1 - Thato Day Care Center: Upgrade
South Africa, 2013, Education
Last year we renovated Thato Preschool and daycare. This year we installed a jungle gym to encourage gross motor skill development. We also put in a rainwater catchment system of gutters, pipes and a storage tank. It will reduce the need to carry water from a centralized distribution point. TGUP volunteers helped with the work.
- Project Cost $750
TGUP Partner: COPT
2 - Letabong Preschool: Upgrade
South Africa, 2013, Education
We painted the walls with educational murals and installed shelves for books, games, and educational materials. Then we built cribs for the nap room. After painting the outside of the school we installed playground equipment, including monkey bars and a jungle gym. The children were amazed when they saw the improvements!
- Project Cost $750
TGUP Partner: COPT
3 - Nthabiseng Preschool: Upgrade
South Africa, 2013, Education
Nthabiseng was a good preschool with excellent teachers but the building looked drab. We painted the inside and outside walls and hung educational murals and posters. We also built shelves, and assembled tables, chairs, and baby cribs. The school looked very unexciting when we arrived, but now looks bright and inviting.
- Project Cost $750
TGUP Partner: COPT
4 - Lesedi Preschool: Upgrade
South Africa, 2013, Education
At Lesedi Preschool we painted walls, added murals and installed shelves, tables, chairs and hanging racks for backpacks. We also re-painted two jungle gyms, the name board and the outside fence. We worked on a weekend so the school didn't have to close, and once the paint was dry we delivered new educational supplies.
- Project Cost $750
TGUP Partner: COPT
5 - Nthabiseng Preschool: Upgrade
South Africa, 2013, Education
Earlier work had upgraded the interior and exterior of the school. In this project we installed monkey bars and a jungle gym. The combination makes for a world of difference in how the students experience their school. The children were intrigued by the equipment, but it didn't take them long to learn how to use the playground!
- Project Cost $750
TGUP Partner: COPT
6 - Food Storage: Upgrade
South Africa, 2013, Infrastructure
Good daycare and preschool places are desperately short in the area, so in order to offer daycare to as many families as possible, the carers needed a place to store food and to use as an office. We installed a storage unit that came with two windows, and laid cement floors, installed shelves, and strengthened the door.
- Project Cost $750
TGUP Partner: COPT
7 - Welfare Office: Upgrade
South Africa, 2013, Infrastructure
We purchased a storage unit and had it installed for use as the office of a local social welfare group working in the township of Tembisa, a poor area about half way between Johannesburg and Pretoria. A cement floor was put down, shelves were installed, and the door was strengthened. They can now add furniture and supplies.
- Project Cost $750
TGUP Partner: COPT
8 - Manyesa School: Scholarship
Malawi, 2013, Vocation
Like Eliza Milenya, two years before, we sent Alex Nasawa to the Malawi National Teacher's College to earn his teaching credential so he could teach at the school in Manyesa village. He has completed his training and we have now reduced the student/teacher ratio at the school from 180:1 to 60:1. Thank you Los Altos teachers!
- Project Cost $600
TGUP Partner: Kasimu Education Fund
9 - Proyecto Itzaes: Septic and Water
Yucatan, 2013, Water
We installed a water well, and a septic system for bathrooms, in Chicxulub Pueblo, on the Yukatan Peninsula in Mexico, so that the Proyecto Itzaes site would have a working bathroom. The only previous option was to go in the backyard, and that was spreading E.coli. Now they have a sanitary solution, and a safe water supply.
- Project Cost $1500
TGUP Partner: Proyecto Itzaes
10 - Proyecto Itzaes: Library
Yucatan, 2013, Education
Too is a very small pueblo and the Proyecto Itzaes library is the only outside resource for the school. The old floor at Proyecto Itzaes had crumbled and the dust was unhealthy as well as destroying the books, didactic materials and laptops. After removing the ancient, deteriorated, flooring we laid a new cement floor.
- Project Cost $500
TGUP Partner: Proyecto Itzaes
11 - Manyesa School: Solar Lights
Malawi, 2013, Education
We installed the village's first-ever electrical system at the village school at Manyesa, in southern Malawi. It is a solar collection and storage system that uses panels on the school roof, and batteries, to power LED lights for two classrooms. This enables the classrooms to be used for community meetings and evening events.
- Project Cost $5000
TGUP Partner: Kasimu Education Fund
12 - Tepeyac School: Classroom
Nicaragua, 2013, Education
Tepeyac School was too small to accommodate all the students at one time, so they had to attend school in shifts. This caused a strain on families that had children attending school at different times of day. We built a classroom so now all of the children can attend all day, and a kitchen so the students can have lunch.
- Project Cost $8000
TGUP Partner: Seeds of Learning
13 - Tembisa Township: Computer Lab
South Africa, 2013, Education
We provided 10 netbook computers to populate a computer lab in the Johannesberg township of Tembisa. The lab provides vocational computer-based training to hundreds of local students and job aspirants. Graduates of the training programs receive a certificate of accomplishment and are able to apply for better jobs.
