Provide a school for 1,000 children in Tanzania

Dear Project Wezesha Supporters,

Thank you so much for joining us on this journey! We are seriously rounding the bend in a big way!!

There are two great updates to share:

1. Since the beginning of this project, we have encouraged the villagers and the local government to be as involved as possible - to ensure local 'buy in' and attempt to avoid over-reliance on foreign assistance in this community. To date, the community has contributed greatly with volunteer labor for carrying sand, stone and water to the building site. However, skilled laborers, our engineer, architect and general contractor (all local) have been paid by Project Wezesha. Last year, we laid out a budget for the Regional Government to consider and share with the Tanzanian Government at large. Finally, we have their support! In April, Lucas shared the great news: the government has allocated a starting contribution of 25,000,000 Shillings (approx. $16,000 USD) to support us as we finish the classrooms. Their contribution will go directly toward the windows, doors, and concrete floors of the classrooms! We owe a debt of gratitute to Miriam Mmbaga, who works in the Education sector of the local Kigoma government. She rallied behind us to ensure this budget was strongly considered at the big meeting!
2. Amahoro Secondary School - which will comprise 16 classrooms in 4 quad sections with offices flanking each corner - is so close to being finished. The bricks for all 16 classrooms are up and in place. The roofs are complete on 3 of the 4 quads and the goal is to finish the final 4 this summer, funding permitting! We still have a way to go - financially - to see this through, but we are so close! With the above-mentioned help from the government, we will at least have 8 classrooms completely finished (walls, roofs, windows, doors, floors, plaster and finishing paint) in time to admit students in Form 1 (and maybe even Form 2) at the start of the 2014 school year.

Co-founder Rai Farrelly will be joining Lucas in July to observe the progress, get updates to share with you and keep the momentum going with the local government. In addition, we are excited to announce that we have a fabulous intern joining us for 6 weeks this summer. Brian Fredrichs, newly elected student body president of Westminster College in Salt Lake City, UT will be living in Mgaraganza village with our friends Ashahadu and Jane. We look forward to his work and contributions to the project.

We also wish to thank our friend, Krista Arthur who visited the village and stayed with Ashadahu and Jane for two weeks. The photos in this project update were provided by Krista and we love having them to get excited about the progress!

Thank you so much for all your support! Please continue to share our work and encourage friends to contribute as we round the bend on the school! Our efforts won't stop there, of course. As you may know, we have a great scholarship program and we are excited to be able to add 30 girls through Girls Education International this summer, bringing our scholarship impact to almost 60 children in the region! You can support our children's scholarship fund by visiting this link and contributing.

Asante Sana!!
Rai Farrelly and Lucas Lameck
Co-founders, Project Wezesha

Links:

• Girls Ed Announces Tanzania Partnership
• Project Wezesha