Recent Highlights
Dear EdPowerment supporters,
2023 has taken off rapidly for EdPowerment. Our Tanzanian staff quickly began its Seminars at two poorly-resourced and performing secondary schools; resumed its invigorating Boys and Girls Clubs; moved forward with liquid and bar soap training for our Women's Small Business Initiatives; and most recently, welcomed back to Moshi many of our University and College Sponsored Students now on semester break.
It's impossible to convey what our intervention means to the secondary school students whom we are inspiring to think bigger - to envision futures that they can, in fact, influence.... if they give education a chance.
And just this week - February 20 - our sponsored students joined our staff, not only to share their knowledge and assist these students at their Seminars, but also to demonstrate in the most real way, that young people from impoverished families CAN succeed.
On so many fronts, EdPowerment is reaching individuals otherwise left behind with life-changing instruction, skills and encouragement. Our message is YES, YOU CAN.... We provide direction and support - and with persistence, creativity and resilience, you will open paths to a better life.
Moira Madonia
The following photos bring to life just a little of the enthusiasm generated at EdPowerment's Seminars, Clubs and other community-based projects.
Active participation is the signature of EdPowerment's Seminars
EdPowerment was asked to join science instruction to promote better learning
Groupwork! Students demonstrate they can apply our coaching
Students teaching students
Getrude, a recent EdPowerment university graduate, coaches the students
At our Boys and Girls Clubs, young people continue their learning while having fun. This is our challenge - to jumpstart these students' minds - expose them to new ideas, new ways of thinking, new possibilities. Even a Saturday club event can light the spark that changes a student's entire perspective on what he or she can accomplish within his or her own environment.
Simple supplies - just a few soccer balls - allow students to now enjoy their favorite sport.
Cooking lessons! Teaching students new and delicious ways to prepare meals from local foods.
Sharing the soap-making skills of our Women's Small Business Members
And using the liquid soap for better hygiene at school, as well as home.
Students love games - that require thinking!
PUZZLES are always fun.
The Clubs provide an extracurricular avenue for vital coaching - ideas and strategies never heard before.
Including "soft skills" needed in any context in order to succeed. Self-awareness is one of our emphases.
The Women's Small Business Initiative has been developed with community leaders and women in two villages where drought has eliminated traditional sources of income - crops and livestock. These photos show the coming together of strong women determined to provide for their families. EdPowerment is not only assisting with initial supplies and financial coaching. We are facilitating training with SIDO - the main local agency that offers instruction in order to ensure a marketable product.
One of the women's groups gather to discuss how they will operate - rules and expectations.
Initial instruction on liquid soap-making to bring to local markets.
Leaders of each group were chosen to attend special training in bar soap production at SIDO - the Small Industries Development Organization in Moshi.
Nicknamed "Bwana Matunda," this dedicated and talented EdPowerment staff member joins the training to ensure sustainability of the project.
And Kelvin, a university sponsored student home on break, also attended - he is majoring in animal studies, but each skill may contribute to one's livelihood in these villages.
Resource Room: EdPowerment's Resource Room across the hall from our office in Moshi is a place where students in all our programs can come to learn, study and share. Here our sponsored students are able to use computers and go online to seek employment, self-educate and take part in skills classes. It’s a critical place for them as their homes most often lack internet access, as well as electricity and modern conveniences including bathrooms. Further, when at home they too often are called on for domestic chores that make personal advancement impossible. Lastly, this is a special place to feel part of a family that offers encouragement, advice and just a place to unwind with friends in a supportive environment.
Year End 2020
