Programming Overview

Here is an outline of the programming that we're doing in Morogoro.

Business Communication Class
This consists of two components, an English and a Computer class, each at a Basic and Intermediate level. The classes meet twice a week for two hours total. There is also a Continuing class for students that have completed both levels held weekly at a local Internet cafe. If the students attend at least 10 of the 13 classes they get a certificate of attendance. Apparently these certificates look really good on the student's resumes and two of the students in the Continuing class had to drop out because they got jobs! I have been running both English classes with Godfrey to help act as translator. So far this has been one of the most rewarding programs. Due to the structure the volunteers are able to have significant involvement in the planning and implementation. It's been great witnessing the improvement that is already evident. Even if the improvement is only in the confidence level of some of the students it has been really cool to see!

HIV Club
Nicole and I were supposed to attend weekly meetings with a pre-existing secondary school HIV club but so far this hasn't happened. School examinations and other miscommunication has kept this and Good Governance from starting and this has been both frustrating and disappointing. There is still a chance that we might be able to work with a different school but we're not sure. The idea was for us to be there to share any information we've researched and help the club in anyway we could.

Good Governance
As I mentioned this was postponed due to school examinations, however we have now been able to start this and had our first class on Friday. Godfrey runs this for the most part and Michael and I are involved in researching prior to each class and helping run activities and discussions. This class meets two a week for 2 hours and covers 6 modules of information regarding good governance meant to educate students on their local government and encourage them to get actively involved. We cover topics like corruption, politics and women and youth in government. I'm really glad that this class has now started and look forward to some interesting discussions with the students.

Street Side School English Class
I am not involved in this program but I can explain it a little. Gasto, the Tanzanian volunteer that we work with in many of our programming, teaches an English class at a local school for students that have had to drop out of regular school due to family pressure or finances. He teaches the class for one hour four times a week. Twice a week Nicole and Michael accompany him to these classes and help him in the implementation of the class. Often they will play games with the students at the end as well.

Faraja Office Work
This is something all of us are supposed to be a part of but so far we haven't been too involved. Michael is supposed to be helping them with their website and we're all supposed to be helping edit translated stories of local street children but there has been a hold-up on Faraja's end and we have been busy and haven't really sought out other work to be done the way we should. This is definitely something we'll have to get going on before we leave!

Play Day
I just described this event in my previous post so I won't go into too much detail. All of us are involved in this monthly event at the Home Based Care Department, playing with children who are mostly HIV-positive, so they can enjoy a day of fun and lunch in a stigma-free environment. There is counselling available and an HIV presentation for children twelve and older on how to live responsibly with HIV and on how they can still live healthy happy lives despite their status. Then we took the older youth to the Rock Garden for an afternoon of swimming and fun. This was definitely one of the most enjoyable and rewarding things I've done so far in Morogoro.

HIV Outreach
There is a drama group that Gasto is a part of, that helps YCI and Faraja put on this outreach events. We attend their practices weekly taking part in drama exercises and skits. At first we were all shy and unsure, especially because the vast majority of it is in Swahili. However we are all gaining our courage and have even taken part in some of the skits at the outreach presentations.
Once a week we have some kind of outreach event, either at a secondary school, in a rural community or a local Ushujaa 'Courage for Life' talent show. Each of these events varies a little but there follow the same basic idea. Usually the drama group does several skits around various themes of HIV/AIDS whether Prevention, Condom Use, Stigma etc. So far both Nicole and I have participated in these skits, usually as the silent fiance of one of the drama group members as he convinces others that condoms in Tanzania are just as good as condoms in America! This has certainly taken some courage on my part but has actually ended up being quite fun. I get to act a little "gangsta" and sometimes throw in my limited Swahili. We also usually present some facts about HIV in Canada. Tanzanians are interested to learn that HIV isn't just in Africa. Usually there's some kind of talent component either dancing, singing or rapping and we give out prizes that the volunteers brought from home. Makho and Godfrey act as MC's and Makho is actually a really good rapper so sometimes he raps as well. If we're allowed we do condom demonstrations (we've only had one secondary school say that we couldn't do them) and give out condoms to the crowd. We also do a pre and post survey of 5 questions to 10 random audience members (5 boys and 5 girls) in order to help gauge whether they learned anything and if the event was a success. (We do Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) tests for our classes too but this usually takes the form of a writing test)

It's been great so far and I've been really amazed at the work that YCI does. I've been so impressed by the staff as well as all of the M&E and Reporting procedures in place to ensure maximum efficiency and success.

Love!
Melissa