Computers To Mwaya Secondary School in Tanzania

Published on May 11, 2012 in Chocolate University. 0 Comments

Thank you to our guest Eric Ham for this post. We are thrilled to have Eric as part of our CU group traveling to Tanzania this summer. Without him we would not be able to bring this revolutionary education system to Mwaya Secondary School.

Mission Impossible

One night, as Shawn was explaining Chocolate University and the Tenende, Tanzania project, I believe the theme music for Mission Impossible played in my head.  Shawn was bouncing around some crazy idea about how he wanted to provide an internet based education system to a school in a remote part of Africa that not only is without Internet, but doesn’t even have electrical power.  Most people would have brushed aside his ideas aside as being crazy, but as a former Marine and current tech nerd I said, “LET’S DO IT.”

I won’t bore you with the details, but the plan was basically twofold: gather some gear and some software, and figure out how to power these things.  The scope went from one laptop as a test to five fully loaded classroom laptops and projectors.  In the beginning, power will come through a generator, with bio and solar solutions following close behind.

I have been working in the technology field for over 15 years and the generosity and ingenuity of the IT industry still amazes me.  With just a few requests we were able to acquire most of the necessary equipment: laptops from HealthMEDX; laptop bags from Aztec Computers; and a monetary donation from the Southwest Missouri Association of IT Professionals.  I have also had organizations that have been working in Africa offering their assistance on this project.

There is a lot of work to be done, but we are going to bring something to this community that most of the world takes for granted.  We are going to bring access to knowledge; access that has been denied due to lack of resources, extreme distance, and the feeling that it was an impossible mission.  I can’t wait until I can report back that the Mission is Complete.

I am honored that I have been asked to join this group and this project.  The 13 young adults going on this trip are simply amazing.  The passion they have to make a difference is inspiring beyond words.  Please contribute today.  Show these kids that they are supported by their community and that anyone with a dream and a desire can make an impact.

Semper Fi

Eric Ham

Seeking Support for trip to Tenende Tanzania 2012

Published on February 28, 2012 in Chocolate University. 0 Comments

 

Chocolate University is a neighborhood program we created to engage elementary, middle, and high school students with their local and global community through social responsibility. For the second year in a row, Springfield high school students will travel with Shawn Askinosie, Founder of Askinosie Chocolate, to visit the remote village of Tenende, Tanzania.  Students will meet with cocoa farmers and learn first-hand about Askinosie Chocolate’s sustainable business practices. Perhaps more importantly, they will help implement a sustainable lunch program for the village’s high school students who are currently eating only one meal a day. Additionally, students will work with the Empowered Girls program that Chocolate University funds at the school.

Askinosie Chocolate, along with partner Drury University, selected 13 Springfield high school juniors.  Seven of the students are funding their trip themselves and six of the students qualified for full scholarships.  Chocolate University is attempting to raise $4,000 per student (x 6 scholarship students = $24,000) to cover the cost of the trip.  This includes airfare, ground transport, passports, luggage, clothing, and food – basically, everything. These students exhibit exceptional leadership in their schools and were chosen based on the impact the program will have on their future studies and careers.

The journey will begin on June 23rd, living for a week on Drury Campus and learning about artisan chocolate making and social entrepreneurship at nearby Askinosie Chocolate.  The students will also learn about the culture and language of Tanzania through guest speakers.  The travelers will go home to pack and then fly to Tanzania with Shawn Askinosie, Drury Vice President Dr. Charles Taylor, Dr. Tom Prater, and teacher Donita Cox.  Convoy of Hope’s David Edson will also travel with the group assisting in development of the sustainable nutrition program.

This will be a life changing opportunity for each of these students and your financial support is greatly appreciated.

If interested please send a check to:

Askinosie Chocolate
514 E. Commercial
Springfield, MO 65803

Checks should be made payable to the “Chocolate University Fund.”  The funds are deposited at the Community Foundation of the Ozarks (a 501(c)(3) organization).  Or you can donate online at the Community Foundation http://www.cfozarks.org/ and select the “give online” button.

 

An update on the three-pronged approach for Chocolate University’s involvement with Mwaya Secondary School in Tenende, Tanzania

Published on February 24, 2012 in Chocolate University and Press Coverage. 0 Comments Tags: .
Our guest blogger, Daudi Msseemmaa, traveled to Tenende in August
2011. Daudi and his wife Kellen are directors of Empowered Girls, and
have been involved with Chocolate University’s efforts for the people
of Tenende since 2010.

