The Umoja Centre

5th June 2010

Umoja would like to extend our warmest 'Karibu!' (Kiswahilli for 'welcome') to Jen Li our latest long-term  volunteer. Hailing from Sydney in Australia, she has just completed a one and a half month overland tour of south and east Africa. Jen will be assisting our Grants Officer in researching application data, tutoring Conversational English, coordinating our short-term volunteers as well as other day-to-day tasks.

May/June 2010

For the second year running The Umoja Centre was delighted to host students from the Juilliard school, New York, who had raised their own funds to have this opportunity.

Over the two-weeks our students were greatly encouraged to use their creativity and devised performance pieces, including songs and drama 'skits' to be performed at the fundraising event at the end of the fortnight - well over 200 people attended this event and The Umoja Centre was able to raise over 2 400,000 TSH (approx $1500 USD) from selling tickets and holding a raffle. The performance was warmly received and all the students earned rapturous applause.

Our students were amazed by the skills and enthusiasm the Juilliard students displayed and this has inspired them to be more creative and to strive even harder for their own goals.

Our students had only experienced creative arts during Umoja's extra-curricular clubs before the Arts Camp and were extremely excited to come to the centre each day!

We would like to extend our deepest gratitude to the wonderful Juilliard students!

May 2010

The Umoja Centre would like to extend our gratitude to a group of students from the Granite Oaks school in California, USA - Blake, Brooke, Carter, Cole, Dani, Emma, Justin, Kelly, Maddy, Monica, Olivia, Rachel and Vanessa raised $430 for their 'East Africa Project' and their donation and the hard work behind it is greatly appreciated. They also wrote a lovely letter to our students and we hope this will become a 'trans-Atlantic' pen-friendship!

5th May 2010

Support for International Change (SIC) returned to the centre for a second year to carry out a first round of HIV/AIDS testing for our year '10 students. Before the testing began the SIC counsellors held discussions about testing, HIV and sex. Many of our students asked questions and created a lively discussion. After a few nervous hours, we are all happy to know that all students tested negative. On the advice of SIC, we shall be conducting a second round of testing. (Students were happy to disclose this information.)

May 2010

May saw the Centre become a hive of almost frantic activity - as the year '09 students finished their course and everyone prepared for the Centre's first 'grand' graduation celebration. On the final Friday of their term all the year '09 students came in to add the final touches to their CVs and to have their class group pictures taken.

On the Saturday (8th May) we held a graduation ceremony at the local church hall, with a local village elder as guest of honour, the students' guests and the centre staff and volunteers in attendance.

With a local DJ, an acrobatics performance, music and dance displays by some of the graduates, a large feast (cooked by volunteers from the year '10s) and the students' families and friends joining in the energetic celebrations a fantastic time was had by all! It was a huge amount of work beforehand but the huge smiles on all the students' faces showed us just how much it is worth all the effort! Whilst we are sad to see the students depart, we are immensely proud and happy to know that they are going on to employment or back into main-stream education and we would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has made this year the huge success it has been!

4th April 2010

'The Big Back Wax' - On Easter Sunday, Robbie Ryder, the brother of Umoja’s long term volunteer Victoria, entered into a world of pain to raise money for the centre. Robbie made a great effort and managed to raise £748. Through his tears Robbie was quoted as saying “the money makes it worth it and all for the Umoja Centre”. The event was held at Millbook Football club in Cornwall and was attended by many family members, friends and curious locals! A huge thank you to Robbie and everyone who supported this event!

15th - 19th March - 'Environment Week'

The week was devoted to lessons centered around the topic 'our environment' and was designed and planned by our volunteer Lisbeth Kiehn, who also facilitated numerous specially prepared classes whilst the rest of the staff and volunteers adapted their lessons to cover environmental themes. Students were involved in debates, conducted simple experiments, wrote letters to politicians, designed surveys for their communities etc., etc. The week culminated in an art exhibition and an hour long show, performed by the students - with performances of songs and raps, comedies and plays that they had devised about the problems and solutions to such issues as climate change, pollution and deforestation. Everybody finished the week feeling better informed and empowered to make positive changes to conserve our precious environment!

13th March 2010

‘‘Let’s Get Quizzical’ - The Big Pub Quiz’ was held at the Castle Inn in Cambridge to raise funds for The Umoja Centre. Over 50 people came and made up 11 teams. It was a fantastic night with 5 rounds of fascinating questions to baffle the brain.

Over £350 was raised on the night and everyone had loads of fun - THANK YOU!

7th March 2010

Over a thousand runners braved the brisk wind to run the fifth annual Eastbourne half-marathon. Amongst them was Lauren Birch, who ran the 13.1 mile course in two hours and eleven minutes to raise money for Umoja. She managed to collect a brilliant £761 in sponsorship!

Thank you to everyone who sponsored her for this event!

25th February 2010

Tim and Emma successfully completed their sponsored cycle ride across East Anglia through typical British weather - rain! They raised an amazing £1118!

Thank you to everyone who sponsored them for this event!

27th January 2010

Our new full time volunteers arrived to work at The Umoja Centre. Victoria and Hill from the UK, will be living in the accommodation at the centre. Victoria will be managing our grants database and working on applications for much needed funding and Hill will be updating the website and marketing literature as well as managing the micro-enterprise scheme. Both volunteers will be teaching English Conversation as well as performing many other day-to-day tasks. Welcome.

January 2010

We celebrated our first graduates! Elias, Jadelina, Deborah and Marta all returned to sponsored formal education and Zablon enrolled in formal vocational training - and is studying to become a professional chef. Everyone is very happy and proud of all their achievements!