Utete, TZ – Parmiter’s school help school and community projects – 4 Aug 2013

The student group from Parmiter’s school in Watford, England came to Kindwitwi village to assist families with some Better Lives projects including; organic vegetable gardens, water connections, cow and chicken shed building, tree planting and teaching at the local secondary school.  There were 37 students split into two groups with each group staying in the village for 7 days.

Organic Vegetable Gardens

Each group of students broke into three teams that were then assigned to family gardens.  The students helped build the PM, HK, TN, MN, SM, and TM family gardens.   For the students, it was not only a great opportunity to help families, but also to learn about organic vegetable gardening and family life in Tanzania.  As a thank you for their hard work and help with the garden, each team was invited to a traditional local dinner with the families they had helped.

Organic vegetable garden

Cow Bandas

The Parmiter’s students helped build two cow bandas (sheds) in the Kindwitwi village.  The students had fundraised for over a year before coming to Tanzania in order to fund the building of these bandas and other community development works.  We are very grateful to them for all their hard work and caring.

The cow program includes a micro-loan program for people who are interested in starting a milk business, while also helping themselves, their family, and their community improve the local economy.  The students generously provided the funding to build the cow bandas and donated their time working alongside the recipient families.

Each banda was scheduled to take 3 days of hard work before completion but the students were so hardworking that they were able to finish the second banda in just 2 days!  The bandas were built with local materials and each were designed to house two cows.  The cows that the families are keeping are half local breed, half European breeds so that they get the hardiness of a local cow with the milk production of a European cow.  We had a pregnant cow lined up ready to go into the cow banda once it was complete so the students were lucky enough to see the cow in the banda they worked so hard to build!

Chicken Banda

The Parmiter’s school also helped build a chicken banda (house) for a local business group.  The group qualified for a loan to buy 100 egg laying “modern” chickens, 6 months’ worth of feed, a years’ worth of medicine, and money to buy other tools required for raising healthy egg layers.  The students provided a grant for the chicken banda materials and also provided the labor.  Building the chicken banda required a lot of technical skill because of the unique raised design, so they worked side by side with a local skilled builder.  The students learned how to build the banda with its raised design for easy cleaning and collection of the valuable chicken manure.

Finished chicken banda

The owners of the chicken banda with BL consultant

The project took 5 days of hard work and at the end the students were working into the night to finish.  The structure is built to last and will be a productive reminder of their trip for many years to come.  We wish the local business group all success with their new egg business.

Tree Planting

Along with students and teachers from the Utete Secondary school, the students of Parmiter’s participated in tree planting on the school grounds.  They planted moringa trees along the pathways as a way to leave a positive reminder of the school’s visit to the area.  Moringa leaves are nutritious, especially for growing children, because they have a high content of vitamins A and C, calcium, potassium, iron and protein.  Hopefully they will be added to the school lunches!

Teaching

Utete Secondary school was very interested in having some students teach lessons in math, physics, and especially English.  The Parmiter’s students jumped at the chance to interact with some local Tanzanians of their own age.  The classes were followed up by an assembly, a short play performed by some local students, and a game of soccer.  Both groups of students greatly benefited from having discussions, learning about each other, and sharing knowledge.  Although English is the language that is used for teaching all classes in secondary schools in Tanzania, many students are shy speaking it.  Hopefully the opportunity to converse in English helped them.  Ending the day with a game of football/soccer was a good way for the two groups to bond.  The English team went ahead by an early goal but were beaten by two late goals by the local Tanzanian team. A great day for everyone!