and English textbooks for Mahundi Primary School. Thanks again to all the students and teachers who participated, and we are looking forward to their continued involvement in the upcoming school year!

We’ve posted a short, entertaining video about Mason-Rice and Oak Hill’s involvement with Mahundi Primary School in Kwala. To view, click here.
Bracelet1 Oak Hill NTC Club Members
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SAVE THE DATE!
NTC’s Annual Event Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Athuman Msangi
NTC will host our annual kick-off event at the Newton Free Library on Tuesday, October 20th at 7:00 PM to celebrate NTC’s accomplishments over the past year. This year’s event will feature a video of our activities in Kwala this summer and special guest speakers. We are very happy to announce that this year, Kwala Secondary School teacher and NTC Tanzania Advisor Athuman Msangi will be in Boston and featured as the event’s keynote speaker.
As always, please write to us and let us know how you would like to be involved! We are looking forward to seeing you at our annual event in October!
Best Wishes,
Ross W. Lohr
NTC Executive Director