News Blog

Volunteering in Tanzania

Category: Miscellaneous

Created: 03 December 2015

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Andrea Laurita, an American journalist, who now focuses on film and photography, visited True Grasses Tanzania Office and spent one week with us. While visiting, she volunteered her skills, and did some filming and photographing the work of True Grasses.

Her focus was to look at the day to day hardships African village families, especially girls and women go through, looking for water. The film will be used to create awareness and help raise funds to dig a well for the villages of Kisarawe. You can see her work on her FB page. Once the video is available we will share it online on the True Grasses website and invite you to join us to see the lives of girls changed and communities empowered through education.

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The roof is up

Category: Kisarawe School Project

Created: 24 November 2015

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There was again activity on the site of True Grasses' Kisarawe School Project area. Finally the store and office building is ready for use. The roofing was done together with the laying of the floor and windows & doors installations, all done within three days. On the fourth day we spent our first night in the house. 

As the roof was on and the doors and windows fitted , there was a big sigh for True Grasses, as now our construction equipment is safely kept in the store. 

We were able to identify a hard working, former homeless man who now stays and keeps the house. He was recommended by the village leadership as being a trusted older man, who will keep the house tidy and lively, with farming and rearing chickens on the project land as a way of his rehabilitation process.

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First Constructions

Category: Kisarawe School Project

Created: 13 October 2015

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We arrived in Sungwi – Kisarawe early in the morning with a team of six masons (builders). The place was overgrown with tall Elephant grass. We divided ourselves in four groups, where one group was to outsource building materials, another group to clear the sight and have it ready for construction. The third group was to collect water and firewood and the fourth group was assigned the job of making a temporary shelter and to start cooking the food. By evening all groups had finished their duties, except the ones assigned to bring water and building materials, this was due to the unavailability of both water, sand and bricks in the neighborhood.

For materials we had to go as far as Masaki town or even Dar es Salaam city which is around 50 kms away. We worked hard each day and had a great time, having fun while getting the job done. Every evening, the builders joined the village youths to play football since it was the only activity that they could get involved in.

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Sports ministry

Category: Kisarawe School Project

Created: 23 September 2015

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We had another great week in Kisarawe with Sungwi community youths full of activities. It was the week that we got to know the youths and bond together as we involved ourselves in moving around the villages, visiting their homes and clearing more ground for the sports field on True Grasses land. It was such a great time to see big numbers of young and old come to help clear land for the sports.

We had our first game which involved the group that was building and the youth in the community and it was a great time for building friendships and learning from each other. As more youths are now showing interest and turning up in big numbers for the football games, the need for more balls is now evident.

Are you interested in pictures? You can have a look at them here.

Kindergarten Update

Category: Pearl Kindergarten

Created: 13 September 2015

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We are now in our 5th month since we opened doors to receive children into the nursery. We are witnessing the numbers grow steadily. We currently have 4 staff, 1 paid teacher, and 1 helping with the cooking of the porridge, a gardener / guard and volunteer classroom teacher.

Due to an increase in children numbers and challenges getting good qualified teachers, True Grasses has found a sponsor to help send one of the volunteer teachers to study a one year early childhood teachers course. She joined in July and she will finish in June 2016 when she will return to the nursery school as one of the main teachers. In the mean time she came back to help out for one week while she was having holidays from her studies. We closed the school for 2 weeks in the month of August for a short holiday.

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Water issues in Kisarawe

Category: Kisarawe School Project

Created: 07 September 2015

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The scarcity of water in the villages of Sungwi in Kisarawe district is alarming. There are some hand dug water wells but all have salty water. Despite these wells having salty water, the people have no option but to use this water sources for all their water needs. The water sources are unhygienic, contaminated and over stretched since they serve people, animals, construction and vegetable watering.

