Project TEMBO Newsletter -- SUMMER 2011
TEMBO English Camp 2011 – A Tremendous Success
“I want to learn big English,” a young student said wishfully to Marian Roks as TEMBO English Camp (TEC) came to a close
for its second summer. According to this girl, her dream would come true if she could be in TEC all year long. A returning
participant from TEC`s inaugural session in 2010, she was one of 42 girls that participated in the three week program this
past June.
In just one year since TEC’s debut, the program has already grown to include an extra grade level, bringing education,
empowerment, and fun to more girls. This year, the girls, who range in age from 14-17 and are originally from Longido and
Kimokouwa, came from seven different high schools. During camp, the TEC grounds are home to the girls. It’s not only a
place of learning, but a safe environment where they can be with their friends, enjoy adolescence, and not worry about
outside pressures.
Each day started with classes taught by Ottawa teachers
Marian Roks, Virginia Taylor, and Susan Smith. Each
teacher had an assistant, one of three Ottawa volunteers at
TEC: Anika Tarasewicz, Erica Olmstead, and Margaret
Kennedy.
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geography to cooking! Learning English was woven into
every aspect of the camp, down to the jokes: the girls
constantly threw around, phrases such as “Super job” and
“Absolutely”, making fun of, and out of, English.
Camera club was another favorite activity. Generous
donations of digital cameras in Ottawa enabled the girls to
explore Longido, sharing a critical lens to capture culture
and change from a local perspective. Activities like camera
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Article and photo courtesy of
Erica Olmstead, TEC 2011 Volunteer
The activities helped the girls grow as students, as individuals, as women.
During camp, the girls learned the upbeat pop song “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz, where the main chorus line is “I
wanna celebrate and live my life”. This became the motto of TEC 2011, as the girls hummed it on their way to class,
on their way to get water, and at the end of the day. The motto was emblematic of the girls’ goals for their future as
they gained confidence in themselves as intelligent young women. This growth was most obvious in girls from the
nearby village of Kimoukouwa, who were so quiet and hardly made eye contact with the volunteers during the first
week of camp. After a tour of their village, where one student proudly shared the family boma (a traditional mud hut
home) with her new Canadian friends, all the girls beamed with excitement and engaged confidently with the
volunteers.
On the last Thursday night, it was every girl’s time to shine at the TEC Fashion Show. The girls put together their
outfits – some wore traditional Maasai costume, some made exquisite dresses by simply tying fabric around their
bodies, and some wore modern clothing. They walked out in pairs in front of an audience of their friends, families,
and women of the community.
Project TEMBO – Suite 4C, 268 First Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 2G8 – 613-569-0599
www.projectembo.org
Summer 2011, page 2
TEC, continued… One girl modeled, while the other narrated. At the end of the show – just when the teachers thought it was
over – suddenly an African drum beat filled the air of the hall, singing began, and dancing ensued. Everyone joined the
impromptu celebration, the girls bouncing to the rhythm with shining smiles on their faces. It was a celebration of life; the
words of Taio Cruz rang true.
On graduation day everyone was in tears; they were tears of pride, joy, gratitude, and hope. The girls were proud of their
accomplishments during TEC, happy and grateful for the opportunity, and hopeful for a better future in school and life.
TEC instills aspirations in the girls to pursue education. These aspirations are important; they motivate the girls to work harder
and aim higher. Every TEC girl wants to go to University. Every TEC girl wants to be free from poverty. Every TEC girl is
changing cultural norms in a positive way. The TEC program is doing so much more than teaching English.
Traveling with TEMBO
January 28 – February 11, 2012
Upcoming TEMBO Events
Fall & Winter 2011
September 24 & 25 – National
Women’s Show, Lansdowne Park,
Ottawa.
TEMBO invites you to leave the cold and snow behind this winter and join us
on an unforgettable trip to Tanzania, East Africa.
From January 28 – February 11, 2012 you and five other participants will take
part in a project tour, cultural visit, and a safari. Travellers will meet TEMBO’s
African partners, see first-hand the impact TEMBOs projects are making in local
communities and experience the unique warmth and hospitality of the
Tanzanian people.
December 3 – Annual TEMBO Luncheon
First Unitarian Church, 30 Cleary
Avenue, Ottawa.
January 12 – February 11, 2012 Traveling with TEMBO, project tour and
safari, Tanzania.
Trip highlights include escorted visits to village schools, medical facilities,
women’s groups, Maasai bomas, the weekly Maasai cattle market and the
Longido Community Library.
Participants will also join local women on their daily walk to collect water and
share a traditional Tanzanian meal with members of the community followed
by six days and five nights on safari through the beautiful national parks of
Tanzania. The safari is a unique opportunity for participants to view and
photograph many majestic animals, including elephants, giraffes and lions in
their natural habitat.
Your generous donations
make TEMBO’s work
possible
Accommodation and meals in Longido are provided at the TEMBO Guesthouse
http://www.projectembo.org/guest-house/about/.
For more information, please contact 613-569-0599 or [email protected] .
Project TEMBO – Suite 4C, 268 First Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 2G8 – 613-569-0599
www.projectembo.org
Summer 2011, page 3
Learning in Longido
By Dr. Maureen Law, Director, Project TEMBO
The children of Longido, especially the girls, must overcome
many challenges if they are to be successful in school. As
we have sought ways to encourage a community
environment in which education is valued and the right of
girls to attend school is recognized, we have been told by
concerned community members that informal education
opportunities are very important. They want young children
to find learning- especially early exposure to books,
educational games and English – to be an enjoyable
experience. They want older children to have the resources
and a supportive environment in which to study. And they
want the women of Longido to have opportunities for
informal education which will help them and their families.
