Hi there everyone!
Thanks for checking out the updates on my blog through GO!

For those of you who received the GO! Fall newsletter, I hope you enjoyed the news stream! Anyone who did not get a copy, please contact me with your email address so I can add you to my list and keep you in the loop!

Hope everyone had a good rest of the summer and is into the fall routine full swing. Its been a busy month for me, keeping up with all the GO! activities and events planning, and back to school and work of course too! A few weeks ago, I headed out to Winnipeg to stay with Amanda for a few days, where we put our heads together to outline a fabulous next few months for Growing Opportunities International. You'll find some of our most recent work as updates in the newsletter, but stay tuned for more news at it unravels through our work this fall and winter.

It's a busy semester at school, but I'm really finding that my studies are tying in nicely to the charity work. My Masters concentration is in Global Health, and it's really interesting all the components of International Development that we're learning about that I am able to apply first hand to GO!.

The progress we've made in the last few months has just been unreal, and again, I thank all of you for your support and contributions. From your kind words to volunteering at events or donations- everything helps and the development of Nyumba ya Usujaa "Hero Home" relies on your continued support. So big up to all of you, thank you so much!

Enjoy the fall- a season of change. Let's work together to bring positive change to developing communities, and work together as the GO! Team!

wewe unataka vizuri...Wishing you well!

~Mandy L

New confirmed name for the current Tanzania Project:

Nyumba wa Shujaa!!! = Hero Home!!!

:) *Love it* :)

The youth who will be attending Nyumba wa Shujaa truly are heroes. Not street kids. Not orphans. Heroes. Their perseverance, fight, and excitement for life make them the next generation of heroes who will undoubtedly work together to bring great things not only to their own futures, but to that of the entire community.

Stay tuned for more exciting progress, and remember to follow us on Twitter @contactgo or on Facebook: Growing Opportunities International

We wish you well!

M

As the days go by, we are getting closer to our goal!!!
With many successful summer events over these past few months, it's time for me and Amanda here at GO! to turn a page and get ready to kick it into gear this fall!
This fall we'll be networking it up with lots of interesting people at the Winnipeg Community Fair, the Fraser Valley Business Mixer, and hopefully some more events around Vancouver!
I'll be starting school this September again as well, so I'm really excited to spread the word to all my classmates!

Hope everyone had a great summer, and remember- always feel free to contact me with any ideas or thoughts you have!

Look for our Fall Newsletter in your inbox in the coming weeks, and if you're not on my list, hit me up with your email address and I'll be sure you're included! :)

We wish you well!

Mandy

The last few months have been so full of excitement and action packed its hard to know where to begin. Since founding Growing Opportunities International (GO!) with Amanda, I have been keeping busy creating and planning new events, establishing the ground work for our cause, and trying to keep everybody up to date and informed about the latest GO! News.

I can’t begin to tell you all how excited I am to be working day in and day out on GO! Stuff. To each and every one of you who have helped out, contributed or supported in some way, a huge THANK YOU!!! We could not have gotten to this point without you. Every day brings new challenges, new ideas, new excitement, and new tasks, but this also provides me with the motivation to continue on, working hard on projects and events, and keeping you all informed.

Building and growing together, we can make a difference. This can be seen in the GO! Gallery from our pilot project, the St. Laurent Nursery School in Rwanda, where each brick, carefully crafted by hand, was placed one on top of the other and one paint brush stroke at a time, the school finally got built and stands successfully utilized today by over a hundred children.

This initial project is the first of many exciting and sustainable projects that we plan to build and develop. I invite you to stay with us for a fun-filled, rewarding, and amazing ride that will impact the lives of children and youth all over East Africa, and will undoubtedly provide lasting partnerships that will continue to grow and bond as together we

Believe in Ideas, Collaborate with People and Develop Communities!

…..GO!

Stay tuned for more updates and blogs!

Hadi tuonane tena… [until we meet again]

M

This is the end of week 7 we have only one more week left in Tanzania. I can’t believe how quickly our programming has gone by. I feel like we have definitely made some progress with our sessions. This past week we started writing our final reports, and I had a chance to revisit the final reports done by the last phase, and it looks like we have (for the most part) continued on nicely from where they left off, and added new activities and ideas to the sessions that past phases had not done. This is evident from the enthusiasm and interest that was shown by the majority of the youth in all the programming sessions I facilitated. During our debrief session after the end of week 8, I’m sure I will have a lot more insight into overall progress and personal reflection, but at this point I can definitely say I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned a lot personally, and in terms of global health and development as a whole. Some things may or may not be specific to where I have lived, although there are a lot of parallels that exist even between my native developed country, and this country that I have lived in for a short period of time. There have been many challenges along the way, but also a lot of achievements and successes. I have taken the time to prepare my overall experience in a PowerPoint presentation and would be more than happy to present this document to anyone if you are so interested when I get back.

This weekend we’re hosting our second talent show, but this time it’s up island in the more rural community of Mahonda. The youth from Mahonda are an exceptional group of young people, each one very charismatic, charming and enthusiastic. I’m sure it will be a lot of fun and I will post some pictures from it if I get a chance next week before we leave Zanzi. Next week is going to be jam packed with final editing of our reports, packing, and tying up loose ends in the community, but hopefully I get a chance to post a few pictures and another entry. If not I’ll see you all soon! It will be good to get back to Canada, I can’t wait to hear whats been going on with everyone at home while I’ve been away I’ve missed everyone so much! : )

We had a slight change in our debrief plans, and it looks like we’re going to get a chance to travel inland to Morogoro after all. I’m really excited about that, it will be a great experience to see the differences between the two locations. From what I understand and the pictures I’ve seen Moro is a mountain town and not as developed or touristy as Zanzibar is. So it will be an interesting comparison and experience, even though we’ll only be there for two nights. I think I may have a day available to do a Safari while I’m there, which will be a bit different from the Safari’s we’ve done here on the island. Over the past 7 weeks on the island I’ve seen some neat things that the island safaris have to offer- giant turtles, dolphins, amazing species of fish, manta rays, monkeys, birds, reptiles, its been great. But if all goes well and I get to do the safari inland it will be more along the lines of elephants, lions, zebras, hippos, alligators, giraffes, etc. So that would be nice if we got a chance to do that- the girls from Morogoro got to do one and they really enjoyed it. So fingers crossed.

I’m actually really looking forward to our debrief session overall though. It will be a fabulous opportunity to reflect personally and professionally on the successes and challenges of our programming phase, and share thoughts and experiences with the other volunteers. By the time our debrief has finished and all our final reports are done I will have a good overall presentation of my work overseas.