We are thrilled to share with you the impact your support has had on the Tanzanian youth! Thanks to your generosity, we have been able to reach over 200 young people through various initiatives and programs.
Our Innovation Club with the School of St. Jude has been a resounding success, producing 9 prototypes aimed at solving local technological challenges. These projects range from a beans sorter to a water vending machine, and we are proud to see the youth making a difference in their communities.
We also conducted a 5-day workshop with class seven graduates in partnership with WAGI Labs in the US, inspiring them to come up with innovative solutions to address local needs, such as a chicken feeder and a local bakery.
Additionally, we are mentoring 8 innovators who won grants from the Commission of Science and Technology, linking them with our resources for a smoother project implementation.
Lastly, our STEM Outreach program has allowed us to reach 5 schools, inspiring students to take an interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. We have been demonstrating our work and inviting them to our makerspace for further programs.
Your support has been instrumental in empowering the Tanzanian youth to make local technologies and we thank you for making a difference
TWENDE FLAGSHIP PROGRAM YIELDED FOUR NEW PROJECT DESIGNS
The programme (if you are British) or program (If you are American) is called JTP - Jamii (Community) Technology Program.
This year it ran from June 6th to August 30th, although some of the innovators are continuing to work on polishing their prototypes.
The four designs it created are:
Program Updates
1. Innovation Club with the school of St. Jude
We are pleased to announce our partnership with the School of St jude to run an innovation club with 46 students on 2 campuses. We expect exciting technologies that solve community challenges from the students.
2. New Program Alert!
Another development, in the “Catch Em Young” vein is the design of a program for graduates of primary schools – whether they are going to carry on to secondary education.
We have a new mission partner “WAGI Labs” in the US who are interested in our programs and together we have been designing an innovation program for standard seven graduates.
3. Incubating 3 innovators with COSTECH
We have an understanding with the Commision for Science and Technology to incubate 3 local innovators as a follow-up on their win of a grant to develop their technologies into finished and scalable products.
Links:
Time continues to fly and we have reached the end of the second quarter of 2022. What has Twende achieved in the past few months?
Our first Creative Capacity Building (CCB) course, at our second innovation hub which is in the village of Orkolili in the Kilimanjaro region, was successfully held in March. The following week saw another first – an all-female CCB course back in our main hub. One of their creations was a saucepan cleaning device. Would a male-dominated group ever identify that as a challenge worthy of some creative thinking? The ladies know best! In this report, you will get some highlights from our programs.
Creative Capacity Building in our satellite centre in Orkolili, Kilimanjaro
Since the launch of our Orkolili satellite centre last year, a number of programs were conducted there including Build-It workshops and STEM programs.
In March, we had the pleasure of running a 5-day Creative Capacity Building workshop with the students and the outcomes were mind-blowing.
The technologies made were bricks lift, vegetable cutter, maize planter and eggs incubator.
During their presentation, they shared how the Creative Capacity Building model could be implemented in other areas like studies, entrepreneurship and life in general.
This was one memorable workshop and we will be back there soon.
Women in STEM
Twende celebrated Women's History Month 2022 in style. From the 21st - to the 25th of March, we hosted 12 outstanding ladies in our first-ever female-only Creative Capacity Building (CCB) workshop in which we introduced them to e design cycle and they came up with great ideas that were turned into prototypes.
The prototypes were addressing different social pains they face in their communities. The 4 prototypes developed include a garlic peeler, rice harvester, saucepan washer and a compost turner.
As highlighted above, it was a celebration because this is our first-of-a-kind female-only CCB, it involved participants from 3 partner organizations and the participants had the enthusiasm and agility to make workable prototypes.
We also celebrate our partnership with the Girls Foundation of Tanzania who we've been working with for over 5 years, Okoa New Generation for the second year and Jifundishe for the first time.
We are grateful to everyone who made this program come to life.
Build-It Workshops
This time around we have been able to work with 65 primary school students from different schools and backgrounds through Build-it workshops which are meant to equip them with knowledge and skills to build different useful devices. We have also built strong partnerships with various schools that have sent their pupils into the program with special requests based on the science topics they have covered at school.
Some of the created devices include compasses, flutes, and electric sensors.
Other ongoing programs like the Jamii Incubation Tech program will be shared in detail in the next report so stay tuned!!
Thank you for your continued support.
The reason we do what we do and more is through your continuous support. We are changing the lives of Tanzanians, one Innovation at a time and we can not thank you enough for your support. It is through your contribution that we are getting closer to our vision of more local technological solutions to local challenges.
Warmest Regards,
Nzira and the Twende team
We have countless reasons as to why 2022 will be a wonderful year. Is it the fact that 5-year-olds could assemble an LED light or the fact that form four graduates could make cardboard prototypes? It’s that and more.
Throughout this quarter, we managed to reach out to 198 people from different parts of the Arusha region through our programs namely creative capacity building, build it program STEM outreaches, and the use of maker space.
STEM OUTREACHES
Twende reaches out to schools and other institutions to introduce young people to the idea of creating technologies. Some of the participants sign up for the programs which are held in our workshop.
Since the opening of schools, we were able to meet 142 students from different schools stimulating their ability to use STEM in school and daily activities with an emphasis on innovation and prototyping.
The students were able to assemble and light LED flashlights.
BUILD-IT PROGRAM
We worked with 30 students in 2 different workshops in which the first one the students made rubber squeezers (mopper) and the second one flutes for their music lessons.
