Music Day

December 1^st 2009 was a music day at Jobortunity. Magare the musician came by with a friend. We made music in a group and every group had their own music style. Magare came to each group to make a beat with his guitar. I was surprised about how fast he could make a nice song. In just a few minutes we were making music like a professional musician.

After a nice day of making music Magare left and said goodbye to everyone. He promised to come back soon to make more music because music make us to have a confidence in our daily life.

Written by Method Raymond - Jobortunity student

Assessment Day

On this day the students were taken to the assessment room at Jobortunity. Jobortunity uses the hand to explain the HI5. The first is the thumb, it stands for a positive attitude. The second is the pointer finger that is for direction in life.The third is the middle finger that stands for being proud of what you have in your life. The fourth one is the ring finger that represents loyalty and being a team player. The last one is the little finger that states that you have to take small but smart steps. At this assessment of course every student had to participate and got result. We enjoyed this this very much, because it helps us to know where we came from, where we are and where we are going.

Written by Hezron Peter, Jobortunity student

Four of our team members on our first day with students! The Jobortunity team treated the students to a circus act. LADIES AAAAAND GENTLEMAN, WELCOME TOOOO JOBORTUNITY!!!!! We introduced each other, shared a bit of strange information about each other and each of us did a magic trick (Kim can hold a spoon with her nose and Frida (mama Cook) is a great singer)! The students (and us!) really enjoyed it. After that it was time for the students to get to know each other, we had a very active introduction program.

Week 4, we can't believe how time flies. Students are doing well. They seem to get used to the terminology that Jobortunity is using: Portfolio, PDP (personal development plan), Self-reflection etc. Slowly but surely we see that they are getting the drift of things, especially by the (critical) questions they are asking. Great!

We've had our first guests as well. Magare and Aisla (from the Tanzanian band: Warriors of the East) came to help the students to put music to Jobortunity songs they've written. It was a team work and planning assignment which turned into four excellent songs! The songs have the following themes: A welcoming song (for guests, so please come visit us and the students will sing it for YOU!), a birthday song, the Hi5 song and our Jobortunity song. It was great fun and of course the afternoon ended with four excellent performances and after that Magare treated us to one of his own songs and everyone joined on the dancefloor! Pictures will follow!

Than we had a guest speaker from SIC (a local NGO) who came to speak with our students about HIV/Aids, causes and prevention. It was done in an interactive ways and everyone joined in the conversation/discussion and we had some laughs along the way as well, despite the seriousness of the topic.

Five different activities in teams throughout the day. Finding out if the student fit the student profile: are they between 17-23, are they basic literate, do they speak basic English, a basic math test, and very important for Jobortunity, are they motivated? Are they keen to no longer be a victim of circumstances, but do they want to travel the road towards self -reliance?

The Jobortunity team is busy registering the students, handing out name cards and answering questions.

The first selection day, very exciting for all involved!

Up and running!!

Finally!
Here we are to introduce the Jobortunity Training Institute in action!
We’ve been extremely busy, here in Moivaro, Tanzania to get the organisation up and running, but now we have something fantastic to show for it!

In a nutshell, this is what happened:
Jobinterviews with Tanzanian trainers and on September 14 we kicked off with Jobortunity’s Training-of-Trainers program. During this program we started the selection procedure to find Jobortunity’s first group of students. We sent out our student profile to local organisations to help us with the search. Lots and lots of students showed up!
After two more very active selection days, we held our one-on-one interviews with the 40 selected students.
Since two weeks we now have the students in the house and it is FANTASTIC! What an energy in the building, the students are very eager and keen to participate in all the activities being thrown at them. This is what the year filled with preparations and fundraising was for, we are now where we envisioned to be, with all sorts of new challenges and expectations ahead of us.