We finished our fiscal year in style!

We had two great events during the fall: A CD release party at The Lamplighter in Vancouver (featuring local hip hop talent and a fierce free style battle) and a sold out Halloween Party at The Legion (featuring some of the best costumes we’ve ever seen). Our Legion event raised almost $2000 for the youth we support.

We want to thank everyone who took the time to come out to these events. As people who run a charity on the side of our ‘real’ jobs, we know how busy you are with your own commitments and that coming out on a Thursday evening takes effort. We also want to thank all of the people who don’t ‘officially’ work for us but nonetheless continue to make invaluable contributions to our efforts. In reference to Halloween, thank-yous in particular to Christian for keeping the tunes pumping all night long, and to Emily for the decorative genius.

Here’s the best news: with your continued support – whether it was volunteering your time and services, paying ten bucks for a ticket to one of our events, buying a CD, or mailing us a cheque – we have been able to house all twenty of our youth in Tanzania for another year.

When Danya returned to Tanzania in August, she was able to renew the housing and school fees of only a few youth. The struggle was to come up with a better option for the guys than the large group house we originally set up. We have learned that this is NOT the best way to do things – at least in Tanzania. As part of the solution to this problem, we are excited to announce that we have brought on two staff in Tanzania in order to help us set up more feasible housing situations for the guys and ensure the sustainability of the Dar es Salaam project in our absence.

First of all, we have brought on David Munkyala as Project Coordinator in Dar es Salaam. Over the past few weeks, David has scoured the streets of Dar es Salaam’s Uswahilini (outlying areas) to secure and pay for housing for all 20 of our youth in Tanzania (this time in the form of rooms for 2). David is 24 years old and has recently graduated from the University of Dar es Salaam with a BSc in Aquatic Environmental Sciences and Conservation. His future plan is to continue his studies with a focus on the management of aquatic resources. We are so lucky to have him with us for the meantime!

Mussa Majita (Ninja) is 24 years old and has been an asset to the Dar es Salaam project from the outset (and even before that when he worked with Danya on her Master’s thesis). Over the past two years he has proven himself highly capable of leadership and focus within the project. It would not be an overstatement to say that we could not have carried out our activities in Dar es Salaam thus far without Ninja’s guidance, and we are excited to announce that we have solidified his role as Project Assistant.

We are excited about the year to come. A project in BC is next up on the agenda and we look forward to diving into that in the summer of 2010. Until then, we hope you will continue to give us feedback and push us in new directions.

Thank you/Asante Sana

Danya, Elisa, Jay, Leah and Greg (as well as Ninja and David in Tanzania)