Art Building Children's Dreams

Join ABCD in Tanzania in 2013!

Frank — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:20:44 +0000

We are excited to announce that plans are underway for our second volunteer trip to Tanzania in early 2013. So much wonderful work was accomplished by our volunteers during our first trip that we are encouraged to offer this opportunity again.

The first information meeting will be held on Saturday, June 23 at 2 pm in the Community Room of the York Regional Police Station at 240 Prospect Street in Newmarket, Ontario.

At this time possible dates for the 2013 trip will be discussed and an overview of the entire experience will be shared.

ABCD Library at Makomu Primary School!

Frank — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:18:01 +0000

During the volunteer visit, the team went up about a half hour climb from our hotel to do some painting in a primary school called Makomu PS. It’s a very poor school which needs lots of help. Our local Advisory Board Members recommended that it be the location for our first school library. The team of painters did a great job transforming the small room, which used to be used for storing firewood for the cookhouse, into a bright, cleaner room for books and children. The school children cleaned it out and the school got some cement repair work done on the walls and floors. Our team went to work with cream and blue paint. Glass has been purchased and delivered for the broken windows. After the team left we contracted a local carpenter to build a big table and bookshelf. Delivery was scheduled for our last weekend in a borrowed pick up truck up the incredibly rough road to the school. The furniture was installed, and our load of donated books from Canada in addition to primary text books purchased by ABCD, were put on the shelves. We very happy with the result and wish we could have seen the children’s faces when they saw their new library on Monday morning.

Trip to a local waterfall

Frank — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 11:15:00 +0000

On the weekend between working assignments some of the volunteer team members took the opportunity to visit a local attraction: Kilasiya Waterfalls. This a local conservation attraction managed by the local people. The team hiked for about a half hour to the falls and then down a very steep gorge. At the bottom we found a beautiful waterfall which we were able to get close to by clambering over some stepping stones across the river. It is a lovely spot, but the trouble is…once you climb down you have to climb up!

ABCD Art Day

Frank — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:40:23 +0000

Our annual celebration called Art Day went off without a hitch and what a great day it was the day before our wonderful volunteer team left for home. They all pitched in to make the day a total success. We had well over 100 folks in attendance, including nearly all of our children and families. Everyone enjoyed the delicious lunch, the excellent theatre arts group which provided entertainment with skits and acrobatics, the local mamas dances and songs, the awards presentation and the gifts of school supplies.

After School Program by our Volunteers

Frank — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:18:26 +0000

Our great team walked uphill every day to Makomu Kindergarten (about a 30 minute walk) where we had received permission from the diocese to use the school for our after school program. At 4 pm, alternating each day, the secondary and primary school ABCD students would come for a variety of enrichment programs offered by our volunteers. These included watercolour painting, music, solar light building, digital camera operation, english language with music videos

. We even had a game of duck duck goose one day with the little ones! The children received a soda and cookies and everyone headed home at 5:30. A very successful program and great fun for all.

Helping out at the local medical dispensary

Frank — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:01:08 +0000

The team was able to help out by bringing some donated supplies to the local medical dispensary. Kevin and Christine, two ABCD friends on their way from climbing Kili, stayed for a couple of days so that Kevin’s plumbing expertise could be put to use to fix some plumbing issues.

Great work done at Ngaruma Vocational Training Centre!

Frank — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:24:55 +0000

For 3 hours every day of the trip the volunteer team worked at Ngaruma VTC in various roles. The teachers and administrators were very welcoming and helped the team to settle in and get a lot done. Everyone took turns painting a classroom which we hope will become a computer centre within the following year. English lessons were offered to various classes which proved a challenge but so much fun. Some of the volunteers had the opportunity to get into the kindergarten class for songs and games with the little ones. The tailoring class, both first and second year, was also a busy place for a couple of our volunteers. Solar light building was also a focus and we hope that the knowledge handed on to the local teacher will be put to use for building and selling water-bottle-solar-lights to the local community. On one day, our team participated in sports day, when everybody hiked to the local playing field for some football and netball. We look forward to further collaborations with Ngaruma Vocational Training Centre.

First Post From Africa! Finally!

Frank — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:19:12 +0000

Electrical power is certainly a problem here in Tanzania….Rotating blackouts all over the country. We have tried to blog 3 times from our location up in the altitudes of Marangu West at the local hotel and in the local town but every time we showed up, the power was down.

Now we are in Moshi town, a bigger place, so we have internet cafes where we can do our blogging.

We are here to do some business in the banks of our ABCD children’s schools, and to await the arrival tonight of our volunteer team. Lynn and I are very excited to see the team arriving at about 9:30 pm tonight. We will pick them up from the airport and we have rooms booked for this first night in Moshi. Tomorrow we all go up to the Sekao Lodge to begin our volunteer work.

Lynn and I have been very busy in this first week. We have visited a few schools to pay fees, visited some families to see children, held our first, very productive meeting with our local Advisory Board Members: Rose Lyimo, the Ward, Tibrus Mlay, the Education Coordinator, and Agnes Kessy, the Community Development Officer.

We have also begun meetings and made decisions regarding the future computer centre project, and our first school library. Our Advisory Board Members also requested that we consider a food program to help our poorest families. Certainly, this dovetails with our aim of helping our ABCD children to be healthy and learn more effectively in school.

We also coordinated a day of volunteer work at the local medical dispensary by Canadian friends, Kevin and Christine, who were on their way through the area after climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Kevin is a contractor so he was able to make some vital repairs to the plumbing at the dispensary with the help of a local fundi plumber.

Photos to come!!! Stay tuned.

Rotary Donation for Kilimanjaro Children’s Libraries!

Frank — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 19:36:13 +0000

I was thrilled to receive a cheque recently from the Operation Bookmark program of the Rotary Club of Newmarket, via ABCD Director/Rotarian Lynn Bird. This donation is targeted towards the ABCD vision of establishing libraries in many of the schools in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania. This support will go a long way towards the purchase of books to help not only the children of ABCD, but all school children in this area to improve their English comprehension and language. Many thanks to Rotary!

Tanzania 2011 Volunteer Team Workshop

Frank — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:01:38 +0000

On Saturday, December 3/11 the team of volunteers heading to Tanzania in January 2012 came together for an afternoon workshop on Team Building and Cross Cultural Awareness…as well as a fantastic pot luck dinner. What a great day it was! Directors Terry and Joe conducted great role-playing exercises for the group to get to know each other’s personalities and how we can work together effectively. Lynn and Frank spoke about their own experiences in Tanzania and gave the team advice and knowledge about Tanzanian culture and travel tips. It became apparent that this is a team full of talent and potential to make a real contribution to the community and children of Marangu West, Tanzania. The anticipation is mounting steadily as the date of departure gets closer.