In total, Connected Generation has generated £1,023 for COCO through the sale of ethically produced t-shirts. These funds have made a significant impact to several of COCO’s programmes in Tanzania. Unfortunately, Connected Generation is closing but you still have time to grab a bargain and contribute to COCO's overseas projects before the website closes.
IGP Loans
‘IGP’ stands for income generation programme; microfinance loans are distributed to members of the community to enable households to establish businesses, which generate income. From experience, this income is typically spent on household essentials, such as nutritious food, healthcare and, most importantly for COCO, enrolling children in school.
Connected Generation generated £135 for entrepreneurs to establish businesses in southern Tanzania. This was sufficient for 7 people to begin businesses, all of which are operating successfully. Given that the typical household in southern Tanzania has 4.1 people, it is reasonable to assume that these funds had a positive impact on over 28 people.
The first entrepreneur to benefit from an IGP loan was Nuru Chisanga, a 46 year old mother and grandmother living in southern Tanzania. Nuru has two children and also cares one of her grandchildren.
Nuru’s previous income from farming was insufficient to send one of her children and her grandchild to school. Nuru asked for a loan to open a small shop selling household items which she hoped would enable her to provide her family with an education.
Nuru's business is doing well. She started by selling a few convenience items but has increased her stock to sell stationary and even some household items such as simple stoves and lamps. The income from her business gives Nuru "all she needs for living" and she is delighted to be able to provide education and healthcare for her children. In the future, Nuru hopes to continue to grow her business.
Food Forest
A food forest is a sustainable agriculture environment, in which crops are cultivated, poultry can be reared and even fish can be kept. The emphasis is on environmentally sustainable management of the area to increase yields over time.
A total of £500 generated by Connected Generation enabled the implementation of a food forest at Kindimba Secondary School, which is one of COCO’s Schools for Life.
The Schools for Life programme seeks to replicate the success of Hoja Secondary School in rural Tanzania. Graduates from Hoja Secondary have achieved the highest results in the region of 183 schools for the past three years, and the school is also self-sustainable.
Kindimba Secondary is performing well on the way to replicating the success of Hoja Secondary; the school has enrolled 191 students and 16 teachers despite only opening in January 2015 and even managed to outperform Hoja Secondary in exams for first year students!
The students are benefitting from nutritious food grown in the garden, which helps them to remain healthy and maintain concentration in lessons. Currently the garden is growing maize, beans, banana and a local vegetable called mbaazi. In the future, a fish pond will be established at the site.
Text Books
It is proposed that the remaining funds generated by Connected Generation are used to purchase text books for students at Kindimba.
As already mentioned, students in their first year of secondary school performed exceptionally well. We wish to continue this excellent performance, now that the students have moved into their second year at secondary school.
Text books will give structure to lessons, materials for students to use for revision outside of lessons and also case study examples to consolidate students’ learning. The books will cover a variety of subjects from Kiswahili to Biology and from History to Mathematics.
There will even be some fun books such as ‘Hawa the bus driver’ and ‘Kalulu the hare’, which will help students to improve their English language skills. This is particularly important as primary education in Tanzania is taught in Kiswahili, whereas secondary education is taught in English. This means that not only are students learning subjects to a higher standard, but they are also learning in a second or sometimes third language.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Connected Generation for supporting COCO. The funds generated by Connected Generation have already had a significant impact on 235 people living in rural Tanzania and will continue to benefit many more people in the future.