Newly Trained Teachers Help Students Address Equal Education and the Environment

Teachers and students are already conducting inspiring projects after a brief period of training in Arusha, Tanzania, where 99% of families use firewood as cooking fuel. Girls are often sent to gather wood for fuel, which leaves little time for school. In addition to discouraging them from pursuing their education, this practice contributes to deforestation. Thanks to their Full-Circle Learning projects, children are now teaching the community to make cow dung patties as an alternative fuel source. Meanwhile, a wisdom exchange partner is preparing to make solar cookers for them to replicate.

Full-Circle Learning came to Tanzania when Olivia Newcomb, of Hood River Oregon, and Maureen Mungai, of Malaga Spain, raised the funds to train the Tanzania teachers. The training occurred at the Dinka School in the winter of 2016.



Olivia, who grew up as a student of Full-Circle Learning from kindergarten on, especially wanted to bring its benefits to orphans from the Your Sisters project, who attend the school. She collaborated with Full-Circle Learning to enlist the Maureen’s training expertise. As a native Kenyan, Maureen speaks Swahili and also trained many Full-Circle Learning Schools in Lesotho and South Africa. In June, 2016, teachers sent word of their first successful projects. Working with the “Habits of Oneness” module, the teachers had designed lesson plans to introduce the habits of Awareness, Teamwork and Leadership to help students apply integrated education strategies to confront their community challenges. The dung patties were just one of the service initiatives the teachers planned as a result of their training.