The construction of the 2-in-1 teachers’ house at Oloipiri Primary School is underway! Our contractor’s team made their own cement blocks by hand for the project in order to ensure that the construction materials are high quality and to reduce supply bottlenecks. They completed more than 2,000 blocks within two weeks!
The crew has started to dig the foundation for the 2-in-1 house, and construction will likely be completed towards the end of this summer. We will keep you posted on the progress!
Dear Friends,
Your donation to FoTZC before July 25, 2014, will be doubled! A very generous donor has offered to match gifts to FoTZC up to a total of $75,000. We are eager to turn the $75,000 into $150,000! The funds are urgently needed to complete two projects as detailed below. Please click here to donate today, or mail a check to: Focus on Tanzanian Communities, 14 Mount Auburn Street, Watertown, MA 02472.
We are excited to announce that we will be breaking ground next week on two major projects: a 2-in-1 teachers’ house (a duplex) at Oloipiri Primary School, and a dispensary (small health clinic), complete with staff housing in Sukenya Village.
Oloipiri Primary School currently has 538 students and eight teachers, but is unable to house all of their teachers. The community asked FoTZC to build teachers’ housing to enable the school to house all of its teachers, which will allow them to request that the government assign additional teachers. On the Directors’ Trip in March 2014, we were impressed by the headmaster, teachers, and students of Oloipiri Primary, and particularly so by the involvement of Oloipiri Village in the school. We are excited to get started on the housing!
In 2010, the women of Sukenya Village told FoTZC that their top priority was to build a dispensary in their village. FoTZC has worked tirelessly over the last four years to turn these women’s dreams of having medical care in their village into reality. Currently, villagers walk 23km (14.3 miles) to access medical care at the district hospital; the journey often prevents people from seeking necessary care. The government has agreed to provide staff, supplies, and operating costs if FoTZC constructs the dispensary facility and staff housing. The dispensary is now projected to serve roughly 6,000 people living in four local villages; it will reach a broader section of the local population than any project in FoTZC’s history.
We are completing these projects at the same time because it is more cost effective given their close proximity to each other. With your generous support, the families of Oloipiri and the villages surrounding Sukenya will have more teachers and an operational health clinic before the end of the year!
Please support the progress being made in these Tanzanian communities by making a tax-deductible donation today. Remember each dollar you are able to give to FoTZC by July 25th will be doubled! Thank you!
Best,
Eliza Hatch
Director of Operations
While visiting Tanzania in March, we were able to visit the new girls’ dormitory that FoTZC constructed at Soit Sambu Secondary School. It was stunning. The construction work was impeccable, down to the most minute details, and the girls were clearly very proud of the new dorm. We’ll let the photos speak for themselves – we couldn’t be happier with the results!
Written by Richard Johnston, Lucy Karl, and Bob Treitman
We three FoTZC directors, along with Judi Wineland, just returned from an action-packed Directors’ trip to Tanzania. On this trip, we visited our partner communities to evaluate our completed projects and to discuss future ones. One of the most interesting and productive meetings was at the Ngorongoro District Office in Loliondo. We were very pleased to find more than ten district officials there to meet with us on a Sunday afternoon, including the top ranking District Commissioner. Their presence indicated to us a strong interest in our organization and work.
This meeting had three purposes. First, we wanted to get to know the District government officials and give them a chance to ask questions about FoTZC. We believe that having an open dialogue with the government in areas in which we work is crucial to our success. Second, we wanted to discuss the nature of FoTZC’s relationship with Thomson Safaris, which has a significant business presence in the area. Third, we wanted to discuss the dispensary (medical clinic) we plan to build in the area with the District Commissioner, the District Medical Officer and other medical officials.
We told the government officials about our history in Tanzania and elaborated on our extensive work in Ngorongoro District. The District Commissioner enthusiastically offered his full support for FoTZC projects in the area. He and other officials said they were not only grateful for the projects we had completed, but that they want to help and partner with us on whatever projects they can. The District Commissioner and District Legal Officer told us that Thomson is an honest and well-regarded company, and that we should feel confident in the Thomson Safaris-FoTZC partnership in Tanzania.
We also had a long discussion with the District Commissioner, District Medical Officer and the District Nursing Officer about the dispensary project we plan to build in Sukenya Village. They expressed excitement about the project as well as the proposed location and said they want to help us move forward. The District Commissioner and the District Medical Officer re-committed to assigning staff to the dispensary, paying their salaries, supplying furniture, and providing medications once we construct the building.
We were impressed by the level of detail these government officials were able to discuss, their commitment to their district, and their willingness to assist us with our upcoming projects. We are particularly excited to break ground on the dispensary soon!
We started the 2014 Directors’ trip by flying from Arusha to Wasso, in Loliondo, where we were met by a large group of Maasai who wanted to welcome us to the area. The group who met us included local elected officials, traditional elders, teachers from local schools, and a large group of women. They accompanied us to our first stop on the trip – Orkuyene Village. Orkuyene is a newly-formed village in this area; the community wanted to show us the primary school that they have started to build but have not yet been able to open. After a brief visit to the nicely-built school buildings, we attended a meeting with over 100 members of the community who wanted to meet the FoTZC board, tell us about their community’s needs and priorities, and learn about FoTZC’s priorities in the area.
We had a delicious lunch at Orkuyene (served out of the back of a station wagon!), and then went to visit Oloipiri Primary School. One of the many remarkable things about Oloipiri Primary is the sense of ownership and pride that the students take in their school. Small groups of students each plant a tree in the schoolyard and are expected to water and nurture it. Not only does it teach the students about preserving a valuable resource – wood – it encourages them to participate in the actual upkeep of the school. Our next project is a 2-in-1 teachers’ house at Oloipiri Primary; we plan to break ground soon, so it was a pleasure to be able to visit the school and deliver the news that we are ready to move forward on the teachers’ housing in person. We are excited to share photos of the construction as it gets started!
Stay tuned for more posts about the Directors’ Trip!
FOTZC is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) organization registered in Watertown, MA. FOTZC also accepts donation of securities. Please contact info@fotzc.org for guidance on making this type of donation.