To get fresh water, trucks travel all the way from Dar es Saalam City (42 kms away) to bring water to Sungwi villages. Each 20 liter of fresh water bucket goes for 500 Tsh, which is over and above the normal price of 50 Tsh, within Dar Es Salaam area.  During the last construction, we used 100 buckets of water every day for 7 days, buying each bucket at 500 Tsh.

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Brick Making Machine

Category: Kisarawe School Project

Created: 06 July 2015

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For building projects in poor communities in the developing world, quality affordable bricks are essential. In rural Kisarawe communities, we have difficult access by transportation and the costs of transporting large amounts of bricks are very high. This puts a drain on funds and therefore a way to cut back on a large fraction of construction costs is by buying a brick making machine and producing our own bricks instead of buying them from a supplier. With proper means to ensure good quality of the produced bricks in place, this makes life a whole lot easier for us in regards to building the Pwani Hope School.

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A new start

Category: Pearl Kindergarten

Created: 30 June 2015

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Maize & Casava farms

Category: Kisarawe School Project

Created: 17 June 2015

Hits: 9945

The maize was planted on the school compound earlier this year and underwent some weeding during the month of April. Due to there being a lot of heavy rains with limited sunshine, the maize grew slowly, but now Kisarawe is seeing a relief of the weather and so with the increase of sunshine, we hope that the maize will be harvested in the coming months. Cassave was planted (underground yam type) which is doing very well and we expect a good harvest. The farm has continued to create employment  to some community members  as they come to plant and weed.

Since the harvest is now nearing, we are raising funds to build a store within the school land that will store the maize and cassava for future usage and sale.

Sports ministry

Category: Kisarawe School Project

Created: 06 June 2015

Hits: 10409

The government of Tanzania has never put aside land for recreation activities in Sungwi villages (Kisarawe) and so most of the youth after school/work have nothing to get engaged in and so end up hanging by the roadside or get involved into activities that are dangerous totheir health such as smoking, drugs, gambling. With the land that True Grasses has secured for the construction of the school, we have set aside land for the community recreation activities where True Grasses will donate a football and football jerseys for the games. We are grateful to the family ‘Zandinga’, who donated the sportswear. The youth in the community have agreed to prepare the land and set up the field for the activities. This recreation piece of land will serve both the school for their sports activities as well as the community. As this was announced cheers went up and wondering who this was that would give land where the government has failed to do so. We are now raising funds to improve on the field, such as football poles, but also a set of swings for the younger ones in the community.

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Water well

Category: Kisarawe School Project

Created: 06 June 2015

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In countless Kisarawe villages, there is little or no access to clean drinking water. Often getting to the nearest water source requires the villagers to walk several miles, followed by a return trip. Most villagers carry heavy buckets or plastic drums filled with water on their heads. Even then, that water may not be clean – it may come from lakes, ponds or rivers that are shared with animals or from hand dug wells that might be located near village latrines. Such water is often contaminated and can cause sickness and many villagers are dying as a result.

With water being one of the absolute necessities of life. Join True Grasses as they commit to helping bring clean water to needy villages in Kisarawe.

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De Noabershop

Category: Miscellaneous

Created: 08 May 2015

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Last year, the Noabershop in Assen opened as the first of its kind in the Netherlands. This small but unique shop is part of a non-profit organization and is run by volunteers. Products offered are hand-crafted and made with passion by locals. The word 'Noaber' can be translated into 'neighbor' and represents the motto: We help each other. Visitors can come for a cup of coffee, to exchange books free of charge or just for a chat. On Fridays and Saturdays deliciaous Malaysian food and once a month breakfast are provided.

Supporters of True Grasses have rented a table where they offer homemade cards and a selection of gifts. Additionally you can purchase bags and jewelry from East Africa. This is one of the ways to collect money to sponsor the work of True Grasses and we are very gracious for this valuable support. Maybe this can be inspiration for you to consider how you could support the work of True Grasses in your own city.

