KIWOCE (Kilimahewa Women and Orphan Education Center)
Kilimahewa
P.O. BOX 8623
Sambarai, Moshi Rural,
Along Moshi Arusha road,
7 Kilometers from Moshi Town
Contact:
Grace Lyimo/Founder/Advisor
Tel: 0713-401595
Eugene Mallya: Chair Person
Kilimahewa CBO
Mama Mselle: Chairperson for women group Small-scale business.
Alumni References: Meredith Avery: meredithjeanavery@hotmail.com (Women's group)
Julia Stansbury: juliasaurus@yahoo.com (School)
Aja Roddy: ajalu@aol.com (School)
Dalia Ahmed: dalia_ahmed75@hotmail.com (School)
I. General Information about the Partner organization:
Kilimahewa is a community-based organization founded and initiated last year September 28, 2006.
It was initially known as a local brew drinking center for the local community and was known as the local place for the use of Marijuana. It is now a learning center for the Kilimahewa community specifically focused for poor women in the village, orphans and youth, and vulnerable children. Vulnerable children are the marginalized and disadvantaged group in socio-economic areas such as “Street Children”, children working in plantations, industries, households and other hardship environments and include children whose parents are living with HIV and/or AIDS and are incapacitated thus rendering them unable to engage in gainful activities.
Kilimahewa is owned by the Kilimahewa community members who have cooperated to form a Local CBO under the “Company Limited by Guarantee”
II. Activities:
a. Women’s Group
The Kilimahewa group has been very enthusiastic and eager to learn in order to alleviate their daily life.
Kilimahewa focuses on three main goals:
1. Community Education and Child care
2. Community Health
3. Community Social and Economic Development
Present Community Activities:
• Tree planting
• Informal teaching of communication in English, simple math, geography and Swahili
• Family reproductive health education including HIV/ AIDS: Facilitating and sharing with members on how to carry out awareness campaigns regarding the HIV/AIDS pandemic. These campaigns serve as the vehicle for communicating and educating the community on HIV/AIDS related issues in order to reduce the effects of the disease and ultimately reduce the number of children who are orphaned due to the disease.
• Small scale business entrepreneurs, Micro-loans (not done)
• Development of the women’s group market skills and strategies on sustainable marketing.
• Enhancing gender relationships and promoting gender mainstreaming.
The roles of the CCS volunteers are to assist the local volunteers to:
• Help the group to identify current and future needs for care and support of orphans and vulnerable children, as well as young single women in the community.
• Facilitate vocational training pertaining to self –reliance initiatives such as carpentry, masonry, agricultural catering and computer skills to the target group.
b. Youth Activites
Currently we have total of 104 students, of which at least 80% attend informal education at Kilimahewa regularly. The average age is 14-18 years. 90% of the students are girls and 10% are boys. These kids have struggled to complete elementary education and did not have the chance to continue with O level education (secondary school/ high school) due to their orphan or vulnerable status.
Together with local volunteer teacher, the CCS volunteers:
• Teach English, math, science, and geography according to the pre form 1 /form 1 syllabus.
• Plan and organize youth seminars or workshop pertaining to reproductive health including HIV/AIDS.
• Continue to promote reading in the community by re-organizing the small library at the center so that it can serve for the entire Kilimahewa community. (Adults/Children). Fundraise for more books and better library facilities at the center.
• Participate in initiatives geared towards improvement in community education.
• Work with the coordinator to facilitate access to education for school-aged (youth) orphans and vulnerable children in the community
• Advise on how to fundraise for education. Help to strategize for the creation of hostel facilities for the orphans/ vulnerable kids who cannot go to school or are sexually harassed as they go to school far from their home.
• Help to develop practical guidelines for vulnerable children and orphans in order to enable the community, guardians, the government and other stakeholders to address vulnerability.
• Help design KIWOCE Logo and website.
• Communicate with the educational team members on strategies for further education for these children
• Have fun, exchange cultural views, and learn the language.
c. Working Tools
You will be working in the local area with very few working tools. Kilimahewa is struggling from the grassroots. There are no desks, no chairs, but there are few benches, but not enough. The beginners’ class meets first (approximately 40 children). These children have a basic knowledge of English, but are not yet conversational. The advanced class meets immediately afterwards (approximately 40 children.) and has the ability to communicate basic ideas in English and form simple sentences.
