Can a Tanzanian Law student volunteer?

My name is Kapwani Kavenuke, but I’m more  commonly known as Jasmine. I am 21 years old and have currently finished a Diploma in Law at St. Augustine University, Tanzania and am looking forward to commencing a bachelor’s law degree in November 2018.

Jasmine volunteered with Cedar Tanzania in her university break. Thank you Jasmine!

What inspired you to volunteer with Cedar Tanzania?

After hearing about what Cedar Tanzania is all about from a friend, I was inspired to volunteer with them because I wanted to be a part of such a good cause. The passion that Cedar Tanzania shows towards achieving their goals in helping out the citizens of Kamanga, is absolutely inspiring and I just thought it would be nice to think about other people other than oneself for a while!

What is your role at Cedar Tanzania?

I am volunteering as an assistant project manager; this means I help out in a few projects, for example in the Clean Kamanga project. Right now I am helping out with the planning of Global Hand Washing day which will be on the 15th of October 2018.

How long is your volunteer placement?

I started volunteering with Cedar Tanzania in August 2018 and I shall be with them until the end of October 2018.

What things have you found surprising?

One of the things that really surprised me is the lack of water stations in the village of Kamanga and the fact that around 30 children suffer from diarrhea every month. To me this is a clear indication for the need to help the community in the area of WASH and safe waste management, which hopefully the development of the Clean Kamanga Project will help towards addressing these issues.

What things have you enjoyed?

I have enjoyed a lot of things whilst volunteering with Cedar Tanzania. One of my highlights is getting onto the ferry to Kamanga. If it wasn’t for Cedar Tanzania I guess I would have never got onto the ferry. It was frightening at first but absolutely fun later on. Secondly, I enjoyed my tour of Kamanga village with field officer Abduli. I have enjoyed working with the rest of the Cedar Tanzania team too, they are really friendly and welcoming and ready to help whenever I’ve needed it.

What things have challenged you so far?

I have had some challenges but they were not anything that I couldn’t handle; mostly just trying to remember certain formalities and protocols in the village or in the office was a problem in the beginning, but I soon got used to the new procedures.

Would you recommend this volunteer scheme to others?

I would strongly recommend other people to volunteer with Cedar Tanzania because in my experience I have learnt a lot of things, seen a lot of things and life is all about learning. I have become more competent in skills I already had and I have developed new skills too.

What would you say to anyone who said that they could not volunteer because they didn’t have a skill to offer?

I would say that it shouldn’t really stop anyone from volunteering because when you are a volunteer you become open to any work that might come your way therefore at the end of the process you end up having more skills than you came with. I can say that you will gain much more than you think you will give; which is a win-win for everyone I think!

Can a teacher be a volunteer?

Our team work together across sectors

Immersing yourself in the local community is one of the benefits of volunteering

Dylan occasionally popped in at the office

A classroom in Tanzania

Teachers, in government school, rely on the government to pay their salaries. When there is a teacher shortage at a school, they have to wait for the local authority to allocate them the relevant teacher; if or when governmental funds become available. “Volunteer teachers” are a common feature in schools. These are teachers whose salaries are paid by the monetary contributions of parents from the school community. Often this is the only way that teachers can be secured for such specialty subjects such as the sciences and mathematics. This is why Dylan Parkin’s volunteering at the Nyamatongo Secondary Schools, for free, means so much - because for the first time this year [2020], the secondary students are being taught biology on a regular basis. Dylan’s interactive approach contrasts starkly with the lecture style of teaching and rote learning that is prevalent in most of the other classrooms. Cedar Tanzania is proud to partner with Nyamatongo Secondary School in this way. Here Dylan tells us more about his experience of teaching in a Tanzanian school.

What motivated you to get involved at the local school?

As background information, I was previously teaching biology at a government secondary school in Tanzania for two years.  Upon arriving in Kamanga and visiting Nyamatongo Secondary School, it became obvious to me that volunteering some of my time at the school would be beneficial for all parties involved. First and foremost, the school is understaffed, without me volunteering it would be very likely that the first year students would not be taught biology. Secondly, by me spending time at the school I can help to build up relations between Cedar Tanzania and the local education system. It is my hope to identify a few dedicated educators, and start up some type of collaboration with them to improve the quality of education being offered at Nyamatongo Secondary School. By working along side the teachers, I also believe they may see the techniques I use in the classroom, ask me questions, startup dialogs, and possibly implement new methods of teaching into their own lesson plans. Lastly, I have really missed being in the classroom. I am very happy to be back teaching at a school. So really my motivation was threefold, for the school/students, for Cedar Tanzania, and for myself.

