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Quarterly Update: April - June 2018                                                                  View this email in your browser

Hello Powering Potential Family! My name is Lydia Sierra, the new Development Director, and I'm so very excited to be a member of this growing community supporting children’s education in developing countries. I have been deeply inspired by the efforts of Janice and the PPI staff, and the generosity of people (like you!) who support the work. Powering Potential’s accomplishments are incredible and I am grateful to be able to contribute.
 

This year we set a first goal of raising $23,500 to upgrade Endallah Secondary School’s current SPARC (Solar Powered Access to Raspberry Computing) lab to an expanded SPARC+ lab. The upgrade will include 20 new Raspberry Pi computers and an expanded solar power system and will provide more than 400 Tanzanian students with access to an offline digital library and other digital learning aids.

Past surveys indicate that Tanzanian students who have access to this type of technology have a better chance of continuing their education and securing employment after graduation. In a country with an unemployment rate hovering around 10%, and where 65% of the workforce is in agriculture, continuing education and finding good jobs are especially important.

We are very grateful to our longtime supporters, including The Collegiate Churches of New York and the E. Rhodes & Leona Carpenter Foundation. Through their generous support, we have raised $9,500 in grants. Thanks to all who volunteered and attended our annual fundraiser this May, where we raised another $7,000. We only need $7,000 to begin Endallah's SPARC+ installation in August 2018. 

We are a community who cares and is committed to the mission of promoting education for students in Tanzania. With your support, there is no doubt that we will reach this goal.

 

POWER THE POTENTIAL BY MAKING A DONATION TODAY

DID YOU KNOW?


Photo: Students walking to Endallah School

Tanzania is one of the poorest and least-developed countries in the world with a per capita Gross Domestic Product 75 times smaller than the USA, and a youth Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET) rate of 14.93% (Source: International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT database. Data retrieved in November 2017). Endallah School is a government-administered co-ed public school located in a socioeconomically disadvantaged part of Tanzania. Many of the people who live in this area are subsistence farmers who live hand to mouth. Due to severely limited access to computers and electricity, the school cannot offer the national ICS (Information and Computer Studies) courses outlined by the Tanzanian Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. Year after year, students miss out on an important component of their education. 

$7,000 RAISED AT SPRING FUNDRAISER
 

 
Photo: Janice Lathen, PPI Founding Director and
Mr. Modest J. Mero, Tanzanian Ambassador to the United Nations

On May 17th, Powering Potential held its annual fundraiser at the Tufenkian Artisan Carpets Showroom featuring an appearance by the Tanzanian Ambassador to the United Nations, Mr. Modest J. Mero.  To read Ambassador Mero’s comments click here.

Read the blog about the fundraiser which includes an event overview and a special donor profile on David Saitowitz, one of Powering Potential’s newest supporters. For more pictures of the fundraiser click here.

Special thanks to Padcaster videographers for documenting the event, and SUPER special thanks to all of the donors and attendees! Thanks to your generosity, we were able to raise $7,000. We only need $7,000 more to reach our total goal of $23,500 for Endallah Secondary School’s SPARC+ upgrade!

The Potential Enhancement Foundation at Scratch@MIT

Word travels fast in the tech community. Thanks to the success of the Pi Workshop program, the Potential Enhancement Foundation (PEF), PPI’s Tanzanian partner, has been invited to present at the Scratch@MIT Conference in Cambridge, MA from July 26-28, 2018.

Scratch is a visual programming language that allows young people to animate their imaginations and share their creations with the world.

PEF representative Simon Mtabazi, Technology Educator, will be sharing his experience using Scratch to teach Tanzanian students computer technology fundamentals.

Here are projects the students completed. So much potential here!

"It was amazing how quickly students learn computer programming and demonstrated their potential." – Eng. Albin Mathias 
 

Save the Date! July 31st, 2018 @ The Yard, NYC 106 W 32nd St., 2nd Fl.
@ 6:00pm - 7:30 pm
 

Powering Potential invites you for some drinks and snacks at The Yard (a co-working office space) to meet Simon before he goes back to Tanzania! We invite you to come out for this rare opportunity to meet and support the Tanzanian staff.

Powering Potential Presentation to Open Source Club @ NYU
 


On April 9, 2018, Janice Lathen, Founding Director, and Rich Segal, Management Team, gave a presentation on Powering Potential’s work in Tanzania to BUGS students at New York University. BUGS is a member of the Mozilla-led Open Source Student Network (OSSN), a network of university students and clubs who share the belief that open source software – technology built with code that is open for view, use, and modification – is the engine that powers innovation.

Powering Potential looks forward to working with BUGS members to promote our work in Tanzania!

Ways You Can Help Us Raise $7,000 in 30 Days

  1. Make a donation of $1,000, $500, or a gift of any amount

  2. Help us friend-raise!

    1. Share this newsletter with your friends, family and colleagues

    2. Ask them to Subscribe to PPI’s Quarterly Newsletter

    3. Ask them to Contribute to PPI’s Endallah School Upgrade Campaign

    4. Contact Lydia Sierra to learn about all the ways that you can help Powering Potential achieve its mission! Lydia can be reached via email at development@poweringpotential.org and via telephone at 718-309-7800.

Copyright © 2018 Powering Potential, All rights reserved.


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