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A snow-capped Mt. Kilimanjaro overlooks good things happening at the Kilimahewa Educational Center 

IMPACT:  In this year's first semester, nearly 100 young adults and youth have enrolled at the Center for courses ranging from a secondary school equivalency certificate to Computer and IT classes, English Intensives and our capstone program, THRIVE, that prepares Form 4 graduates for advanced level studies and builds their social interaction, job-seeking and workplace skills.

INSIGHT: Kilimahewa's exceptional teaching staff applies best practices and U.S. educational software to turn around the lives of students rejected for various reasons from Tanzania's formal system. At one time, schools like Kilimahewa were called "second chance" schools.  With modern classrooms, an IT infrastructure, a bright and well-maintained library, farming plots to learn agricultural skills,for and a recreational field, Kilimahewa offers much more than a second chance.  It's a new beginning and an exposure to possibilities never before considered by each student, young or old.  

Meet Frank Fidas and some of the other outstanding teachers who make a profound difference in our students' lives and futures.
CLOCKWISE: Students conduct Friday debates to develop reasoning and speaking skills.  This topic: Girls who get pregnant should be allowed to stay in school; Students set up and learn how to use email accounts; THRIVE students take on community service with a nearby Center for the intellectually disabled; Mamas sign up their adolescents, blocked from government schools, for Kilimahewa's equivalency program; THRIVE students read newspapers in the Center's library.
TOMORROW'S SCHOLAR-LEADER SPONSORSHIPS
IMPACT: Eight years since the first EdPowerment Sponsorship, our students have begun to complete college and university programs, finding their place in the Tanzanian workplace and society.  Some of these youth, rejected from formal learning when we met them, are now primary school teachers, masons, mechanics, accountants, and more. This year, our first sponsored student will complete her Bachelor's Degree in Education and another will receive her Medical Degree.  As 7 more students finish "A"dvanced Level Form 6 in May, we anticipate that roughly 20 students will be enrolled in University and college by this fall. 

INSIGHT: Hardly a day goes by that we are not challenged in some way by the tough realities that mark our students' lives.  This past year, medical emergencies haven't stopped.  Tuberculosis, typhoid, a host of gynecological issues, ulcers, other digestive, allergy and dermatological conditions have faced our Manager, Tom Kway, and Mama Grace. EdPowerment has been challenged first and foremost to find some kind of quality diagnosis and course of care, to provide emergency housing when students are told by schools or parents to "find" us, and to navigate a fractured health system.
TOP: Mama Grace and Tom Kway meet with our students in January to discuss the 2018 contract and encourage their best performance. MIDDLE: Three of our students ready to leave for their Form 5 studies at Marangu High School; Mama Grace and Dativa, a first year University Bachelor of Education student who began her road back to learning 7 years ago at Kilimahewa, share International Women's Day celebrations; BOTTOM: Cocoa McGovern, a Board Member, spends time in February mentoring our 4 recent Secondary School graduates, two of whom finished top in their class. They are now a part of Kilimahewa's THRIVE program.
ALEX'S STORY
10 years ago - a decade - Alex came to the then one room Kilimahewa Educational Center because he had nowhere else to go after primary school. For 10 years Kilimahewa and EdPowerment staff has worked with Alex, supporting him through academic and personal struggles, including his sleeping on bags at a feed storage room on the main road across from a bar so he could come to the Center, the resulting exposure to risky behaviors, and the death of his father. During all his free time, the Center has been his place to go. Last week, Alex graduated from  Marangu Teacher's College with a Diploma that allows him to teach history and Swahili in secondary school.  Here he is with Tom Kway, our Operations Manager, who with Mama Grace makes sure someone is always present at our students' graduations. 

Alex represents the impact of EdPowerment's long-term commitment and holistic, lifeskills approach to all our students.

CONNECTS AUTISM TANZANIA SEES PROGRESS FOR SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION
Connects Autism Tanzania has been hosting seminars to educate teachers on participatory methods of instruction and using I.E.Ps (Individual Education Plans) in their classrooms - important steps forward in the Tanzanian system.
Here Mama Grace takes part in a Radio Habari Maalum broadcast in Arusha during The Forum For improving Educational Practices February 14 - 16 to spread awareness about special needs education.
Click the photo to watch Mama Grace with a student during her ceaseless visits to local schools and centers to advocate for the autistic and those with other special needs. She has such heart for these youth.
A big shout out of thanks to all who supported this year's SoulCycle NYC Ride! To add your support, DONATE NOW.
Today's challenge: Finishing a girls hostel above one of our classroom buildings so that Kilimahewa can teach and guide more women to productive lives.
Copyright © 2018 Edpowerment, Inc., All rights reserved.


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