What are the challenges of teaching in a local school?

Whether it be a Westerner or a Tanzanian, the first thing everyone thinks or asks about is the language, and yes, the language barrier does create a challenge. Even though I am fluent in Swahili, there are times when it is difficult to find a good translation (especially in biology class). Also, many people don’t realise, but the medium of communication in secondary school in Tanzania is English. This creates a totally different challenge, when do I use Swahili and when do I refrain from using it. The students need to learn English, but if I only use English they will not understand and if I translate into Swahili, the translation might be the only thing students are capable of remembering two weeks later. I have to talk slow, be wise in my word choice, and make sure when new words are introduced all students understand. Outside of language, the biggest challenge is defiantly the class size. My classes currently range between 50-60 students. As with any class, all of the students have different abilities, personalities, and learning styles. This makes it very difficult to keep everyone focused and learning throughout the entire 80-minute double period.

What do you enjoy most about teaching there?

As cliché as it may sound I really enjoy teaching and seeing people learn. Whether I am teaching a student directly or working with a fellow teacher to help them better their craft, I love to see it when that light-bulb goes off in someone’s head, and they do not just know what has been taught to them, but they understand it. For me personally, I love biology and it is very simple, but I know that is only because I had a very good teacher in high school. The challenge of trying to figure out how to teach the students so they can see and understand the simplicity of biology is the other thing I enjoy the most. Biology was not meant to be learnt as facts being presented in a classroom. It was meant to be seen and understood through many simple observations in our daily lives. Trying to put together a lesson plan which will best help the students to understand a topic is very similar to putting together a puzzle.

What is Cedar Tanzania’s future plans in regards to their collaboration with the school?

This question is very difficult to answer at this point in time as I have only been volunteering at the school for a month now. As with any community development work, it is crucial you find the point when your interests and skills intersect with the community’s interests and needs. This is exactly how I became involved with the school in the first place. They had an interest and a need of getting more biology teachers, and I was both trained and interested in teaching biology at the secondary school. As of now it is too soon to know exactly how Cedar Tanzania will collaborate with the school in the future, because many of these variables are still unknown. Currently there are ideas of what could happen in the future. For example, there is already a dormitory under construction at the school, when completed it could reduce some students’ travel time to and from school by as much as 4 hours. Or maybe teachers would like to receive some refresher training on modern teaching techniques with an emphasis on English being taught as a second language within other subject lessons. Again, this will all depend on what the school and its staff need and are interested in pursuing. There are still more discussions that are needed to be had before Cedar Tanzania will know the best way forward in their collaboration with the Nyamatongo Secondary School. 

Being the New Biology Teacher

Teachers, in government school, rely on the government to pay their salaries. When there is a teacher shortage at a school, they have to wait for the local authority to allocate them the relevant teacher; if or when governmental funds become available. “Volunteer teachers” are a common feature in schools. These are teachers whose salaries are paid by the monetary contributions of parents from the school community. Often this is the only way that teachers can be secured for such specialty subjects such as the sciences and mathematics. This is why Dylan Parkin’s volunteering at the Nyamatongo Secondary Schools, for free, means so much- because for the first time this year the secondary students are being taught biology on a regular basis and because his interactive approach contrasts starkly with the lecture style of teaching and rote learning that is prevalent in most of the other classrooms. Cedar Tanzania is proud to partner with Nyamatongo Secondary School in this way. Here Dylan tells us more about his experience of teaching in a Tanzanian school.

What motivated you to get involved at the local school?

As background information, I was previously teaching biology at a government secondary school in Tanzania for two years. Upon arriving in Kamanga and visiting Nyamatongo Secondary School, it became obvious to me that volunteering some of my time at the school would be beneficial for all parties involved. First and foremost, the school is understaffed, and without me volunteering it would be very likely that the first year students would not be taught biology. Secondly, by me spending time at the school I can help to build up relations between Cedar Tanzania and the local education system. It is my hope to identify a few dedicated educators, and start up a collaboration with them to improve the quality of education being offered at Nyamatongo Secondary School. By working along side the teachers, I also believe they may see the techniques I use in the classroom, ask me questions, startup dialogs, and possibly implement new methods of teaching into their own lesson plans. Lastly, I have really missed being in the classroom. I am very happy to be back teaching at a school. So really, my motivation was threefold, for the school/students, for Cedar Tanzania, and for myself.

