Hey, it's Lee!
Let me give you a quick background of what we are doing and why we are doing it. As you will read further down, I got to spend two months at this school in the spring of 2008. The people there had such an impact on me that I am working with a team this time to work with them again.
Hananasif Orphanage Center (HOCET) is a non-profit orphanage outside of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Founded by local visionary Hezekia Mwalugaja in 2002, HOCET is a grassroots organization created to care for orphans and vulnerable children. Tanzania, currently ranked one of the poorest countries in the world, has an escalating proportion of orphans due to high rates of disease and poverty. HOCET seeks to offer holistic, community-oriented care through education, healthcare, spiritual and leadership development, vocational training, and the arts. Through networking people throughout Tanzania, HOCET works toward securing hope and a promising future for their society's most vulnerable youth.
HOCET started a secondary school in 2006, providing education for orphaned and vulnerable children who can not afford to pay the fees necessary to go to a public school in Tanzania. HOCET purchased 300 acres outside of Dar es Salaam, and has since constructed and currently running a secondary school which focuses on science, entrepreneurship, the arts, and agriculture.
This is where we come in. In the spring of 2008, I spent two months at HOCET. I worked closely with the founder and director, Mwalugaja. Together, we brainstormed possibilities to make HOCET less reliant on individual gifts and sporadic donations and more reliant on self-sustainable projects to provide food and income. Our conversations kept coming back to a chicken farm for local poultry production as the key to the orphanage’s long term success. Essentially, building a chicken farm at the boarding school would provide a sustainable source of food for the students, income for the school, fertilizer for the agricultural program, and an educational tool for the school’s entrepreneur program. After nearly two years of thought, research and discussion, we are moving forward with the project. Mwalugaja is talking with local poultry farmers in Tanzania while I use my resources here in Florida to research and fundraise. Sustainability is an achievable goal, and the logical next step is a chicken farm.
We will keep you updated on all that we do while we are there. When we are in Dar es Salaam, we will be sure to drop by an internet cafe to update you on the progress. God is doing huge things in Tanzania. We are excited to be a part.
Thanks for following.
Lee
Ryan (Pastor of Seminole Christian Life)
April (Urban Planning Masters)
Krista
Rachel (Theater)
Tiffany (Kindergarten Teacher, Oak Ridge Elementary)
Angela (Health Education at UF)
Melinda (Fine Arts Masters) 
Carrie (Nursing)
Geophrey (Tanzanian Citizen, Civil Engineering Ph.D.) 
Galen (Urban Planning, Public Administration Joint Masters Program)
Lee (Civil Engineering)
