U.S. Ambassador
attends class on life skills
by
Staff Reporter
U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania Mark
Green visited the Tumaini Orphan Vocational Training Center in Arusha on
Friday, November 16, this year and sat in a health class taught by a
third-year Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV).
Since 2006, Tumaini in Usa River
has partnered with the U.S. Peace Corps to host a PCV with prior
experience to lead Life Skills. The training makes the center’s youth
more aware of HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention coupled with the
essential competencies for leading healthy, productive lives, such as
communication, decision-making and relationship skills.
Founded in 2000 in Arusha, the Tumaini Vocational Training Center is one
of the many programs of the Global Alliance for Africa (GAA), an NGO
based in Chicago, Illinois, USA, according to a press release by the US
embassy. It is dedicated to providing support and care to children who
have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Its mission is to provide capacity
building to orphans and vulnerable children so that the youth may enter
the formal economic sector and realize their potential, actualizing
their own personal, social and economic advancement.
The Tumaini Vocational Centre strives to provide orphaned and vulnerable
children in Tanzania access to vocational training, life skills
training, and psychosocial support. The center provides specific
vocational training in: bicycle mechanics, bicycle maintenance and
repair, welding, computer training, secretarial skills, and foreign
language courses in English, French and Spanish.
Tumaini's niche focuses on serving as a self-sustaining bike center
empowering vulnerable youth of Arusha. In addition to teaching Life
Skills, the Peace Corps Volunteer coordinates with the bike shop
manager, assisting with bike sales, accounting and marketing in the
surrounding community. All income from selling the refurbished bicycles
goes towards off-setting school fees for the children.
There are over 200 students, ranging in ages from 16-24, that receive
instruction at Tumaini Orphan Vocational Training Center, and the number
continues to increase each year.
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