Soon after the first Chocolate University trip to Tanzania, the students who travelled discussed ways they could help their peers at Mwaya. We identified a problem — that 54 percent of girls were dropping out between the first and second years of secondary school. http://chocolateuniversity.org/index.php/2011/02/07/the-chocolate-university-empowered-girls-partnership/ And together with Mwaya’s headmaster and teachers, we looked at specific ways we can help.

1. Textbooks

Chocolate University donated $5,000 for textbooks for Mwaya students. A few months later, Southeast Rotary in Springfield, Mo., donated another $5,000. We bought hundreds of textbooks from wholesalers in line with the national curriculum, and transported them from Dar es Salaam all the way across the country to Mwaya, which previously had no textbooks.

Headmaster Sedekia called the students to ‘parade’, a sort of morning assembly, to dedicate the books and bless those who donated them. ‘’Before, when we had no books, this could not be called a school,’’ he said. ‘’But now, this can properly be called, a school.’’

Local craftsmen built several bookshelves in a school office, which has become a library. Students and teachers check out the books as they are needed. In the school’s severe shortage of qualified teachers, access to books gives resourceful students a chance.

2. Empowered Girls

The program aims to teach girl students life skills for success http://lenana.net/blog/?page_id=462. The club at Mwaya was founded in January 2011 after a big, eye-opening girls seminar. Chocolate University began funding the program at Mwaya.

Big seminars take place periodically http://lenana.net/blog/?p=368. In most big seminars, hundreds of girls huddle in the shade of a great tree and professionals in the community have dialogue with the students about particular life skills. Smaller internal seminars take place every other Friday. And an essay contest gave girls a chance to put critical thinking skills to work and display what they have learned.

The most recent national exam results for the school show that there’s a long way to go – especially for girls. On the exam, 36 out of 41 girls failed http://lenana.net/blog/?p=711. We want to continue to have a positive influence on the girl students – in ways both measurable and intangible.

A return to Tanzania

Published on December 29, 2011 in Chocolate University. 0 Comments

Guest Blog Post by Chocolate University student, Bryn Prater on her return to Tanzania.

The Africa I first fell in love with is vastly different than the Africa where I lived for five months after high school. When I traveled, occidental safari style, with my family to Zambia and Botswana after my freshmen year of high school, I fell in love with the breathtaking wildlife, the diverse landscape and the genuine warmth of the people. I thought I might return for a second safari someday, but I had no way of knowing that by my senior year I would be even more in love, but with a completely different Africa.

I traveled to Africa for the second time the summer after my junior year with a group of twelve students, two teachers and most importantly a chocolate maker, Shawn Askinosie. Askinosie Chocolate makes small batch, single source chocolate bars, each type made of beans from a village in a developing country. When Shawn decided to develop a bar from Africa, he created Cocoa Honors, choosing twelve students to participate.

We learned about cocoa beans and chocolate making but more importantly, we studied Africa: economies, stability of governments, and transport difficulties. We studied business: fair trade practices, child labor standards and the concept of “a share of the profits”. We also raised $75,000 to fund our trip, and enough resources to dig a deep-water well for the 2,000 person village of Tenende, Tanzania-our destination.

Without meaning to do so, I adopted the idea that we were going there to help the poverty stricken village of Tenende. By the time I stepped foot on American soil ten days later, I realized two things: the villagers had taught and shown me more than anything I could have done for them, and that I had to return to Tanzania for an extended period of time.

During my senior year of school, Tanzania was never far from my thoughts. The lessons I learned of a selfless lifestyle, how it felt to be genuinely welcomed and loved by a group of strangers and the memory of how happy so many of those villagers were despite the virtual absence of material goods, (ones that I had always taken for granted), stayed with me. As I considered a gap year, one thing remained a constant among shifting plans: I would spend a few months back in Tanzania.

I did not realize, however, that being under the age of 18 would create such a problem; many groups and organizations would not even consider taking me. So, I made my own “Tanzanian Experience”. The first six weeks were spent at an education center in Moshi taking intensive Swahili classes and a course on empowerment skills. Road Monkey was willing to include me on a trek to summit Kilimanjaro. Three months of my time, however, was spent working with Empowered Girls, a nascent organization whose primary goal is to teach secondary school girls the life skills necessary to complete their education.

In the five months I spent in Tanzania I learned lessons that no college offers. I experienced what it feels like to be a minority. I had crash courses in culture and language. I learned that alone does not equate to lonely. I searched for grant money, helped find land for a new school and even purchased a cow. I experienced challenges unlike any I had before, and I felt the love of complete strangers.

