2019 – The Year We Become A Teenager

January 2, 2019 11:24 am Published by

It’s hard to believe that we are turning 13 this year- officially a “teenager” as an organization. And, as it is true with human growth, we are expecting 2019 to be the year that we shoot up as an organization, having growth and improved programs on BOTH of our campuses! While there are far too many exciting things planned for this year, here are just a few of the highlights we are looking forward to…

A New Early Childhood Center! With the completion of Phase I of our residential program in 2018, we are turning our sights to the start of our school in 2019. Since all of our new residential girls at Kahunda will be between the ages of 4 and 6, we are going to start with just two grades this year- Pre-School and Kindergarten, with the plan to add one grade per year (or more) until our school is full and completely built out! This campus will be overrun with cute youngins for quite a while!

Permaculture Institute of Tanzania! Since partnering with the Reed J Oppenheimer Foundation in 2012 to bring permaculture practices to our campus, we have seen tremendous growth in our farming projects and the outputs from our farm. In 2018, we averaged over 2,500 pounds of produce per month, and expect even greater production this year. But, we have also taken the step to register the Permaculture Institute of Tanzania, a project under the Mainsprings umbrella, to bring permaculture education to people in our own communities and around the world. Our very own Mr. Max received his certification as a permaculture trainer last year, and will be working to spread the word of permaculture. We will also be able to offer Permaculture Design Certificates through our institute this year. And, we are very excited about our first-ever International Permaculture Design course in February which will be taught in conjunction with permaculture expert Mark Shepard and sponsored by the Reed J Oppenheimer Foundation.

More Girls! With more graduates on our first campus and a whole new dorm block built on our second campus, we are expecting another 20 girls to be added to the Mainsprings family this year. Stay tuned for the cute pictures and updates as we accept these girls throughout the year!

Papa’s Training College! After a long registration and accreditation process, we are officially opening our 2-year college, aimed at training underprivileged youth in tourism, one of the largest industries in Tanzania. We will be accepting our first 10 students this month and will be working to show them all the ins and outs of the industry. After receiving the equivalent of an Associate degree from our college, they will then be able to go and find quality jobs at lodges, tented camps, and safari companies across the country.

Even More Growth at Kahunda! The Early Childhood Center is not all that’s slotted to be built at Kahunda. This year we are hoping to add more staff housing, a volunteer house, more livestock enclosures, as well as a central canteen so our staff and volunteers have a central place to gather and eat.

Expanded Healthcare! With the addition of a doctor to our healthcare programs in 2018, we are continuing to grow our small clinic in 2019, adding a full-fledged medical lab and lab technician. This means that our medical team will be able to diagnose even more diseases, see more patients, and continue to provide valuable preventative health education to our students and entire community.

Volunteers! Our volunteer program continues to thrive and we are so excited to welcome more than 140 volunteers to our campus this year- including 7 school groups, lots of individuals on our Experience Mainsprings trips, and several families. There are still a few spots on our Experience trips, so if you are interested in seeing our campus in Tanzania first hand, sign up now at https://mainsprings.org/volunteer

None of these things would be possible without your continued support of our work, children, and communities in Tanzania! All of us at Mainsprings are excited to work with you in 2019 and look forward to a wonderful year. 

THANK YOU!

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