Please bring your ideas, patience, energy, and enthusiasm. Though it is not necessary, we encourage you to bring teaching materials. Past volunteers have found ESL (English as a second language) books to be helpful in lesson planning.
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Field Trip to the Moshi Library
OK folks,,,next installment of african news. It involves 2 field trips. Today's field trip was a fun run in the annual Kilimanjaro Marathon. Another volunteer agreed to run with me and so we signed up and did a measly 5K. It was a blast - oh such a hot blast, too. I'll send photos as soon as the server will let me. And I got a great T-Shirt and Hat. Who would of thought the race would be during my stay and if I had of known, I'd have run the 1/2 marathon. But for today, the 5 K was just enough and so much fun. I actually found it kinda hard cuz it was on dirt and uphill. Plus I haven't been running too much cuz it's kinda dangerous here - no paved roads and lots of holes, ditches, and rocks to avoid.
The other field trip was a school field trip we took yesterday to the Moshi Library. We were able to take 48 kids, in 2 dala dalas - old buses that look like suicide machines - for 2 hours - it was awesome. From the beginning of the story..... I went in the library last Saturday and checked out the facility. Then, on Monday, I introduced myself to John, a library worker, who agreed to see the kids on Friday at 9:00am. For our visit, John agreed to discuss with the students library procedures and policies, provide a tour and allow some time for the kids to browse the various collections. Next Mama Grace, one of the staff workers for the organization, worked her magic and convinced a local women's group to support the cost of the dala dalas - I think they were 5000 tsh each way - that's less than $5. In addition, Mama Grace secured a Swahili volunteer for us - Dismiss- who acted as a translator and we had Athuman, who is a natural teacher under his driving suit, help us out! We then began to pump up the kids about the field trip and prepare them for the adventure.For some of the kids, it was the first time they had ever been in a dala dala, many of them had never been to Moshi, and for most of the kids, it was the first time they had ever been to the Moshi Library. After we convinced them that they really, truly did not have to pay, and not to expect lunch and that we would be there 2 hours, it was hard to maintain their excitement. On Friday morning, 52 of us took off for the Moshi Library. Just when you think not another soul can squeeze in the dala dala, another body would find a seat. When we arrived, the kids stood patiently and quietly on the steps while John was summoned. John had the kids file into a classroom/lecture room where he proceeded to dazzle them with library information. Not only was John informative, he was entertaining and the kids listened, laughed and learned! Oh, to have a classroom of this size and luxury at Kilimahewa - what a dream!John discussed:- how to get a library card - the cost, required passport photos and the rewards of having a card;- how the Tanzanian/Moshi library was founded and it's history;- the rules of the library, i.e, no smoking, drinking, drugging, stealing or chewing gum - even not food cuz of cockroaches!;- the Dewey decimal classification scheme and system;- the types of materials one can read, browse and borrow from the library;- the various languages of materials found in the library;- approximately 30,000 books found in the library. Next the kids were given the tour, allowed to ask questions and then perused the shelves. All of the kids were wide-eyed and so well behaved and so entranced by all the resources available. We fortunately did not have any motion sickness - as they called it- "angry stomachs" from the dala dalas, or disciplinary problems, or problems with them finding materials to stretch their minds. I even found a corny romance novel and may have to go back to finish reading it so I can find out what happens to a new love! All and all, it was an awesome adventure and fun was had by all.Next week, I'll follow up with the kids regarding securing a card, what all they learned, etc.... Who knows what may come out of the experience but hopefully many, many success stories and more opportunities for all of them!I have pictures of the field trip and we'll try to send soon. I miss all of you and lots of love... Cheers! Laurie
Kilimahewa Women’s Group and Orphan Education Centre
The purpose of the group is to ensure that the community continues to grow and be prosperous. In addition, the group feels a need to support the youth in the community and are doing what they can to assist with the education for the children in the village who do not qualify for government schooling or who can not afford to pay for private school. Eventually the group would like to build a community school that will benefit all of the children in the area who are willing and eager to learn. The profit from each groups business will help to ensure the continued support of the youth and of their community.
This is an absolutely amazing group of people. I have never felt so welcome by a group of people in my life. They are smart and eager to learn and willing to listen to whatever advice you have to offer. They are extremely funny and very appreciative of everything you do!
