In the spotlight: Jenga Hub, Tanzania

It all started…

…when I met Nancy Sumari, founder of the Jenga Hub, in Davos Zwitserland in January 2017. We were both attending the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum. I wouldn’t have guessed that we would build such a wonderful partnership when we exchanged cards in the back of a minivan that was transporting us to one of the other sessions. I was immediately impressed by Nancy’s track record, knowledge, intelligence and her kind spirit. A year later, Nancy visited Amsterdam and from then on the Jenga Hub became our official Network Partner in Tanzania.

As we all know, the last year has been full of both challenges and opportunities. The importance of having the right partners abroad became more prominent and visible. The unique circumstances of the global pandemic kept reiterating the programs we were trying to set up, which required us to test, try and continually evolve beyond our initial plans for reaching as many children as we could.

To show the tremendous results achieved by the Jenga Hub during these difficult times, we like to showcase one of their programs.

Project summary:

The project took place in five regions across Tanzania and consisted of a teacher training, school site visits, designathon workshops and an exhibition.

Training teachers

The activities preceding the designathon workshops were the teacher training program. This was a key element to the process, because we believe that, equipping teachers with the necessary skills set that will allow them to interact with technology and assimilate design thinking skills is paramount, in making teaching more efficient and the program more sustainable, as they remain the flag bearers of the program long term. The Jenga Hub managed to train 150 teachers across 35 schools in Tanzania, including in Ifakara, Morogoro, Dar es Salaam , Serengeti and Arusha.

School site visit

In an effort to better serve the stakeholders, the Jenga Hub strives to understand the context in which learning happens as well as the challenges that are faced by both teachers and students in the school setting.

To achieve this, they embarked on school site visits, where the trained teachers are working and spoke with the leadership of each school. They have committed to continue to support the teachers and students through tools and curriculum support.

Designathon workshops

The Jenga Hub set out to deploy the children’s design thinking workshops (designathons), under the themes of Food & Climate Action, Water, Clean Energy & the Environment. The designathons saw the participation of 350 children across participating schools in Ifakara, Morogoro, Arusha, Dar es Salaam and Serengeti, alongside the trained teachers from the training of the trainer program. The children went through the six key stages of a Designathon methodology including Inspire, Research, Ideate, Sketch, Make and Present their ideas to their teachers, parents and the wider community.

Exhibition

In the journey towards digital literacy for all, it is paramount to involve all relevant stakeholders in the education of children and showcase their inventions.

Together with the partners (Jenga Hub, the Ifakara Hub and Designathon Works) the project received the participation of local government officials, parents and members of the wider community. Through the exhibition all these stakeholders could experience the innovations of our young learners and they could offer insights that will positively contribute to the ideas of all the children.

The exhibition also reinforced the need to sustain and contribute to design thinking in all classrooms and schools and out of school.

Impact

During this project, the Jenga Hub managed to train 150 teachers across 35 schools in Tanzania, including in Ifakara, Morogoro, Dar es Salaam , Serengeti and Arusha.

In total 350 children took part in the children’s designathon, meaning they empowered 350 children across 5 regions in Tanzania, to design a better world using technology.

To conclude: Amplifying Impact Globally, by Networking Locally

We always strive to set up rich collaborations with our Network Partners. By doing so we believe that we have the biggest chance to align all the actors in our ecosystem to influence decision makers & policymakers, ensure the voices of youth are heard and empower children to design a better world. We are very grateful and proud of our collaboration with the Jenga Hub because it is a wonderful and impactful example of how we envision our future collaborations with other Network Partners.

Would you like to have more information on how your organization can collaborate with us? Visit our website to learn how. We are always happy to plan an online coffee: anne@designathon.nl