KILIMAHEWA WATER PROJECT TWO YEARS LATER

When Maji Tech Engineering Company hit water on Kilimahewa's property just over two years ago, the future of both the Center and the surrounding village changed dramatically.  

TODAY-
Students at the Kilimahewa Center partake in one nutritious meal each day as makande is cooked in the outdoor kitchen using water from the solar paneled project.

Vegetable gardens flourish to supplement our students' diet and to teach proper ways to grow and maintain crops.

Villagers brings their buckets to fetch clean water for cooking and other essential uses.

And in an example of how things can go wrong in the under-developed world ... and then maybe right:  

Shortly after the well's completion, over-enthusiastic villagers banded together to dig over a mile of trenches in which piping was laid for water distribution to their shambas (small gardens).  Unfortunately some of these chambers were accessed by individuals who, in fact,  could pay for water from the local utility.  The problem was that the utility had never provided them with service.  The utility then issued a formal complaint to the Pangani Water Basin Authority that we were providing free water to its customers - subsequently the water flowing through the pipes was shut down.  Earlier this year, however, the local utility asked Kilimahewa if EdPowerment would allow it to use the pipes to deliver water to these same customers.  The end result is an unintended collaboration.  Locals who actually can pay for water are now getting water from the utility through our pipes, while the neighborhood's  poorest continue to use the outlets on the Kilimahewa property. 

                                             

WHAT ONE OF OUR TEACHERS TOLD GUIDESTAR

Yes, it's long.  But this is what one of our teachers had to say about EdPowerment's impact on this village in Tanzania...  unedited and unsolicited - makes me so proud, and makes me want to do better.

"Edpowerment is the only nonprofit organization in Tanzania which recognize that ‘’Children are the buds that must be merged to bloom in full, when these buds the future hopefully of our generation open up fully to display their grandeur and distribute their fragrance all around society is complete’’. 
To prove this Edpowerment is financing Kilimahewa Women and Children Education Centre (KIWOCE) for each and everything for instance in buying books, paying salaries to teachers and other workers, paying for breakfast and lunch for teachers and students. Children enrolled at KIWOCE are those who left to grow without any assistance whatsoever as many wild flowers and plants grow in the woods even through the weeds. Apart from supporting students at Kilimahewa, Edpowerment is also providing long term sponsorship to students at various educational levels from secondary education to university education. 

Students sponsored by Edpowerment are those who have been exposed to the hazards and hardship of this world for the long period of time. Many of them are orphans others have a single parent and few of them have parents but they are coming from vulnerable environment. Edpowerment commit itself in paying school fees and other facilities like books, pocket money and clothes, in short Edpowerment provide whatever they need for their academic excellence. 

Edpowerment believes that the outcome of growth without care it is terrible. Furthermore Edpowerment realized that dejected and deprived children would develop in them a universal antagonism against settled system of the world and would seek to demolish every good order to be substituted by vile action which could be reflection of their distorted thoughts. To make sure this is not happening Edpowerment commits itself to provide all facilities and opportunities to the children. For instance in this year on June Edpowerment arranged annual event of students union from USA, Sponsored students and Kilimahewa students on a single platform where by all students spoke out their troubles and tribulation, their target and achievements, their ambitions and aspirations. 

Furthermore Edpowerment introduce extracurricular activities at Kilimahewa in order to make sure the students are learning by practicing. The activities introduced by Edpowerment are poultry project and horticulture which are integral part of our life. 

Moreover Edpowerment believes that teachers are important members of our community since they are builders of our society as well as our civilization. To prove this Edpowerment is providing seminars to teachers from various schools in Arusha and Kilimanjaro. For instance in this year on July Edpowerment arranged a seminar for teachers on how they can manage their class for effective involvement of the students, to love their students and be committed in teaching in order to produce active learners. Edpowerment made teachers to believe that there is no good student or bad student but just ‘’students’’ who of course have different limitation of intelligence, their capacity of taking in and reproduce that is all. 

Moreover the community around Kilimahewa is enjoying the coming of Edpowerment. Before the coming of Edpowerment people used to travel long distance in search of water because water sources were found very far from the village. Edpowerment solved the problem of water shortage to the villagers by tapping underground water which is clean and safe for human consumption. Currently the water from the well is used by the community for domestic purpose and in irrigation, furthermore people get enough time to engage themselves in other economic activities and their children are now having enough time for studying. 

