18th September 2015
Good morning supporters and friends of Testigo!
We've been super busy here in Tanzania, having just finished permaculture programmes in 'Olchurai' and 'Loiborsoit A' village, where 104 and 134 people were trained respectively, indirectly benefiting and many thousands more!
Here's a quick update of what else is making news at Testigo.
Tracey Sawyer wins 2015 SWECO award
Congratulations to Tracey Sawyer, Testigo's founder, who recently won an award at the national 'Sustaining Women's Empowerment in Communities and Organisations' (SWECO) awards ceremony. The ceremony was held at NSW parliament and attended by over a hundred people, gaining Testigo valuable exposure. Tracey won in the category of 'Empowering Women in a Community or Organisation Overseas'.
You can read more about the award here.
Our new operations assistant
In May this year 'Goodluck' joined Testigo as an operational assistant. He brings with him experience from an AusAID/AFAP course on programme monitoring and evaluation he completed in Nairobi. He has proved extremely valuable to Testigo so far and we feel very fortunate to have found such strong local talent.
AusAid funding withdrawn
Unfortunately it's not all good news this time. As the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) implements a policy of reducing and re-prioritising their international aid and assistance budget, Africa has been de-prioritised and Testigo has been advised that it will miss out on funding in this financial year. We are fortunate to have some other funding channels, but this will nonetheless leave a large hole in our budget and seriously impact our ability to deliver life-changing programmes in Tanzania.
In response to this, we are planning to increase our share of funding from public donations. You can help by donating to us directly here.
We've just hit 1,000 'likes' on Facebook!
Help us gain more exposure and secure more funding by 'liking' our Facebook page.
Meet Nengipa Oloshiru
Nengipa is a woman from Olchurai village near Arusha, the first of nine wives to Oloshiru. She joined Testigo's permaculture training programme when it came to her village earlier this year.
Prior to participating in the programme, Nengipa eked out a living by selling charcoal sourced from burning trees. Not only was the work hard, it was also illegal, but since women are prevented from owning livestock in Masaii culture, Nengipa had no alternate income source.
Testigo trained Nengipa on how to grow vegetables and harvest rainwater using organic permaculture principles. She was taught how to prepare soil using cow manure, how to make keyhole gardens, sack gardens and double dug beds, how to utilise grey water and how to plant, grow and harvest a range of vegetables.
Nengipa no longer creates and sells charcoal, instead she relies fully on the output from her home gardens. From the income she makes selling her surplus produce she plans to put her son through school. Nengipa said Testigo's project shines a light on what was a dark situation.
That's all for now, thanks to everyone for your continued support!
The Testigo Africa Team
P.S. 'La Chica' is blogging again! You can read her posts here.