What are the challenges of teaching in a local school?

Whether it be a Westerner or a Tanzanian, the first thing everyone thinks or asks about is the language, and yes the language barrier does create a challenge. Even though I am fluent in Swahili, there are times when it is difficult to find a good translation (especially in biology class). Also, many people don’t realize, but the medium of communication in secondary school in Tanzania is English. This creates a totally different challenge, when do I use Swahili and when do I refrain from using it. The students need to learn English, but if I only use English they will not understand and if I translate into Swahili, the translation might be the only thing students are capable of remembering two weeks later. I have to talk slow, be wise in my word choice, and make sure when new words are introduced all students understand. Outside of language, the biggest challenge is definitely the class size. My classes currently range between 50-60 students. As with any class, all of the students have different abilities, personalities, and learning styles. This makes it very difficult to keep everyone focused and learning throughout the entire 80-minute double period.

What do you enjoy most about teaching there?

As cliché as it may sound I really enjoy teaching and seeing people learn. Whether I am teaching a student directly or working with a fellow teacher to help them better their craft, I love to see it when that light-bulb goes off in someone’s head, and they do not just know what has been taught to them, but they understand it. For me personally, I love biology and it is very simple, but I know that is only because I had a very good teacher in high school. The challenge of trying to figure out how to teach the students so they can see and understand the simplicity of biology is the other thing I enjoy the most. Biology was not meant to be learnt as facts being presented in a classroom. It was meant to be seen and understood through many simple observations in our daily lives. Trying to put together a lesson plan which will best help the students to understand a topic is very similar to putting together a puzzle.

What is Cedar Tanzania’s future plans in regards to their collaboration with the school?

This question is very difficult to answer at this point in time as I have only been volunteering at the school for a month now. As with any community development work, it is crucial you find the point when your interests and skills intersect with the community’s interests and needs. This is exactly how I became involved with the school in the first place. They had an interest and a need of getting more biology teachers, and I was both trained and interested in teaching biology at the secondary school. As of now it is too soon to know exactly how Cedar Tanzania will collaborate with the school in the future, because many of these variables are still unknown. Currently there are ideas of what could happen in the future. For example, there is already a dormitory under construction at the school, when completed it could reduce some students’ travel time to and from school by as much as 4 hours. Or maybe teachers would like to receive some refresher training on modern teaching techniques with an emphasis on English being taught as a second language within other subject lessons. Again, this will all depend on what the school and its staff need and are interested in pursuing. There are still more discussions that are needed to be had before Cedar Tanzania will know the best way forward in their collaboration with the Nyamatongo Secondary School. 

by Dylan Parkin, Cedar Tanzania.

Changing Lives - one brick at the time

On March 1st, 1,500 bricks were delivered to Mtakuja Primary School of Kamanga.  These bricks were donated by Cedar Tanzania in an effort to help the community complete the construction of the school. 

Donated bricks for new classroom in Tanzania

Bricks to build additional classroom in Tanzania

A new classroom can now be built

Mtakuja Primary School was opened in January of 2019, which allowed the nearly 900 students of the other primary school located in Kamanga, Kamanga Primary School, to attend their school full time, instead of splitting classroom time with the students of Mtakuja.  However, the 800 plus students of Mtakuja are still forced to split time in the classroom, because as of today, there are only five completed classrooms to accommodate the seven primary classes, as well as the kindergarten.  The community has been struggling to construct Mtakuja Primary School since 2014, because although it is a government school, nearly all the funding has come from donations by the community at large or individual community members.

With the sixth classroom of Mtakuja nearing completion, the donated bricks will allow the community to start the construction of the seventh classroom.  The primary school will continue to be a work in progress, but these 1,500 bricks will help the community and school get one step closer to their goal of a complete eight classroom school.  A school, which once completed, will give more than 800 students aged 5 to 12 the opportunity to attend for the whole day, every day of the week.

By Dylan Parkin
Volunteer and Educational Advisor
Cedar Tanzania