Edpowerment is also financing Autism Connects Tanzania. Autism Connects Tanzania is a programme of Edpowerment which aims in providing education to the society about autism and other body disabilities like blindness, deafness and dumbness. In Tanzania many people lack education about various body disabilities and their causes. In most society body disabilities are taken as a curse and most of them believe that women are the one to blame when a child is born with any disabilities because women are the one who carry the babies in their womb. 

Edpowerment is focusing to change the attitude of many people by providing seminars and workshop about various body disabilities and their causes. Furthermore Edpowerment supports Gabriella Centre which is responsible in taking care and providing basic training to the children with autism. 

EDPOWERMENT IS COMPLETELY NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION WITH ALL QUALIFICATION TO BE TRUSTED, RESPECTED, LOVED AND FUNDED BY ALL PEOPLE WHO HAVE A DREAM OF MAKING OUR WORLD A BETTER PLACE FOR LIVING WHEREBY ALL CHILDREN WILL HAVE ACCESS TO QUALITY EDUCATION AND THOSE WITH SPECIAL NEEDS TO BE RESPECTED, LOVED AND GIVEN ALL ASSISTANCE THEY NEED. 

PLANTING AND TENDING CROPS

ENJOY THE BEAUTY... AND PLENTY OF OUR VEGETABLE GARDENS.  

STUDENTS WILL BE TENDING THEIR OWN PLOTS AS THEY LEARN HOW TO PLANT, IRRIGATE AND MAXIMIZE THEIR USE OF LAND.

THRIVING AT HOME

Small subsistence farming plots – shambas – are the homes of most Kilimahewa students.  Many of the mamas gather the extra vegetables and take them to a corner of one of the busier roads in and around the town of Moshi.  These mothers and grandmothers, and less frequently, the fathers also care for a cluster of chickens, so long as they can be protected from thieves at night.  These chickens and their eggs can feed their families, or more often provide a little extra income.  Goats and a cow complete the better shambas.

Acknowledging the environment in which our students live and many will remain, even if they obtain some type of employment in town, EdPowerment decided to strategize and target its fund-raising to support husbandry projects at the Center. 

•  Our objective: to teach the local teenagers HOW to develop better, more sustainable crops and healthy batches of broiler, and then layer chickens.
• Our goal: to enable these teenagers to achieve lives of greater dignity by increasing their income earning potential as small farmers.
• Our strategy: applying the expertise of Mama Grace and community leader, Ewald Masakuya, both of whom have successfully raised chickens, use hands-on instruction to teach the students about the proper feeding and care of chickens.

HERE COME THE CHICKS!

Last Friday 400 broiler chicks were delivered to Kilimahewa to begin this exciting venture. Mama Grace, assisted by the Kilimahewa caretaker, Aristedes, painstakingly oversaw the construction and start-up arrangements for Kilimahewa’s coop.  Now begins the meticulous regimen needed to ensure the chick’s survival – and that of our first batch of revenue-producing poultry!

   

Special thanks to 1Ndoto foundation for funding the initial chicken coop construction and materials, and to the Clutter family for funding the purchase of our first batch of broiler chickens.

Celebrating Labor Day: Work as Privilege

In a just world, education would be a universal right – so would the ability to earn a living wage.  

What drives EdPowerment’s commitment to educating underserved teens is not learning for learning’s sake – it’s giving these young people a chance to earn a living. 

On a macro level, we have all read about the developing world's “youth bulge” – the disproportionately high percentage of population between the ages of 15 and 29.  According to the CIA World Factbook, the median age of Tanzanians is 17.8 years.

Consider this commentary from a recent World Bank blog:

In a country with a youth bulge, as the young adults enter the working age, the country’s dependency ratio-- that is, the ratio of the non-working age population to the working age population—will decline. If the increase in the number of working age individuals can be fully employed in productive activities... the level of average income per capita should increase as a result...  However, if a large cohort of young people cannot find employment and earn satisfactory income, the youth bulge will become a demographic bomb, because a large mass of frustrated youth is likely to become a potential source of social and political instability.

http://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/youth-bulge-a-demographic-dividend-or-a-demographic-bomb-in-developing-countries

Without prospects for a productive life, young people become prey to destructive forces who promote negative and even terrorist activity.  Through its sponsored student program and the Kilimahewa Education Center, EdPowerment enables promising young adults to labor productively in ways that build, rather than tear down a global community.

Enjoy the fruits of your labor today.  And remember those who simply seek work.