If you are lucky they might even teach you Chagga, which is their tribe language. They would love it if you ask them “Shimboni Shafo?” which is about the same as saying “Habari?” You would respond with “na see cha” (phonetic spelling). You can also say “na toe saw” (for a man) or “na toe ma” (women) to say good morning. “I com bay” for to a man or “I coma” to a woman for “Thank you.”
Challenges for the group as a whole:
Lack of funds is the largest challenge each of the groups face. They are waiting on a loan from the bank. Edward has spearheaded this project. They need to have saved $1,000,000.00 shillings in order to receive a loan of $3,000,000 shillings which would be distributed among the members of the groups as needed. I have advised both Eugene, Edward, and the groups that this money has to be paid back which they are aware of. Also, the more money they borrow the harder it is going to be to control. Most of the groups that I spoke with want to expand their businesses to earn more profits and in turn want to borrow more funds to expand. I have discouraged the expansion of each business until they are able to effectively and successfully turn a profit on the smaller scale. For example, the Pig group wants several pigs to raise and sell however they have not had one pig go through an entire cycle of pregnancy and they have yet to raise any piglets to the age that they can be sold. Until they understand the entire process fully and understand how to handle any problems that arise, they are not going to be successful on a larger scale. Small problems are just going to be compounded and if they can’t handle them as a small business it is just going to be that much harder on the grand scale. They need to build each business slowly (pole pole) in order to handle the growth effectively. I have advised all of the groups of this and they seem to understand that “bigger isn’t always better”. They understand the need to grow their business slowly and to really understand how to run a business and how to handle each of the challenges of the business before they expand.
In addition, the loan has to be used strictly for business purposes and can not be loaned out to friends or family members that are in need.
I have also advised them to ensure each group is keeping track of everything they spend and everything they make. They need to learn how to budget and how to balance. Mama Grace stated they have had 1 class from a local non-profit to teach them business skills such as determining a budget, tracking cost and profits, etc. This class was held in the spring of 2007 (US Spring) and I recommended to Mama Grace and Eugene that they have another class soon to enforce what they learned.
If you have any questions or need any clarification on this document, please email Meredith Avery at meredithjeanavery@hotmail.com. Please use “Kilimahewa” or “CCS” in the subject line so that I don’t think its junk mail.
Quick Facts:
School opened in September of 2006 – approximately 70 kids go to school
51- 53 members who meet every Thursday
Each member pays 500 shillings each week as a due – this money goes into a community pot to assist with the school and building each business.
School rent is 20,000 shillings ($20) each month
Electricity and water for the school (separate from rent) is approximately 5,000/ mo
Porridge and salary for the cook is 30,000 month
Chairperson is Eugene
They have a secretary who takes minutes for each meeting
They have a treasurer who manages the money and finances
Edward speaks the most English but is only around for meetings, very rarely around at other times of the week. I believe he works in Moshi.
Each group has their own Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer
They have rules in place so that if a Chairperson, Secreatary, or Treasurer is not doing his/her job or not attending meetings they can be removed from the group.
Products Sold:
Maze – grown and harvested by the group
Pigs – raised and sold by the group
Jewelry – made by the group
Fruit Trees – planted, grown, and harvested by the group
T-shirts – screen printing for sale to locals and tourists
Vegetables – planted, grown, and harvested by the group
Furniture – make and sell
Local Shop / Convenience Store – run by member of the group, located in the village
Maze distribution – members will purchase the maze and sell at the market
Maze Harvesting – Farming and harvesting of maze for sale at market
T-shirt Group:
Abbas taught this group in the spring of 2007 and they were supposed to continue practicing on how to cut our stencils and how to print on materials such as paper in order to become proficient before practicing on actual materials. When I met with Abbas about additional classes he said the group would need to practice as much as possible first before he feels it would benefit them to have another class. I have advised the group of this.
T-Shirt materials, per Abbas is best purchased from Sun Flag in Arusha
Maize Distribution Group:
Buy maize from local people, package it, and sell it at market in Moshi.
Buy big bags for $17-18K which really should only sell 6 bags but they skim off the top and sell 7 which leaves them a profit of about $3,000
They weren’t able to sell for a while because the border was closed.
Vegetable Farming:
The members had a farm about 10 years ago but have nothing left from it. Now they rent a piece of land for about $30,000 per acre and have about $3 ½ acres; total costs for 6 months are $105,000.
