This e-mail just came in from Baba Hezekia this morning in response to a few questions regarding supplies and immediate financial needs...


Shalom,

Congratulation for collection of funds for plane tickets, be blessed.

It is a good idea to add the Health Clinic at shamba site. Important thing to think first is how we can handle costs. We must extend the teachers block to accomodate them. It's better for next fall...

Materials for Eian to build are available, wood for bunk-beds are there, bricks for construction are there and we continue to make it. Wood for lab and library roof are there.

The status of teachers block is the same that you left. We can't move foward due to the following problems facing us now.

1. The teachers have not been paid for the last month
2. The people who are dealing with well are not paid their balance. The well construction stopped
3. We are opening the second term for school, but we have no food for school
4. We are making bricks at shamba site to reduce the cost, that guys who are making are not paid till now
5. The Carpenter finished to make all Desks for school, already came to town (to me) to collect his money. We have no funds to pay
6. Many kids now are suffering from malaria. No money for madication. Joan and me also we are suffering from malaria.
7. I have started to prepare for a dinner for fundraising next month, Initial capital needed
8. To continue with teacher's block it needed 50 bags of cements, wood, Irone sheets, nails etc

Many things:
The major important thing in the above list are Teachers salary and well construction (Urgent)

I'm trying my best level to struggle and to win. I will keep you up-to-date regularly.


Hezekia.

...

I have just transferred money to Hezekia for malaria medication and for half of the teachers' salaries, but that is all we have left, not including the funds that have been donated toward Gustaf and Irene's plane tickets...

We are $1,500 shy of finishing the water well at the shamba center - the total cost for drilling, installation, labor, and materials for the well was more than we had originally anticipated, which is why it remains unfinished.

Today's book donations - another small step...

Hannah Walker -a senior at Gainesville High School - and her friend - whom we will fondly refer to as "Cool Guy Friend" because his name escapes me at the moment (Gordon, perhaps??) - distributed letters to a handful of bookstores in Gainesville today in order to collect donated books for our new private boarding school for orphans and vulnerable children in Tanzania: Hananasif Academy (HA). Specifically, we were looking for college-level textbooks that our HA staff could use as references and resources for teaching, lesson-planning, and curriculum development.

And what a success! The University of Florida bookstore donated eight (very heavy) boxes of school books (which they said they were just about to recycle)- mostly textbooks and most quite recently published - that will now be put to excellent use at HA. We've packed up one box of the textbooks most recently published and most relevant to our HA curriculum/needs, and they will arrive in just about seven days when our next volunteer, Eian Schnoor, arrives to hand-deliver them.

I'm so thrilled. Why is this so exciting? Well, it was literally just under three weeks ago that I sat down with the HA teachers - Denis, Evans, Lusekelo, and Kilian (four bright and committed, passionate and progressive, highly capable 20-something guys) - to interview them, get their stories, and take inventory. My first question was quite simply: "What can I do for you? What do you need?" I had so much gratitude for these guys. I was moved by their love for the kids and their grasp of the vision - they've been sleeping on foam mattresses on a dusty, unfinished floor in a single room with twenty teenage boys; they've been collecting about half their rightful pay in order to ensure that the funds that come in go toward the continued development of our center there; they're on the job 24 hours a day, basically. And what do they ask for??:

1. A photocopy machine ($1,900 USD new; $700 USD used)
2. Teaching Materials (from $10-$15 and up)

As I had expected, their priorities were for the school. I asked them what they were working with in terms of materials: essentially nothing beyond "suggested syllabi" outlines and the few books they brought with them...and they have to commute to Dar (which ranges from 2-6 hours, depending on traffic and weather, despite the fact that it's less than 50 km away) to make photocopies of lessons for each week, which is costly and of course time-consuming.

Well, we're still working on the photocopy machine.
But for now, thanks to Hannah and Cool Guy Friend, they've got books - and good ones.

Thanks, you two.
Tremendous help.

And thanks also to the University of Florida Bookstore for their generous donation today.


Syd

safely back from tz

So I've just recently returned from another incredible trip to Tanzania to visit the kids and staff of HOCET and to get up-to-date on the progress of our work there; and as you'll read in our June Newsletter posted below, there have been many exciting developments over the last few weeks and months...

Let me highlight a few:

* Gustaf and Irene - two of our top students at HOCET - have been granted student visas through the US Embassy to study in the States for one academic school year! They will begin school in early August at Cornersone Academy in Gainesville, Florida, and will be hosted by Lisa and John Nelson who have opened their home to Gustaf and Irene for the length of thier stay. Our many thanks to Cornerstone Academy and the Nelson family for playing such an integral role in this first-year launch of our International Study Abroad Program.

*As of today, we have raised $1,800 of the $3,000 needed in order to purchase their plane tickets - we hope to have them arrive by July 7th to begin intensive English classes in preparation for school. Thanks to those who have donated generously toward this need over the past few days...

*Hananasif Academy is officially up and running as of March 3rd, 2007! Special thanks to Frank Stankunas and his team who constructed our first school building last October and jumpstarted our program at the "shamba" site. Check out our needs catalogue on page 6 and 7 of our June Newsletter for the needs of the new school, as well as for our continued construction phases and our agricultural project.

*You are now able to donate online toward a specific need! Once you submit your payment, you will have the opportunity to comment on what particular aspect of our ministry you would like your donation to support...


Many thanks!

Sydney

Hamjambo!

Check out the June 2007 newsletter. It talks about the progress on the school construction, about new volunteers, children studying abroad in the U.S., and current vision and needs.

Peace and love,
Dav