A is for Africa


Our mission.
What we do....

The answer is not a whole lot compared to what the individuals running SIDAREC and Maasai Wanderings do.  These two locally owned and operated organizations in East Africa are committed to enhancing their communities by providing safe spaces for children, opportunities for education and training, and jobs.  A is for Africa was started out of a belief that these guys know what they're doing, and with a little bit more money, they could be helping even more children in their communities live safer, healthier, more productive and happier lives.  And ultimately, around the world, that's what it is all about.

We at A is for Africa have personally met the people who run these organizations.  We have visited them in Africa, stepped inside their clinics, libraries and classrooms.  In some cases, we have met their families.  All of the pictures on the website were taken on our trips to Kenya and Tanzania.  It is important to us that you understand where your contribution is going and that we have personally verified that the work is getting done.  It is, but we strongly encourage you to investigate some more.  Email us, ask us your questions.  Check out the groups' websites below.  Email or call them.  Go visit them in Kenya or Tanzania.  We'd be surprised if you could be anything but awestruck and inspired.  We know, because it happened to us.
In Kenya:

Slums Information, Development and Resource Centers (SIDAREC)

www.sidarec.org

SIDAREC: Placing emphasis on Community owned development

Slums Information Development and Resource Centers (SIDAREC) started off as a youth group in 1996 but later developed and changed status to a community based organization in 1997, thanks to the spirit of volunteerism and passion for community service, exhibited by it’s members.SIDAREC is a youth development organization operating in the urban slums, Kenya.  The organization was established with an aim of tapping and consolidating skills and talents existing within the community especially the youths, for the common benefit of slum dwellers. The wisdom behind this reasoning is that, a lot on untapped resources exist in communities and if acknowledged and harnessed together would be useful in bringing the much needed positive development change under the concept, “Community problems need community solutions.”

The organization believes that the slum community has a lot of potential in terms of talents and skills and if members are empowered and mobilized to create positive change, they will eventually raise their standards of living. Just as the future of any nation lies on its youthful citizens, so does SIDARECs. SIDAREC place a lot of emphasis on the role of the youths in bringing positive change in their community and Kenya as a whole.

Goals

The main goal of SIDAREC is to reduce apathy among the underprivileged community through dissemination of accurate, consistent and relevant information in addition to designing responsive social development programs.

Objectives

Out of this one broad-based goal, several objectives were formed as the ultimate means towards achieving it. These objectives however were created to address the most felt needs which required immediate attention by the volunteer youths in a bid to tackle myriad problems afflicting their communities.
The objectives therefore are:-
•    To improve the general health status of slum communities.
•    To improve computer usage skills in slum communities and make information accessible to foster faster development.
•    To attain holistic development of children in underprivileged areas.  
•    To create an informed and articulate community that makes responsible decisions for it’s own benefit and welfare.
•    To raise the income levels of the slum community members.
Based on the above objectives, the various pillars that support SIDAREC were developed.
In Tanzania:

Maasai Wanderings

www.maasaiwanderings.com

We have established Maasai Wanderings, not only to provide employment for ourselves and others, but to give opportunities to those who otherwise would not have received them. Our main objectives at Maasai Wanderings are preservation of culture, wildlife and our goodwill projects. We have arranged our company in such a way, that we are able to provide assistance in these areas by funding various projects that we have initiated ourselves. We offer luxury to budget adventures and utilize profits to maintain our own community projects.

Read the May 2008 Maasai Wanderings Newsletter here.

Community Projects

Ilkurot Primary & Nursery School
is located approximately 30km north of Arusha, Tanzania in a Maasai village called Ilkurot (meaning ‘dusty place’). Upon visiting the school in 2004 we saw that the primary school was in desperate need of school supplies, repairs and extension and there was no nursery school. We decided that we would start by setting up a Nursery School so the children of the village would have a good introduction to the Tanzanian education system and would hopefully progress successfully through Primary School, Secondary School and beyond.

