Dear Team Tumaini:

As a new school year in Sakila kicks off this month, we thank you for making 2011 Tumaini Tanzania's most impactful year yet! Because of the generosity of friends like you, our community celebrated several milestones:

· Tumaini Tanzania empowered 72 students to complete another year in school, quite an accomplishment in a country where the average enrollment rate among secondary school age students is between six and seven percent (and much lower in rural communities, like Sakila).

· A record 43 of the young scholars with whom we partnered are female students! This is particularly exciting given the exponential benefits (in decreased teenage marriages and pregnancies and in expanded child survival, maternal health, and income potential) that come to a community as women are educated: empowered teenage women yield stronger, healthier families in a community in which so many mothers run households.

· For the first time, we supported Tumaini Tanzania students in all four grades of the Sakila Secondary School AND five students in Form Five and four students in Teachers College in nearby towns. Many of these nine higher level students composed Tumaini Tanzania's first class in 2007; once shy girls and boys, these confident young women and men have become leaders in their community. Their success, combined with their overwhelming compassion and humble stewardship, are testaments to the potential that you are helping to ignite in so many students (and the transformation you are bringing about in their families) in this village.

None of this would have been possible without your interest, encouragement, prayers, and generosity. As the many elated, grateful mamas and bibis (mothers and grandmothers) in Sakila shouted as they joined you in uplifting their children this year,"Mungu awabariki!" (God bless you!)

Please see the information to the right about how to invest in a student in 2012 and the information below about the Board's upcoming annual trip to Sakila. As always, know that 100% of your donations are applied to the projects in Tanzania; the Board of Tumaini Tanzania remains committed to paying for all administrative costs to ensure your direct impact on this village.

Thank you for helping us to spread even more tumaini -- hope -- in 2012!

Tumaini Board visits Sakila!

Erik, Anna, Lide, and Jen will travel to Tanzania next week for the Board's annual visit to the village! We are very excited to see firsthand the impact that your support has made possible in Sakila this past year! We anticipate several highlights of our week and a half:

Current Students: During our first weekend in the village, we will meet with the students and families with whom we are currently partnered. We will review the students' academic progress, encourage the student mentor program, and reevaluate our mutual financial commitments (each family makes a contribution to its student's education, and every scholarship is individually tailored to meet each family's need).
New Students: Over the week, we will visit the homes of the new Form One students whom we will add to our partnership this year, often walking one or two hours to reach each home (the distance many of these students walk to reach school each day). A committee of teachers and administrators from the primary and secondary schools has selected these students based on academic merit and financial need -- these are students whose minds are burning with curiosity and promise, but who would not be able to attend school without this scholarship. We will discuss the program with each student and his/her family and agree on the mutual financial commitments.
Workshop: On our final weekend in the village, we will host a daylong workshop with the students, led by our oldest students. We will provide a large, hot meal for every student, play fun games, discuss the positives and challenges of the scholarship program, and continue to invest in ways for the students to serve their community. This year, we are very excited to be joined by a female Tanzanian doctor from a prestigious hospital in a nearby town, who will conduct an interactive session with the students (and inspire our students by personally demonstrating the power of education, as our past speakers have done).
Flashlights: We will continue to distribute self-generating flashlights to all the new students to provide light at night (since their homes do not have electricity). The flashlights are much appreciated tools that enable the students to study and support their families in the evenings and symbols of the beacon of hope that each child represents.
Local Partnerships: We will meet with our partners in Sakila and the surrounding towns -- teachers, school administrators, church officials, business executives, non-profit professionals, and parents -- and will continue to strengthen our local Board of Advisors.

We plan on gathering lots of photos, videos, and stories during our trip to provide a glimpse of the lives you are touching. We look forward to sharing these on our website (www.tumainitanzania.org) when we return. Thank you for keeping us and our students in your thoughts and prayers over the next three weeks as we gear up for and embark on our trip!

As always, the individual Board members of Tumaini Tanzania are personally funding the costs of this trip -- you can be sure that 100% of your donations are always applied directly to the community in Sakila.