Tilapia pond success story in Tanzania

In Tanzania we work alongside the Livingstone Tanzania Trust, striving for a better future. LTT and Quest aim to promote sustainable development through education by working alongside local communities. We do this by improving educational facilities, improving the community's health through education and diet, and developing sustainable forms of income to work towards self-sufficiency.

Livingstone Tanzania Trust has used a number of sustainability innovations, most of which can be seen at Wa'angwaray Primary School in Babati, northern Tanzania. After five years of assisting the school with renovations and in developing their school farm, LTT have recently begun the hand-over of management of this back to the school management.  The school and the community have had joint ownership of this project from the very start, it's great to see that this will soon be total.

The school farm has been a great success and recently received the Award for Best Farm in the Babati District. It is also works as a 'demonstration farm', where anyone from the local community can come and observe the different techniques and then replicate the ideas that will be useful for them.

One of the low-cost sustainable techniques developed by LTT have been tilapia ponds. Previously, people were aware of the market for tilapia, a popular fish for eating, but didn't necessarily have the knowledge on how to set up a pond and run it cost-effectively. With the help of Quest volunteers, LTT has led the way and provided the community with this know-how, and it's clear that this has had an inspiring effect.

So far over 20 ponds have already been dug and another 40 are on the way  - but it's not only in numbers that the difference can be seen, but in the story of Hafsa Mpore's son:

A couple of years ago, after having witnessed the success of the tilapia ponds at Wa'angwaray, he decided to set up his own pond, aged just 12.  The proceeds he makes from selling his tilapia are now funding him through secondary school.  Whilst tuition fees in government secondary schools are just TSh 20,000 (around $15), this is often a financial stretch too far for families in this region, some of whom survive on less than $1 a day per adult.  That's the equivalent of someone earning well below minimum wage being asked to stump up nearly £500!

This is the kind of project Quest4Change is proud to support.

WOD Begins: Monitoring Impact

Representing Quest4change, in Hove....  Can you spot me?  

So my official work with Quest4change has started – And picking up from where I left off whilst interning with the charity, I will be working in the office, two days per week, with a spring in my step all the way to summer… 

Continuing the work from last year and the publication of Quest’s 2011 Impact Report, I will be developing a template to move forward with more comprehensive monitoring and evaluation of our projects… With 8 current projects in 7 different countries across South America and Africa, Q4C and its partner organisations are directly and indirectly impacting on peoples, endangered animals and natural habitats of many communities. Since 1996, Quest4change and its partner volunteering organisation Questoverseas have sent more than 2,000 volunteers to various projects across 12 countries, giving direct donations to host communities of close to 1.5 million pounds!!! 

But are we having a positive impact, in all places and at all times? Are we reaching the people and places we said we would? Are they the people and places that can most benefit form our volunteer programmes, and the work of our project partners? We are quietly confident that we are on the right track with what we do, but now, thanks to the funding from Vodaphone WOD, we are able to focus considerable time and effort to these questions, just to make sure. 

Watch this space as the project unfolds over the next 4 months and beyond…

Huge thank you to Holy Trinity Church!

We're thrilled to announce that the Rwanda Children of Hope Project has received an extremely generous award of £5,000 towards the purchase of land for a new home.  The Church Council of Holy Trinity Church in Wimbledon awarded this fantastic donation to Quest4Change as part of our ongoing New Home Appeal.

We cannot thank them enough - this will make a huge difference.

A new plot of land upon which to build a new house will enable Ubaka U Rwanda to completely cut out their current largest outgoing, which is rent, owning their yet-to-be-built house outright.  This will enable the home for ex-street children to extend the level of support they can provide to the 30 boys who live at Ubaka, as well as increasing the number of children and young men supported in education and job training.

Malawi Feeding Centre - six months on...

It can be a bit tricky for volunteers to pop across to Africa to see how their hard work has paid off, so we like to keep everyone up to date where we can ...

The people at Mwandika and Maliro send their love to the 2011 Malawi Summer Team, who built and decorated the fabulous Kumwandika Feeding Centre - check out the latest photos below:

It's magic!

12 Quest volunteers are making their mark on Villa Maria, and are helping Quest4Change reach out to new communities. New families are continuously settling in the shanty town, leaving behind rural lives for what they hope will be a better life, and these are the communities that Quest is most keen to help.

Check out their dance moves... 

  

Only one place left for Brighton Marathon!

Run, run, run as fast as you can - only one place left on the Quest4Change Brighton Marathon team!

Quest4Change will support you with every step of the way, from ideas and help with fundraising to keeping you hydrated and cheering you on on the day!   Check out this page for more info.

What we've been doing this year...

It's the official launch of the Quest4Change Impact Report 2011!!

Got any queries?  Let us know what you think at rose@quest4change.org. 

Gemma to make World Of Difference - biscuits all round!

We're absolutely thrilled to announce that our fabulous charity intern Gemma is a new recipient of the 2012 Vodafone World of Difference grant!!  Whoop!!

This grant means that Gemma can now work for Quest4Change part-time over four months at no cost to the charity - a huge achievement for her and of massive benefit to our projects across Africa and South America

Along with a bit of fundraising support, Gemma's main focus is going to be to establish a workable system of monitoring and evaluation for the projects....What does this mean in normalspeak?  Essentially, a way to ensure our impact remains positive and worthwhile on our projects, communities and volunteers. Importantly, it will also mean we can prove this - and share it with the rest of the world.

Demonstrating impact is one of the most important aspects of doing development today, whether you are a small charity or a large international NGO - and now Quest4Change definitely won't be left behind.  Watch this space!

Check out some of Gemma's handiwork with the Quest4Change Impact Report 2011...