The Nursery School opened for students in July 2005 with an intake of 45 students (aged 5-7years). A small unused room (about the size of an average bedroom) was used for the classroom, but word spread and numbers soon outgrew our meagre facilities.

A new classroom was ‘officially’ opened on 25 January 2006 with a massive student increase. To accommodate this increase we now have two sessions a day. The 5 year olds (approx. 110 students) come for the morning session and the 6 year olds (approx. 100 students) arrive for the afternoon session. Each session is served ‘uji’ (a maize porridge with sugar and oil) after their lessons. This is the only food that they would eat during the day – so if they didn’t come to school, they wouldn’t eat until evening. The children love this food – maize (ground corn) is the staple diet of the Maasai people. Per month, we use 80kg of maize, 25kg of sugar and 12 litres of cooking oil to make the ‘uji’ and it costs approximately USD$150 for these supplies and to pay someone to cook for all 210 students.

We have also sewn each child their own school uniform. The uniforms were made courtesy of another project of ours that allows women with disabled children to stay at home and earn an income by creating a sewing business for themselves. There are currently four women who we have provided with their own sewing machine and sewing equipment.

Update on Ilkurot Nursery School

2007 has been a successful year for us at Ilkurot – with the ability to purchase more than 1000 textbooks to allow the students to actually have something that guides their studies.  Also we have plastered the outside of 4 classrooms and fit into class windows (one side only).  Previously, there were wooden windows in place – meaning that when the wind blew in this dusty place, an almost daily occurance, the windows needed to be closed which blocked any form of light entering the classrooms.  Needless to say, no light / no write.

We employed on of Tinga Tinga artists, who supplies wares to Afrika Ink and also carried out our painting lessons for clients, to go and stay in the village for two weeks and paint murals and educational drawings on the newly plastered walls.  In Ilkurot, the scenery is bland and the school grounds were excessively so, thus this new splash of colour has truly lifted spirits and allowed the students to enjoy coming to their school.

In 2007, we also planted almost 500 trees in an effort to cut down the dust that does fly and cause so many eye infections and dry coughs.  We hope that as we enter 2008, we are able to put more water tanks in place to water the trees so that they can grow and make a marked difference in the school environment.

In July and August, we were lucky enough to have Andy and Kelly onboard to construct a playground for the children.  A first in the school, a first in the village, a first in the district and only one of a few in the outskirts of Arusha.  This has enabled the children to include sports education into their curriculum by way of a basic football pitch, netball court and volleyball court.  Also balance beams, monkeys bars and climbing frames are being used for the nursery school to encouragement gross motor skills, counting, and other social skills.  We are very grateful for this to have happened.

Current & Future Plans

In 2008, we plan to finish off two classrooms that have been started and built until the stage of standing walls only.  This will allow the 1109 students of the Primary School to be able to spread out between 10 classrooms rather than 8.  It will also mean the employment of two more teachers into our team, as we divide some of the classes that are bulging with more than 200 students.

We also hope to refurbish the classrooms that are in desperate need of attention – dirt floors, gaps where windows should be, no blackboard, bare brick walls, etc.  We believe this will allow the children the space and environment that they need to study at their best levels.

Hygiene is a major concern in the school, with only 3 drops toilets for 1109 students.  Needless to say the cleanliness and the stench are well below standard and in fact forces some students to find a bush’.  This is not ideal of course as the surrounding areas of the school are village paths, livestock grazing areas and, when it rains, water catchment areas.  We have begun to dig the pit to erect another 14 long drop toilets, hopefully finishing the task in the beginning of 2008.

We participate in many other community projects within the area of Arusha. 
**Artist Assist Programmes
**Secondary School Sponsorships for 12 students – from Ilkurot
**Secondary School Sponsorships for 4 students – from other areas
**Street children assistance for varying numbers
**Micro-finance for women and sewing circles
**Nursery School and Orphanage Assistance in Karatu
**and more…