Help Tanzanian Youth Make Tech to Help Themselves

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

The past three months have been filled with workshops, exhibitions, and fascinating technologies. We have been fortunate enough to form stronger partnerships, work with more participants, and starting our initiative of bridging the gender gap by introducing the WIL (Women Innovating Locally) program in which we include more than 60% female participants in our workshops.
In the past quarter, we had the opportunity to work with Okoa New Generation, Notre Dame, FUES Foundation, The Girls Foundation of Tanzania, and Senda success.
Creative Capacity Building
In April, we worked with The Girls Foundation of Tanzania (TGFT), a team of 7 amazing and creative ladies who took part in the Creative Capacity Building workshop (CCB) and the program was a success. They made three prototypes that include the chapati maker, a weeder, and a fish scale shredder. These technologies have not just made them more creative but have made housework easier.
We also worked with Notre Dame, an Institution in Arusha, managed by The Society of the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame, Tanzania.
A group of five ladies designed and made the ugali cooker. This has become a profoundly serious challenge to cooks especially women and all those who prepare ugali in high quantity in public institutions like hospitals, schools etc.
They managed to build a simple ugali cooker prototype that is Motor powered, and it works very well. It has been hard for people to prepare ugali because of the effort that it needs. It is a project that most innovators and participants have been avoiding but these resilient and creative girls made it possible.

Build-Its
Senda Success has played an instrumental role in our Build-It workshops since we co-organized a session of 8 days in which 20 students from various schools got together to learn how to make different devices. In the 8 days of learning, the students were able to make mini wardrobes, water pumps, electric sensors, and flashlights.

Tech Incubation: Twende Technologies being awarded first place in MAKISATU.
The ongoing incubation program has proved to be successful since the Sunflower thresher, emerged first place in the National Competition of Science, Technology and Innovation well known as MAKISATU (Mashindano ya Kitaifa ya Sayansi Teknolojia na Ubunifu) in the informal sector category. Pius and Leonard are the innovators behind this technology, and they have big plans for their business. With the business mentorship from KAKUTE, we are confident that they will grow into a successful business.

Summary

Number of people reached: 472
Creative capacity building workshops: 4
Build it workshops: 7
Mentorship and technical advice: 4
Prototypes made: 16

It is because of your support that we have been able to make it this far. We appreciate your contribution to this cause. Please stay connected through our social media for regular updates.

Thank you so much (Asante Sana)!

Nzira and the Twende team 

Our Workshop never ceases to make Magic and this time around it hasn't been any different. 

We have hosted a number of youths through our Creative Capacity Building workshops, the incubation program and pupils through our build-it workshops. Saying our workshop is always busy is cliche since it has always been.

The incubation Program invited 9 amazing engineering students from different parts of  Tanzania who were passionate about developing the prototypes that were once made and left in our workshop. They underwent 3 months of intensive prototyping that led to the fruition of 3 technologies namely; the Winnower, the Sunflower Thresher and the Coconut Oil Extractor.

The amazing job done by these youths is remarkable because these technologies have reached a promising stage in which one (the winnower) already has customers even before mass production.

As part of the incubation program, our students/ innovators underwent a business workshop tailored specifically to equip them with the right skills and knowledge for them to turn their technologies into a sustainable business. We are hopeful that what has happened so far will lead to excellent businesses and ventures.

The Creative Capacity Building (CCB) workshop always has led to the birth of fascinating technologies and the ideas keep on emerging and materialized.

We  conducted two creative capacity building workshops with two different groups of youth who were sent by two partner organization (FUES Foundation and OKOA Generation). These two groups brought different project ideas which are still being worked upon in the early prototyping stage.

The project ideas includeWax mixing device, eggs collector, Dumpling steamer, Irish potatoes peeler and cutter, Vegetable and fruits solar drier, chicken plucker, maize thresher and coffee peeler.

The youths who took part in this workshop were so dedicated that they even came to develop their technologies weeks after the training. This shows how the youth have been inspired into becoming the change our communities do.

Our work is really never done until there is excitement from the young ones after they achieve making new devices. In December 2020, we worked with students aged 8-13 from different schools around Arusha who spent 10 days learning to make different devices like flashlights, battery phone chargers, rubber squeezers and blackboard dusters. After the program, their parents were impressed because the students could actually make the devices they were taught to make. We have also reached out to numerous schools with our LED intro program and they were excited to do more.

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

Hi Twende Family,

I am delighted to write to you and update you with what has been happening at Twende. I hope that you and your families are healthy and keeping safe.

In this quarter, through your support, Twende was able to reach out to 80+ people from different parts of Arusha who attended different programs at different times.

