Accomplishments for 2011!

SOLAR PANELS
We installed our solar panels this year on the roof of the Community Center in order to get the strongest sun rays, and to protect the panels from livestock. We no longer have to use a generator and fuel to pump our water out of the well in order to fill our tanks. The solar panels are working great, and not only fill our tanks, but provide electricity to our Community Center for computers, charging cell phone batteries and light for the evening classes.

PROPERTY BOUNDARY

We finished our property boundary this year as well! We now have a boundary that fully encloses our property, and protects our assets, our agriculture, our water and soon to be livestock! We do anticipate adding livestock (cows, goats, chickens) to the project in order to provide eggs, and milk to the preshool program. The image above shows the main entrance gate.

PRESCHOOL

We now have 20 children attending our JUAf preschool program. The children are very proud to be attending an English Medium School and learning English daily. We were able to get uniforms for the children and continue to provide them a quality education while their mothers are busy at work. We started the ground work of the preschool in 2011, and have received donations that will allow us to complete the building of the school in 2012!

DROUGHT

We faced a severe drought this year in the Kikwe region where JUAf is located. Kikwe did not receive their second set of rains in 2011, and it caused all the crops to die in the village and surrounding areas. The land and river beds were dry, and the villagers simply did not have water to irrigate their crops. Not only did the crops die, but the water table level of our well was nearly dry. We had challenges providing clean drinking water to the community during the drought.

DIGGING A DEEPER WELL

We decided to hire locals to dig our existing well an additional 25 feet deep so we could reach the bottom of the water table. Fortunately, after a month of digging, we reached the bottom of the water table, and we were able to provide clean water again. Due to the drought, and the crops dying, the women of JUAf were unable to pay back their third microfinancing loan. Asha and I had to come up with creative ideas to empower women to earn an income for their families and slowly pay back their loans. We decided to introduce the women to sustainable crafts.

CRAFTS
We educated the women on the need to ‘think outside the box’ during times of drought, and to think creatively on how to produce handicrafts using sustainable materials from the land. We spent time collecting crafts at various markets throughout Tanzania and Kenya that were created by women from other villages and tribes. We presented these crafts to the women of JUAf, and encouraged them to create crafts that were of high quality, and unique by using sustainable materials.

HANDBAGS

The women of JUAf decided to make handbags out of dried banana leaves and seeds. During the drought, they all met at the JUAf Community Center daily to start designing their handbags and making them by hand. Asha and I were absolutely thrilled at the end result! The women made three handbags. I chose the highest quality bag and tried to find a distribution channel. We wanted to get these handbags sold in the high end tourist stores, not at the local markets. I was able to get the handbags into one of the most high end tourist stores in Arusha, and they ordered several of them at a fair trade price ($25 per handbag to be sold for $40). The women were absolutely thrilled and amazed at how materials collected from the land (dried banana leaves and seeds) could create such a beautiful handbag that tourists would want to purchase. Although the rains have returned, and the crops are growing plentiful, the JUAf women have now learned that other lines of business outside of agriculture and livestock are just as (if not more) lucrative.

The women of JUAf have faced many challenges over the year, but equally met with many successes. We look forward to another great year in 2012! Thanks again for all your support.

Judi McAlpine & Asha Mruma