Kalolwa Vegetable Garden

Greystoke Camp in Mahale National Park is supporting a small business enterprise based at the Kalolwa Airstrip.  The Tongwe Trust lend out land to Pai who grows vegetables for the camp.  Greystoke buy Pai's vegetables at Arusha Market prices.  Nomad Trust supports this initiative by providing a water pump, pipes,  Foliar feed fertilizer, vegetable seeds and better farming practice training to Pai free of charge. 
Since Greystoke re-opened in June for the new season the vegetable garden has made 817,460 Tsh in profit (at current exchange rates this amounts to over $500).  This is hugely exciting as the garden struggled to make a profit for a number of years.  Well done to Pai!

Our collaboration between the Unicorn school and Mwalimu's school

We have just received £ 3,562.34 raised through Tusk Trust for Nomad Trust and Mwalimu's school in Ololosokwan-next to Nduara Camp.  This amazing amount was raised by the Unicorn School in Abingdon in the UK, and the amazing Christine Davies who just completed a hat-trick of half marathons for a classroom at Mwalimu's school.  

The Unicorn School raised this money by a coin collection around the school as well as a sponsored walk. 

A copy of the  letter from the head master can be found on my last newsletter.  Below is a picture of the sponsored walk

 A huge thank you to everyone who fund raised for this, especially Mike Pickett and Christine Davies, your support and hard work are making a real difference to the school and the lives of the children at the school.

A Christmas Present for Katumbi Primary School

Trackers Stockholmn www.trackers.se  have very generously donated USD 1200 to fund a primary teacher for Katumbi School, near Greystoke, Mahale.  It is truely a gift that will keep giving-not only to the student but to the community as a whole.

A special thank you goes out to Peter Jonsson.  I am very excited to visit Mahale early next year to find a suitable teacher to join the school for 2012.

Computer training

When the Gates family donated $16,000 to Ololosokwan Primary School for a small computer room and photocopier machines, it seemed like a pipe dream that the teachers would ever get the hang of using the laptops.  However the effect of their donation has had a huge impact on the school, as well as the surrounding community.  We saw a huge desire from people in the village to learn not only how to use the laptops but to learn how to maintain them.  Nomad Trust used the ever patient Evans Shirima from AA computers to do the training at the school and  AA computers here in Arusha have taken the training they provide a step further.  Very kindly AA computers have taken on Gabriel-a teacher from Ololosokwan Primary School for his second course in computer maintenance.

The course is free for Gabriel as he will go back to the school and share his skills with the other teachers there.  The Nomad Trust is very grateful to AA computers for their support. 

Teachers Training

Zulufa Rashidi, a girl from Katumbi village, Mahale is about to head to Kigoma at the weekend to start a 2 year  Teachers Training course.  I spoke to her yesterday and she is incredibly excited and thrilled to be able to further her education.  Zulufa is being sponsored to go to college by Linda and Ian Parsons from the UK.  We hope that she will enjoy her time there and ultimately come back to teach in Katumbi.

There is no secondary school in Katumbi, and the primary school currently has about 790 students in it with 6 government paid teachers.  It is hugely oversubscribed as children come from the surrounding villages and rural areas to study there.  The teachers have to travel to Kigoma-a 2 day boat trip one way-monthly to collect their wages which means that the school barely functions for about 10 days a month.

The opportunity for some one from the village, let alone a female, to go to college is incredible.  A big thank you to the Linda and Ian.

Book Donations

I wanted to thank a number of people who have very generously donated books to our new environmental library in Usevya:
Annette Lewis for contributing so much as well as sending books from Amazon, Toni and Quentin Heim, Suzanne and Joy Barnes, Melanie Gowans, Linda Broome, and Janine Kleerup.
Your support in getting our book collection started for the Environmental Library has been invaluable-THANK YOU ALL. 
If anyone would like to make a contribution to the environmental library or has any educational material they would like to donate please contact us at: Nomadtrust@nomad.co.tz

Usevya Youth Center and Environmental library-Katavi

Nomad Trust partnered with Winters Rotary Club, The Besom Charity and Professors from UC Davis are building a youth center in Usevya, just outside Katavi National Park.  The youth center will provide a greatly needed educational and recreational outlet for the youth of the community.  
As part of this amazing initiative, Nomad Trust is sponsoring a small environmental library in the Youth centre.  The buildings are coming along nicely.

All the furniture for it is made and ready to move in once the building is finished and we are working on sourcing solar power for the center in order to run a projector and lights. I will be running, on behalf of Nomad Trust, the Kilimanjaro half marathon in Feb 2012 to raise funds for the solar system.  To donate to this cause please clink of the following link:
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraise/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=LaliHeath 
A number of companies have donated books and environmental material for the library already:  Our special thanks goes out to: The BBC for their wildlife magazines, Book Aid, Cabrini College and Cabrini College Philosophy Club.