They are selling green peppers (pilipili hoho) tomatoes, cabbage, and cucumbers. They can sell in Dar es Salam, Zanzibar, Arusha, and Moshi.
Seeds and a tractor, which would cost $450,000
Labor costs $200,000 for one season. They need 4 members to help and have to pay them $50,000 each.
Profit
Tomatoes = $10,000 crate, can sell 150 crates
Cucumber = $30,000 bag, can sell 50 bags
Cabbage = $300, can sell 25
Pilipili Hoho = $40,000 basket, can sell 45
Fruit Tree Farming:
Members:
Mr. Aloyce
Mr. Massawe
They are raising Avocado (parachichi), Passion Fruit, and Masterferi fruit. They planted 7 plants in July. Rain season is May – July. It costs $15,000 to water these plants each month if it doesn’t rain.
It takes 6 months to grow before the passion fruit bears fruit and it will bear fruit every 3 months. During peak season they can sell 1 fruit for 100 shillings or 1 kilo for 600 tsh. Rent in Moshi Market is $500/day
Avocado harvesting season is in June. 100 tsh for 1 avocado
It takes 1 ½ years to grow the Masterferi tree and it will bear fruit all year. Cost is unknown as they haven’t sold any yet and the fruit is pretty rare and not sold. People love it but it’s hard to find.
They have another garden, which was given to them by another member to start. Another volunteer for next spring promised them pesticides. Amy, the volunteer, was there in winter 06. Pesticides cost about $120,000 shillings for the season and they only have to be used in spring
Convenience Store:
Mama Hindiya has a small shop that she would like to expand. It’s local and in the village and she would like to stock it with items that people need but don’t necessarily want to go into Moshi for such as soap, kerosene, sugar, cigarettes, etc.
She would like to get a soda machine, which costs about $300,000 tsh.
They have 5 members and had some money to start the shop but the rest of it was spent sending a student to secondary school, which costs $540,000 tsh for school and boarding. This money paid for 2 years and she has to come up with an additional $540,000 to pay for the last 2 years of school.
Mama is VERY good at keeping track of her commodities, profit, loss, and inventory. This would be an excellent investment. She has about $400,000 but this is tangible assets only, all the money was spent on commodities.
Batik Group:
Project started by Victor on November 9, 20006
Originally have 5 members which has increased to 12
Members:
Victoria - Chairperson
Tina - Treasurer
Euphasia - Secretary
Fransiska
Jasmin
Salvatoris
Veronika
Lucy
Suzana
Eliminata
Sara
As of June 21, 2007 they have made 10 batiks and sold 5. It takes them 2-3 hours to make 1 Batik. Abbas from next store taught them how to make the Batiks (along with jewelry) for $300,000 tsh. Mama Barbara (past volunteer from UK) and Mama Grace donated their own money to pay for this and Mama Barbara paid for the materials, dye, caustic, and sodium for the first 10 batiks. The group was able to borrow wood, basin, gloves, table, nylon, and kerosene to make their 1st 10.
I was able to speak with Abbas before I left and he committed to the following price for additional classes. He is willing to go to the school, 2 days a week for 3 weeks at a price of $150,000 tsh. He will also go and pick up the materials for them for the class. Materials will cost an additional $150,000 tsh. This class will also include additional instruction for the jewelry group. Costs of both materials and payment to Abbas are all inclusive for both groups.
Cost breakout for the materials is as follows:
Cotton Materials: $35,000 tsh for one roll. 2 are needed = $70,000 tsh
Dyes (red, blue, brown, purple, green, yellow, and caustic) = $10,000 tsh each = $70,000
Beads = Assorted colors at $700 tsh each, Abbas recommends 5 different colors = $3,500
Fishing Thread = 5 bags at 1,000 = $5,000 tsh
As of June 21, 2007 they have $40,000 shillings saved for use by the group.
The group must pay 20% of their profits to the entire group, which covers the cost of each member’s dues ($500 shillings/week) and payment to assist school with rent, food, etc.
Please see cost sheet for cost to make and price to sell each batik.
Pig (Nguruwe) Group:
Started March 26, 2006
Chairperson: Ronatha Willifres
Secretary: Matilda Peter
Treasurer: Felenest Munish
As of June 21, 2007 they have one female pig (sow) who is about to give birth. Each sow must be about 1 year old before they can bread her. Each pregnancy lasts about 4 months and will yield about 6-8 piglets. The sow can only be breed 3 times and can be sold after that for slaughter for about $150,000 shillings. The group can deliver the piglets themselves and do not need a doctor to come out which will save them money.
