JBFC's Teacher Training

Editor's Note: Last week, we told you some exciting news - our Form 2 students (US equivalent 9th grade), in their first year to sit for the Tanzanian national exams, passed with flying colors outscoring every other Form 2 student in our district. This week's blog from Administrative Director Melinda Wulf talks about the foundation JBFC lays to make that kind of student success possible. And it all starts with our teachers.

 Each year, we spend the two weeks before school starts hosting a teacher development. This is an opportunity that teachers at other schools in Tanzania don’t have. We use our own experience, and bring in experts and materials to help our teachers learn and grow as educators.


This year we are lucky enough to have an educator specializing in literacy with us, Tracy Todd.
Tracy’s background, along with materials provided to us by Sarah Lawrence College’s Childhood Development Institute, helped kick this year’s teacher development off on a strong note.

Day one included a discussion with the teachers about taking your classroom outside and learning from nature and the environment around us. I can’t think of a better atmosphere to implement a program like that.

Thinking back to my grade school experience, the most exotic animal we had exposure to was a third grader's pet porcupine that was brought in for show and tell. The only flowers we had on the playground were dandelions.



These kids have rows of banana trees to learn from, fences lined with passion fruit, and eggplants the size of your head. They get to witness the birth of baby pigs, pluck a chicken, and learn anatomy from a butchered cow.

On day two of teacher development, we had a discussion about values and setting good examples for the students. As we discussed a key value, cooperation, one of our secondary teachers Mr. Cornelly piped up with a suggestion.

We could show the students a bee hive and talk about how the bees work together as a group to create honey. It was a simple suggestion, but it was exciting to see the message from the day before stick with the teachers.

I talked to the teachers at Joseph and Mary about the school clubs we want to have this upcoming school year. Permaculture is a huge initiative at JBFC, not only does it help sustain us, but it teaches our kids skills they can use later in life to provide for their families. So, of course we want to have a permaculture club, no 80s pop band pun intended.

Again, Mr. Cornelly was very excited about the potential of teaching agriculture in the classroom, and then taking them outside to see it in nature. To allow the students to experience it firsthand, rather than read or be told about it is one of the great benefits of JBFC.


We are hopeful these teachings, plans and discussions will carry into the classrooms and ultimately provide an incredible educational experience for our students- one that would otherwise be unattainable in Tanzania!
















Blogger Melinda Wulf is JBFC's Administrative Director.

2014 Outlook: New Year, New Growth

Just thinking about writing this blog got my head spinning in about a million different directions. Anyone who has visited the JBFC campus knows that we have dozens of different things going on each day. And in 2014, we are gearing up to add to that list!

For the past couple of years, we have been preparing for growth, preparing for expansion. We have put a great system in place, tested it, learned from it and now we’re ready to start replicating it. In 2014, we feel it is finally time to take the leap and open up a second JBFC campus! While plans are still being finalized, this is something we are all extremely excited about in Tanzania- we will be able to rescue new girls, educate even more students, and empower an entirely new community.




Even though we are expanding, that does not mean we are stopping at our home campus of Kitongo.

We are more dedicated than ever to improving the education of our students- in part by strengthening our teachers through our various school partnerships and staff developments.






We are more dedicated than ever to self-sustainability- by adding more livestock, crops and trees, so we can continue to save money by eating what we harvest, rather than buying what we eat.


And, we are more dedicated than ever to our girls and look forward to being able to take in five new girls from desperate situations with the completion of a new dorm!



 2014 is already shaping out to be an incredible year for all of us at JBFC! We can't wait to share with you each and every step of the way. As always, we welcome you to Tanzania and look forward to welcoming all of our volunteers to our campus this year!



Remember, the path to ending poverty begins with YOU! Thank you for all of your support in 2013 and we look forward to a great year.



Thank you to Elisa Masso for the second and last picture featured in this blog. www.elisamariphoto.com.


Chris Gates is JBFC's Founder & Executive Director