Piggery project

Category: Kisarawe School Project

Created: 08 April 2015

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This project is part of the Pwani Hope School project:

The aim of the project is to raise income for the school in order to ensure sustainability of school operations but also imparting knowledge and awareness to the villagers of proper rearing of pigs as a project of supporting their livelihood. The school will also use pig manure for generation of bio gas which will reduce school cocking costs and cut down carbon emissions and also providing natural manure for the crops of the school farm.

The amount needed for buying one piglet (including injections) is € 50.

Soroti Youth Carpentry Skilling Project

Category: Various Projects

Created: 02 April 2015

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Through the partnership with True Grasses, OM Switzerland has been supporting the Soroti Carpentry Skilling Project in Uganda. We are grateful that they have supported the project with finances that was used to purchase carpentry tools to ease work at the workshop. Thanks to Ernst and his team, with their continued trust and heart to this project, the project now trains a couple of youth on hands-on skills and employs five people permanently.

Motorcycle

Category: Kisarawe School Project

Created: 24 March 2015

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With the school project being in progress, True Grasses has been incurring a lot of costs in hiring transport and using local taxis for its work in Kisarawe villages and Dar es Salaam city. Now with the purchase of a motorcycle (piki piki), transport costs will be reduced by 50% for school construction supervision. Thanks again to our committed donor from the Netherlands who gave towards the project.

Piggery & Poultry

Category: Various Projects - PiF

Created: 24 March 2015

Hits: 11856

Community Builders Canada and Anhart Foundation Canada, through the Pay-it-Forward program gave True Grasses various micro credit grants to help the people in Kilimanjaro Region. Eric and Ernst were selected by the local church and both received two piglets each. Amba received a grant to enhance her poultry business. With this they will start a journey to self sufficiency as they create jobs for themselves and increase their household incomes. All will be monitored with the help of MCF church in Moshi. 

TG Kilimanjaro Office

Category: Miscellaneous

Created: 24 March 2015

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Since 2014 True Grasses has been operating at a home office. As it is an NGO requirement to have an outside office, True Grasses has acquired two rooms that will function as the True Grasses office on the MCF church compound. The rooms needed renovations before being able to enter and this was made possible through the gifts that True Grasses Foundation in the Netherlands, CBG and Anhart Foundation gave to True Grasses. The offices are located on Shirimatunda - Arusha Road in Moshi Town. Now all country activities will be carried from out here. 

March Update

Category: Kisarawe School Project

Created: 15 March 2015

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Last week True Grasses witnessed the site of the school being expanded with the purchase of more land where the proposed school will be build. Thanks to our donor that made this a reality. We were able to purchase 5 more acres of land that gives True Grasses enough land to carry out its activities as it empowers communities in Kisarawe villages.

Maize growing

The picture on the right shows a local villager clearing part of the school land before it is ready for maize planting this march. With the growing of maize, True Grasses gives locals employment on the farm and this activity has been realized from our donors in the Netherlands. Also with the growing of maize we already start the sustainability of the school, by providing feeds for the near future piggery project in Kisarawe and providing income for the project itself. 

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My story: Anna Ruth

Category: Miscellaneous

Created: 16 February 2015

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I came to Tanzania when I was seven years old, grew up right here on the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro and was raised in this beautiful country as a Missionary Kid. For 10 years I called Tanzania my home as it was physically my address and for many years after that I called Tanzania my home, as this was where my heart was. When I moved back to The Netherlands to pursue my university education and later work, I travelled several times back to various African countries visiting and volunteering. These journeys continued to pull me back to Africa.  

I served on international Christian ships for 4 ½ years and I always asked myself the question, where is it that God wants me to serve and live. I knew it was somewhere in the developing world and eventually came to the conclusion that my heart was in Africa and that it was there where I wanted to plant my roots. I asked God one question, why is it that I want to go back to East Africa, is it because I had such a good childhood and I want to go back to that. Or did I grow up in Tanzania, so that one day I could go back there? I finally came to the conclusion, that I was not chasing my childhood, but that East Africa was my future and God had been preparing me for that.

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