The group would like to keep 1 boy and 1 girl from the first litter and raise them until they can breed them. I am going to recommend that they do not do this as inbreeding can yield smaller pigs as well as unknown health issues and smaller litters.
The group would like to know if they should keep the piglets until they are large enough to slaughter (male) or breeding (female) which means they would need to raise them until they are about 8 months old. Or would it be better to sell them at 3 months and let someone else raise them for slaughter/ breeding. Sale price is $20,000 shillings / per pig (pp) at 3 months or $150,000 pp at 8 months. Based on my estimates it would loose them funds to only keep them for 3 months instead of raising them to a full 8 months.
Each pig has to be vaccinated when born and then a second vaccination after 3 months. Cost pp is $1,000 for the 1st and $2,500 pp for the 2nd. Piglets also need Tapeworm medicine every 3 months which costs $2,000 pp. Price includes the doctor visit and I have suggested they learn how to vaccinate the piglets themselves as well as learn how to administer the tapeworm medicine to save on cost. They do not know how much the vaccinations and tapeworm medicine costs less the doctor visitation fee. But they are able to purchase the medicine over the counter and each comes with instructions on how to administer. I recommend either learning how via a friend who knows or by observing the doctor.
The group needs funds to expand their pen. I recommend that they do not expand until they work through the process with the first litter and maybe a few more. They need to understand how the entire process works and be comfortable with each step before they expand. Each problem they encounter is only going to be amplified if they expand too rapidly without fully understanding the process and knowing how to handle each problem as it comes up. They want $400,000 shillings from the loan to expand however, if they can turn a small profit before they expand then they won’t need to borrow as much money. Bigger isn’t always better – I have advised Mama Grace of this as well as the group.
Jewelry Group:
Started October 2006, 30 members when they began, 36 members now.
Chair Person: Mama Lucy
Secretary: Euphasia
Treasurer: Mama Tinna
They had $24,500 tsh as of June. They would like to borrow $82,000 tsh from the loan.
Challenges: This group needs additional classes to increase the quality of their product. They have only had 3 hours of classes with Abbas. They need to be able to compete with others who sell jewelry at market who have more experience in making jewelry, better designs, etc. They have also been discouraged to continue with this project as they have a lack of market. If we can get them some more classes I think they will be encouraged to continue learning and expanding on their project.
Sale Price (same to locals as to Mzungus – probably should charge tourists more)
Rings 1500 tsh
Necklace 500
Bracelet 500
Cost of materials
Clasps = $3500 for 200
Beads = Assorted colors at $700 tsh each
Fishing Thread = 1,000
Rings – they can make about 30
Bracelets – 20
Short Necklaces 10
Long necklaces – 5
Maize Group:
Chairperson: Edward Lekule
Secreatary: Suzana
Treasurer: Eugenia
They have a 2-acre farm that they leased for 1 season only; they have already paid for the lease.
Challenges:
Lack of help -group members have to harvest their own farms that provide food for their families.
Lack of rain – if the rain is insufficient, their crop will be lost
Thieves – they need to purchase tanks to store their maize securely.
It will take 1 day to harvest in September and they need all group members present to do this.
They will farm in September but not sell until Oct – December because they will make more money as the supply is low and demand is high. High season is during the summer (US Summer, Tanzanian winter).
They can sell 25-30 bags at $10,000 bag in Sept – December. If they wait until January they can sell the bags for $15-18,000 tsh each through June.
The issue they have is storage of the maize due to theft. They would have to buy a tank to store it at $25,000 tsh each. The tank will only store 2 bags. They can borrow a tank from the Chairman Earnest, which holds 15 bags. Mama Quingo (?) also has 2 tanks, which she can lend which will hold 1-½ bags each. Baba Bambo (?) also has 1 tank, which holds ½ bag.
This leaves a need for tank or tanks, which will hold up to 12 bags. If they rent them this would cost them $150,000 shillings.
Profits:
If they sell in Sept – Dec this gives them a profit of about $150,000 tsh after rent of the tanks.
If they sell after Dec this gives them a profit of about $390,000 tsh.
Anyone here??
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