Among the skills learned were measurement, cutting, drilling, and pasting. We are confident that the skills learned will help them in making and repair of basic items and devices at home and at school. We believe that they will use the skills in solving different problems in relation to making and mending.
CREATIVE CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAM
We had a special opportunity to work with 20 form-four graduates from various schools as they are waiting for their results. This vibrant group of students was exceptional because they were sharp and eager to learn. The solutions they brought to the table include a paper folding machine, woodchopper, groundnut sheller, and a glass recycling machine. They ended up making cardboard prototypes due to the limited resources we had but we are striving to raise more funds to develop them further and if possible be incubated in our tech incubation program.
USE OF THE MAKER SPACE
The aim of reaching out to schools and institutions is to invite more people, especially the youth to utilize the resources available to make, repair, and innovate. Other users are our program’s alumni and community members. Due to this, our maker space has been busy due to the development of different projects such as automatic handwashing machines, maize thresher a plastic recycling machine, and other school projects. Most of these projects have been developed from the first prototype to a better one. Furthermore, there are some of the projects such as maize thresher has been developed up to a product state.
UPCOMING
1. Women in hardware tech. Twende is organizing a Creative Capacity Building (CCB) workshop specifically for women between 12 – 35 years of age with the aim of developing more female innovators and fostering more technologies.
2. Jamii Tech Incubation Program. This is a 12-week (June - August, 2022) design program that connects international teams to do a context-driven design with & for members of the Tanzanian community.
Teams consist of one Tanzanian community partner, a young Tanzanian designer, and an international design or engineering student. The trio collaborates over a solution to a problem identified by the community partner. Teams are supported by Twende and other mentors, who guide them through a semi scaffolded process, beginning with understanding the needs of their community partners and ending with an implementable and adaptable solution.
More information about the program can be found here.
To support this program, please donate to our GlobalGiving project: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/help-tanzanian-youth-make-tech-to-help-themselves/
Please contact us through info@twende-tanzania.org for more details about the program, registration, and sponsorship.
The reason we do what we do and more is through your continuous support. We are changing lives of Tanzanians, one Innovation at a time and we can not thank you enough for your support. It is through your contribution that we are getting closer to our vision of more local technological solutions to local challenges.
Thank you so much (Asante Sana!)
Nzira and the Twende team
Links:
Twende - Orkolili Satellite Center in Kilimanjaro.
On the 13th of August 2021, Twende successfully launched a satellite center in Orkolili Secondary School. The aim of having the center in Kilimanjaro is to extend our reach to the communities around the region by empowering them through our workshops and providing access to the makerspace and technical support
Our team met community members from Ormelili, a village near the school, who showcased different, useful technologies they have been creating and will further improve them through the Twende – Orkolili Center. We had students from 8 schools who joined the event too and after learning about what we do, they are planning to work with the center on a 'build it program'. One of the activities our team demonstrated was creating a bottle opener. We engaged with the participants with the aim of giving a clear understanding of how we do these activities during trainings at our headquarters. Apart from our demonstrations, there were other exhibitions of different projects introduced by the students and communities that attended the launch. It was a very positive and insightful day as everyone who attended and hosted gained an understanding with regards to local technology and innovation.
Virtual Youth Exposition Day - Innovators Showcase run by Twende
Twende was honored to partner with the Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete Foundation (JMKF) to organize and run the Innovator’s showcase as part of the Virtual Youth Exposition Day-2021. Five of our innovators got the opportunity to showcase their tech and demonstrate how they are transforming the food systems and 2 innovators (Alfred Chengula and Jesse Oljange) won in the Food Processing category.
JMKF’s mission is to work with governments and other stakeholders to bring about progressive change which is in line with Twende’s mission to empower people to design and make their own technologies to solve community challenges.
Creative Capacity Building
We conducted 1 creative capacity building workshop with the Habari Maalum College students and managed to get 23 participants and a few members of staff attended.
Half of the workshop took place at the Habari Maalum campus and the rest at Twende after realizing that it was easier working on projects in the workshop than in classroom. The program was partially paid to subsidize material cost and the projects introduced were Cooking gas gauge, solar heater, and an automatic drip irrigation system.
As students did not have a mechanical engineering background, it was difficult to develop their ideas and so their teacher suggested leaving the prototypes at the first phase and improve them later.
Build-It Workshop
Twende reached out to 38 students at Likamba Integrity School located in Kisongo for the Build it program. The students made 20 rubber squeezers for cleaning their school. We met the priest of the church led school who was impressed by the program and asked if there were programs for elders too. We are looking forward to introducing creative capacity building to the Likamba community.
The 2021 Jamii Tech Program
The Jamii tech program commenced on the 16th of August and is ongoing.
Twende accommodated 9 graduates from 6 universities (Sokoine University of Agriculture, University of Dar es Salaam, Mbeya University of Science and Technology, Arusha Technical College, National Institute of Transportation and Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology). Among the projects that came out this year and the past JTP programs, 4 were selected to be incubated. The projects that will be incubated are Maize sheller and thresher, Plastic chopper, palm oil extractor and potatoes peeler. The projects selected have a high demand in the communities where these participants come from. From this, we have seen the effort and passion the innovators have put into these projects.
Through continuous support, we have been able to go beyond our makerspace walls and beyond our expectation. it is through your contribution that we are getting closer to our vision of more local technological solutions to local challenges.
Thank you so much (Asante Sana)!
Nzira and the Twende team
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