To address these issues, we are developing the “Learning in
Longido” program to provide some of these important
facilities and programs. We are doing this in consultation
with the community and with other interested NGOs.
Our small existing library has served as a resource centre
for some of these activities, but we are now working to
support the community in developing the Longido District
Learning Centre. It will accommodate our Learning in
Longido efforts and will also provide a venue for other
community groups to carry out these important initiatives.
This Centre will belong to the community, but we will help
to build it and to support its early programming.
We now have sufficient funds available to have made a
proposal to the District for an allocation of land for the
Centre. When that is done, we will be ready for the next
steps in community consultation, final building design and
construction. In the meantime, we will continue with
planning and fundraising here in Canada.
The library is extremely popular,
especially with children.
We are very grateful to those who have already contributed
to this effort!
The Social Network has come to TEMBO!
Visit Project TEMBO’s Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/#!/projectembo and
the Tembo Guesthouse at: http://www.facebook.com/#!/tembo.guesthouse
Project TEMBO – Suite 4C, 268 First Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 2G8 – 613-569-0599
www.projectembo.org
Summer 2011, page 4
Living with Drought
By Jo Marchant, Executive Director, TEMBO Trust
Longido, Tanzania - The world is so aware of the drought in Africa these days – newspapers, the internet,
TV news. Fortunately, not many people living outside of East Africa will ever experience the severe drought
they read about. But my work with TEMBO Trust in Northern Tanzania during July and August 2011 has
placed me right in the middle of people who are living daily with this reality. And being here is a world
away from reading about it from afar.
Last week TEMBO Trust staff member Einoti sent two empty 20-litre pails to Arusha, about 90 km away, in
order to have water sent back to her in Longido. Mt Longido is nearly dry and this means all but one of the
village taps are turned off. Water trucks come regularly from Arusha, Tanzania or Namanga, Kenya. People
patiently line up with their colorful buckets, hoping to purchase enough water for cooking, cleaning, and
washing their clothes and bodies.
There is no such thing as using water only once here in Longido.
Another member of TEMBO Trust staff, Okay Saitoti, told us that the Maasai men now must descend into
the deep wells to get water for the women in Kimokouwa. The women usually do this themselves but the
water level is so low that the 15 foot decent is now too dangerous for the women.
Two guests visiting from Canada wondered if
there might be a way of capturing the used
shower water so it could be reused to flush the
outdoor toilets. Yes, there was. The Canadian
guests not only paid for a small tank to catch this
water – they also helped dig the hole to put the
tank in.
These are just some of the things people are
doing here in Longido and Kimokouwa to cope
with the scarcity of water.
All this is set against a backdrop of a parched and
dusty landscape where nothing grows. The cattle
have long since been taken hundreds of
kilometers away in search of green pastures.
Only the tolerant goats remain.
And the ever resilient Maasai people who have
learned to live with so little as the years of
worsening drought continue to build one upon the
other.
The daily task of collecting water is
growing more difficult each day due
to the ongoing drought.
Project TEMBO – Suite 4C, 268 First Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 2G8 – 613-569-0599
www.projectembo.org
Summer 2011, page 5
Determined to Be Empowered
By Jo Marchant, Executive Director, TEMBO Trust, and Joyce Hamisi,
(Joyce, a first year university student, is the first TEMBO sponsored
girl to graduate from Form Six)
Merikinoi is a 32 year old Maasai woman from Kimokouwa village.
She is married and is the mother of six children, two boys and four
girls. Merikinoi enjoyed school but did not pass the Standard Seven
Leaving Exam so she could not go on to Secondary School. Her
father forced her to marry at a young age in exchange for cows.
Their marriage was not a good one. Merikinoi’s husband drank and
they had little to feed the family. A severe drought killed the few
cattle and goats they had. She thought of returning to her mother’s
home but decided to stay with her husband because of the children.
Merikinoi’s first daughter attended primary school but, like her
mother, she failed to pass the Leaving Exam. “No other choice then
to be married, she says.” Her second daughter did not attend school
and also married young.
The only way to help her family and save her children, thought
Merikinoi, was to find a way to earn some money. One thing that
would not be destroyed by the drought was charcoal. Making
charcoal is difficult and can be very risky. The women must go “into
the bush” where wild animals sometimes live. Last year the drought
even brought elephants down from the mountain. This year, people
have been told not to fetch water at the cattle trough after 6 p.m.
for fear of encountering elephants.
Making charcoal has provided Merikenoi with some money. What she
really wants to do though is join the Kimokouwa Women’s Goat
Project (KWGP). She missed the registration deadline for the first
group of women to join the program one year ago. This was
because her husband could not pay the fee and she needed to make
and sell charcoal to get the required 15,000 Tanzania Shillings
(about $12.00 Canadian).
However, Merikinoi has now paid the membership fee to join the
second group that will form this year and is at the top of the list.
The women currently involved
in KWIP have demonstrated a
strong commitment to the
project’s success, enjoying
feelings of accomplishment
and pride as they look forward
to the improved livelihood that
the sale of the goats will
provide for them and their
families.
“The only way to help a woman is to help her be independent and
not dependent upon a man or a man’s possessions. May God help
women be self sufficient, especially in a Maasai society where
women have no rights or possessions.”
-Merikinoi
Kimokouwa, Tanzania
Project TEMBO – Suite 4C, 268 First Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 2G8 – 613-569-0599
www.projectembo.org