UMOJA TANZANIA
Umoja Tanzania Incorporated is a registered NGO in Tanzania and is responsible for managing the day to day running of The Umoja Centre and programme development. The Centre is run by a minimal number of permanent staff with the help of long and short term volunteers. All board members are voluntary. Umoja Tanzania provides financial and annual reports and updates to both Umoja UK and Umoja Australia. (Registration No: 00NGO/00003335).
Read more about our work in the Umoja Information Book 2011-2012
Caroline Goody ~ Co-Founder and Programme Manager
Caroline is from Australia and the UK, spending many years in both countries. She has a degree in International Development and worked for several charities in the UK before coming to Arusha in 2009. After seeing the need for a youth project, Caroline and friend Emma Wagner founded The Umoja Centre.
Caroline has BIG dreams for Umoja...and hopes the centre will be a part of the Arusha community for many years to come.
Gerry Mkemangwa – I.T. Teacher & Outplacement Assistant
Gerry is one of our graduates from the '09 group. Since graduating from our programme, he has been employed here at Umoja as IT supervisor, filing clerk, librarian and general assistant. This year, he has risen through the ranks to become our new I.T. Teacher and Outplacement Assistant; helping his fellow students and ex-students to continue advancing beyond their one year attending our classes as he has. He is paid a decent wage and enjoys favourable working conditions and everyone loves having him around with his infectious smile and enthusiastic nature!
Rose Mkemangwa & Lightness – ‘House Mamas’
Rose (Gerry’s mother) who used to be poorly employed as a ‘Housegirl’ has been working here at Umoja as ‘House Mama’ for the past seven months solely taking care of our staff with meals, cleaning etc. This year, Umoja has been able to provide every student with a fulfilling lunch everyday and Rose’s new workload has been eased by her sister Lightness who, like Rose, was employed as a ‘Housegirl’. These two ‘House Mamas’ work hard to prepare the students’ meals whilst taking great care of everyone here at the centre.
Pascalina Mmari ~ Administration Assistant
Pascalina is a graduate from our '10 group. She was chosen for her great attitude, hard-work and brilliant results whilst a student at Umoja. She is now employed as the Centre's PA and also helps with book-keeping and is our librarian. Hopefully working at the Centre will provide the experience and skill-set that she desires to move onwards and upwards in her career as well as a vital source of income for her and her family. 'Miss Pasc' is already a valued member of the Umoja team!
This year at Umoja, two new fully paid Tanzanian teachers have arrived to aid our cause.
Jonah Bakinikana - English
Jonah comes from the Kagera region of Tanzania and until joining Umoja was teaching in a private English primary school in Arusha. He works hard teaching English to our students as well as the occasional lesson in Swahili language to help our non-Tanzanian staff and volunteers’ communication. He says he thinks the centre is “helpful due to the fact that many youngsters need to be educated for their future development”.
Elinipa Lupembe – English & Key Skills
Elinipa is another new teacher this year. All the way from Iringa, right in the centre of Tanzania, Elinipa was teaching at another school before joining our centre to teach English as well as our essential Key Skills programme; committed to furthering our students’ personal development. She understands just how necessary the centre is to the disadvantaged youths of Arusha: “Education is powerful. Being educated means you own power. To empower youth is to empower society”.
Paulo, Saymon & Isack
With the help of our three dogs (Bengy, Maggie and Dizzy), these three Maasai guards provide vital security to our centre. Paulo has been with us for seven months and comes from Ngarenanyuki, as does Isack who has been here for three. Saymon comes from Monduli and has been here for four months.
Volunteers
Lisbeth Kiehn
Spoken English Tutor, Science Tutor and Key Skills: Environmental Studies Curriculum Coordinator
Lisbeth originally comes from Denmark but moved to Tanzania in June of 2009. She is Umoja’s longest serving volunteer and an indispensable member of staff. She both designs and delivers our Science - putting her background in teaching Biology and Environmental Sciences to good use - and the Spoken English curriculum. In addition to this Lisbeth’s hard-work in planning and coordinating and helped Umoja to implement our first annual ‘Environment Week’.
“Initially I was a little worried about teaching this age group (my experience is with much younger children)… but after a very short time I knew I would enjoy it very much. The students are so motivated to discover new things and are fascinated by everything – they really enjoy learning!”
Umoja Centre would like to express our profound appreciation of Lisbeth for all the help she has provided to the project!