Our programs have been diverse in many ways. We have gone beyond the walls of our makerspace (karakana) and we have been able to reach people in rural Tanzania as well. We have conducted 3 programs outside the Twende workshop that have been fruitful and a huge relief to the participants who were unable to visit the makerspace but the Makerspace also played its usual magic and hosted many programs, participants and visitors and in one way or the other given birth to impressive technologies made from the Creative Capacity Building Workshops, Build-It workshops, the Jamii Technology program and technical mentoring and advice.

We reached out to 25 secondary students through Dorcas, our partner organization working to help local youths by providing opportunities to learn different things to sustain their lives. This group got to learn how to build a bottle opener from a recycled piece of flat bar and made something they can add value and turn it into a business. Apart from making the bottle opener, they also got recycling ideas by seeing what others have done in terms of rubbish recycling, for example, the spirit stove made out of soda cans, flashlight out of recycled water bottles, and blackboard duster from small pieces of wood etc.

Thereafter, we conducted a Creative Capacity Building workshop which invited youths from different parts from Arusha, including some from the Arusha Technical College, as well as community members who joined to share ideas and get to build useful and workable prototypes which are to solve community challenges. This gave the students the opportunity to practice what they learnt in school by putting into reality and also the community and local youths learnt from them through sharing knowledge.

This quarter has been so fruitful that we have piloted the long-awaited Tech Incubation Program where we have started developing 3 prototypes into successful and saleable products. In this pilot, 3 technologies are undergoing prototyping and testing where the champions are teamed with young passionate professionals who'll work together to bridge the technology gap and eventually build a final product.

Apart from calendar programs, we also participated in some big exhibitions including Nanenane which was of great success as we reached many potential people who showed interest in our programs.

In terms of inspiring innovation, we hosted a chapter meeting which aimed to reunite all the Twende alumni to get to know and learn from each other whereby almost all of our innovators shared their progress and success stories and also got feedback on areas of improvement.

Twende also had a role to play in slowing the spread of COVID-19 where we made and donated 10 tippy taps to different public spaces and the project is still up on GlobalGiving (https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/support-local-tech-to-slow-the-spread-of-covid-19/) please support this project to strengthen public hygiene and slow the spread of COVID-19.

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 

Hello Twende Family,

This is such a strange time for all of us but through it all, your support has kept us going. Since the coming of the COVID-19 pandemic, most of our programs came to a halt since most of our participants were school students. Schools were closed and social gatherings were discouraged and so were our workshops.

During the time where programs weren't running, Twende initiated a program in response to COVID-19 in which we planned to distribute 130 foot-operated handwashing stations in public places such as hospitals, market places and orphanages where there is a higher risk of contracting the virus. This means that our maker space was busy since our creativity trainer, Chris Mushi was always here to test and develop technology that will be used to address the pandemic, he also used this opportunity to mentor local artisans on how to make such technology.  To make these technologies available to the public, we posted a COVID-19 response project on GlobalGiving for people to  Support Local Tech to Slow the Spread of COVID-19. We will be grateful if you support the project as well.

After the economy was running and activities resumed, Twende opened its doors in June while adhering to all preventive measures. We managed to reach out to 80+ people from different parts of Arusha who attended different programs at different times. The programs attended include Build it workshops, Creative Capacity Building workshops and use of maker space.

During Build-it workshops, participants are introduced to basic scientific principles which they apply during the workshop. The programme encourages them to be more creative using basic creativity knowledge by bridging the gap between theory and application.

The aim of taking this program is to enable the community to solve existing problems, for example, the most popular build-it projects were the blackboard dusters, rubber squeezers, flashlights, solar phone chargers and spirit stoves. Twende teaches the group how to build one of these during a one-day program which they get to keep the items made for home/school/institution use.

Throughout this program, we managed to reach a total of 45 participants who requested to learn to make rubber squeezers to clean different places including washrooms, classrooms, dining rooms, corridors etc. instead of using pieces of cloth which is tiresome and takes a lot of time.

Through the Creative Capacity Building (CCB) workshop, we were able to reach a total of 52 participants including youth groups and farmers from different villages who started by learning the design process and practice hands-on activities by making useful projects like the maize cone sheller and a bottle opener out of a piece of flat bar, which they test and take home for use.

After two days of training, they get to brainstorm project ideas by referring to the technological problems they are facing in their communities then start designing the solutions by building simple prototypes. Some of the prototypes made include the smart jerk, roasted peanut skin peeler, a device to separate compost from plastic waste, a device that helps tyres get a grip when stuck in the mud, Maize harvester, maize planter, Beans thresher.

Despite the pandemic, Twende has been able to run all these programs and make an impact in our community. This has been made possible through your continued support.

Moving forward, Twende aims to pilot a Tech incubation program in which prototypes will be developed into marketable products so that they can be used to solve social challenges faced by the community. We will start with 3-5 prototypes that will undergo a series of testing and retesting until they are fit to hit the market. Your support has brought us this far and we hope we walk together as we aim to have more local technological solutions to local challenges.