In this different, unvarnished Africa I found that while some teen themes are universal, many more are not – girls whose fathers want them to marry young for their bride price, and those whose tribes still practice female circumcision. I watched women and girls walk hours a day for water leaving no time for education and met a young Maasai warrior whose desire for, but impossibility of, an education is so great that while talking with me tears fell – Maasai do not cry.

While I have discovered much beauty and joy here, there are a litany of raw images etched in my memory that will stay with me focusing my thoughts on the infinite need. I am left with questions I cannot answer. Who to help? Where to help? How to help? How do we as individuals, communities and governments make these decisions given finite resources and time? There is no correct answer to these questions. I only know that for me to glean my answers, I need an education that teaches beyond the facts, one that helps me learn to ask the right questions, to think critically and analyze options. Maybe then I can return to Tanzania and continue learning.

 

Pipkin Students Get First Taste of Tableya

Published on November 11, 2011 in Chocolate University. 0 Comments

The past few weeks we’ve enjoyed hundreds of wonderful visitors coming through the chocolate factory for both public and private tours. This Thursday was a particularly special visit, a group of our Chocolate University students who attend Pipkin Middle School. A special thanks to Julia Armstrong who leads the Chocolate University program at Pipkin.

As soon as they arrived, we had the students circle around for introductions. One by one they shared their name, what they enjoy learning most in their classes, and their favorite pastimes out of school.

Just as we suspected, this was an active bunch–scholastic interests spanning from math and science to art and humanities. They’re dancers, readers, musicians, care takers to younger siblings, and so much more.

We guided the students through the factory where they saw first hand how we make chocolate from scratch, also having the opportunity to taste chocolate produced from different cocoa origins.

The day before we had received our shipment of over 12 tons of cocoa beans from Davoa, Philippines, along with 500 cases of Tableya! (And, to make for a delightfully busy bean week, we also received 8 tons of beans from Tanzania the day before.) The Davao shipment was particularly exciting to the Pipkin students though because through his travels to origin, Shawn Askinosie connected Pipkin Middle School with a school in Davao, Philippines called Malagos Elementary School.

Pipkin students were responsible for raising the funds to get internet connectivity for Malagos as well as a computer (and it’s the first computer in a school in Davao, Philippines and first connection to the internet.) Using flip cameras that Shawn sent to Malagos, the students in the Philippines are able to communicate with students from Pipkin in Springfield and learn about each other’s cultures. Last year’s group of Chocolate University students from Pipkin researched Filipino culture throughout the school year and held a Cocoa Fair at our chocolate factory ,  open to the public, to share about the Philippines, Chocolate University, and of course offer tastes of the chocolate we make with cocoa beans from Davao, Philippines.

After visiting our factory this past Thursday, this year’s Chocolate University students from Pipkin are brainstorming what they would like their particular learning project to look like. Something tells us it might have to do with a very special new product of ours called Tableya. Made from roasted cocoa beans, milled into a tablet, Tableya is a traditional Filipino drink. You drop the tablet into hot water, add sugar and milk to your liking to have a unique hot chocolate drink!

Well, why Tableya? Many students at Malagos Elementary School are extremely malnourished. Rather than meet their scholastic and technological needs, we wanted to work with the school to make sure that first each student is getting a hot nutritious meal each day. The PTA of the school at Malagos made Tableya for us in Davao (and it’s GOOD! The villages in Davao have Tableya make-offs to see whose is the best!), then the PTA packaged them using labels we sent to them and shipped the Tableya with our shipment of cocoa beans.

They sold each package to us for $1, we are selling them in our store and on our website for $10. ALL $9 profit go to Malagos. By selling only 500 packages of Tableya, we will feed the ENTIRE school at Malagos this upcoming school year. Each package of Tableya provides 232 meals!

In discussing Tableya, Shawn shared with Pipkin what makes this feeding program unique from other donation-based programs: it’s 100% sustainable. There is no donation required, and it’s because of the investment of the PTA of Malagos that this program works. These parents and community members are able to make and sell a product that will feed their children.

Not only did the Pipkin students have a chance to see and learn about Tableya, but Shawn whipped up a batch for them to taste. A few of their responses…

The tableya was one of the most amazing drinks I have ever tasted.  It was more bitter than hot chocolate and it was grainier.  It tasted really good!  -Kate S.

I felt like I was in Davao when I was drinking it!  It was amazing.  –Aubrey B.

The tableya was twenty times better than regular hot chocolate.  It’s much more flavorful and the taste lasts in your mouth!  -Halle F.

I thought it was awesome.  It was delicious, with a chocolate and grainy taste.  It also had a great after taste.  –Nathalie L.