Ngorongoro Bicycle Race October 2010

The ZARA Charity’s newest project aims at making a change to the lives of the Maasai women in Karatu. Whereas great improvements have been made in the education of Maasai men, the women are poorly lacking behind, due to their burden of a traditional inferior role within their community.

Therefore, Zara Charity wants to build a Maasai Women’s Vocational Training Educational Centre in the highlands of Karatu. Certain skills can help these women to rise above their restricted positions in society and to grant their family a better living by establishing their own business or getting employed. Eventually, they can realize their full potential and be empowered to pursue their own dreams and ideals.

To raise funds, Zara Charity is organizing the “Make a change:  Ngorongoro bicycle race 2010” which will take place on the 31st of October 2010 to finance this project. You can participate in this race, the participation fee is US$20.

There will be two routes, one will be for professionals and it will be on asphalted surfaces only. The other route will be for hobbyists; the route can be used with regular bicycles that tourists can rent from the Arusha Bicycle Club.   

The exact route description will be published on time, it will probably be from Makuyuni – Ngorongoro gate – Karatu town (distance around 40 km). Read more about it here.

ZARA Tours also offers a special package including participation in the race.

ZARA at the Geotourism Challenge 2009

ZARA was nominated to participate in the National Geographic Geotourism competition rewarding tourist businesses for practicing sustainable tourism. Please check out our entry to find out more about our efforts as we prepare to enter the final round of the competition! Once we’ve passed to the final round we will let you know, because then it’s up to you to vote for us!

http://geotourism.changemakers.com/en-us/node/22146

Ngorongoro Half Marathon April 18th – register now!

ZARA wants to remind everyone interested in finding out his or her personal limit taking part in a sports event in one of Africa’s most beautiful regions that the 2nd Ngorongoro half marathon (21 km) will take place on April 18th, 2009. It is still possible to register as a participant, which is free of charge. Everyone participating will get a 50 US$ discount on any ZARA safari or climb. Even if you’re not into participating yourself, it will be a lot of fun to cheer on the many local and foreign runners!

Please have a look at our original posting about this sports event which is arranged by Minnesota International Health Volunteers (MIHV):

http://zaratours.wordpress.com/2008/09/08/2nd-ngorongoro-run-to-be-held-on-april-18th-2009/

If you would like to support the work of MIHV, you can find more information about their work in the documents that you can download here as a ZIP file.

2nd Ngorongoro Run to be held on April 18th, 2009

Minnesota Health Voluteers with the support of ZARA will be organising the second Ngorongoro Marathon on Saturday, 18th of April 2009. Runners will make their way through one of the most beautiful and unique landscapes on earth, ending at the mighty Ngorongoro Crater. Participants can run the full half marathon (21 km) as individuals or as part of a team running a fraction of the race. Tourists and locals are welcome alike.

The aim of the run is to raise awareness and funds for the fight against malaria. Malaria affects between 300 and 500 million people every year, over 90% of whom live in Africa. Malaria kills over one million every year, but there can also be debilitating effects to the survivors. Women who become infected during pregnancy run the risk of having low birth weight babies, may suffer from anemia, premature births, birth defects, still births and spontaneous abortions. Young children can be left with neurological after-effects and learning disabilities.

If you take part in the run, you can book any ZARA safari or climb for a discount of 50 USD. First, please contact Jolene Mullins, Tanzanian Country Director of Minnesota Health Volunteers at mihvtanzania@gmail.com to book your participation in the run and inform her about the time you expect you need to run the half marathon. Runners will be grouped into three speed groups depending on their estimated pace. Then, book your ZARA Tanzania adventure  (before or after the run) online through the ZARA website and mention that you take part in the run to claim your discount.

Labour Day celebration 2008 in Karatu

Below we present some photos of this year’s Labour Day Celebrations which took place 1st of May 2008 in Karatu. After a song of the students of the Arusha College Institute of Hotel Management and some local dance performances, Emmanuel Gabriel was awarded “Best Employee of Highview Hotel” and received a prize from the district commissioner of Karatu.

 

Highview Hotel is part of “Face of Tanzania”

The ZARA Highview Hotel Karatu was the location for the regional audition of the Tanzanian beauty contest “Face of Tanzania”, the first ever Tanzanian reality TV model search competition. The show, which was aired twice a week for a month, showed the semi finalists in a model camp where the girls were given model related activities. Part of the challenges was a spectacular photo shooting in the Ngorongoro crater.

Irine Kiwia, director of the show thanked Highview Hotel for the sponsorship, support and warm hospitality given. The voting public has now chosen 5 finalists who are currently in South Africa to learn about the international modelling industry.

The contest also has the aim to promote self-awareness and empowerment to young girls. The organisers believe that if a young woman is self-aware of who she is, what greatness she is capable of achieving and how much she can be in control of her life she will take initiative to self-develop herself, be cautious of diseases especially HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, steer clear of unplanned pregnancies and instead work towards ambitions that will not only develop and benefit her but the nation in general.

    

1st Ngorongoro marathon – the race against Malaria

After the run, the participants receive water and energy cookies, and get to know their result. In total, there were 171 participants, 4 of them females. 

The winner and 2nd and 3rd placed, along with the director of the Minnesota International Health Volunteers (on the left), and on the right the regional commissioner of Arusha and the district commissioner of Karatu. The medals had been donated by ZARA Tours and Highview Hotel.

Leila Ansell, director of Highview Hotel, along with ZARA and Highview staff who were helping with the organisation and infrastructure of the event.

The first Ngorongoro marathon which was proudly sponsored by ZARA and supported by ZARA manpower took place on March 21st, 2008. The run was arranged by Minnesota International Health Volunteers (MIHV) and had 171 active participants, four of them were females, making  their way through one of the most beautiful and unique places on earth, from Lake Manyara to Ngorongoro Crater. MIHV hopes the race will become an annual tradition and bring in thousands of participants in the coming years.

The race had the purpose to raise funds for the fight against malaria. Although there are the means to both prevent and treat malaria, the disease remains the number one killer in Tanzania and kills one child every thirty seconds. Malaria can also have debilitating effects for the survivors. Women, who become infected during pregnancy run the risk of having low birth weight babies, may suffer from anemia, premature births, birth defects, still births and spontaneous abortions. Young children can be left with neurological after-effects and learning disabilities.

MIHV is implementing a five-year Child Survival Project, with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). MIHV has an innovative approach to promoting child and maternal health, which includes establishing Survive & Thrive Groups, which are support groups for single, young mothers to encourage healthy behavior; MAISHA (Men Active in Sustaining Health Action – Kiswahili for “life”), a program which strives to inform and involve taxi drivers as emergency transport to health facilities and encourages them to convey health messages to their passengers, family and friends; and Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Centers, which will provide confidential counseling centers for mothers where they can learn about nutrition, breastfeeding and how to help prevent endemic childhood diseases, like diarrheal diseases, respiratory infections and malaria.

http://www.mihv.org/

Msamaria Kids move into bigger and better building – however help still needed

Around a year ago, Folkward Mapunda opened the Msamaria Center for Street Children to give a home to street children from Moshi and Arusha. He started by renting a small house for 25 children in Msaranga which gave them shelter, but was too small for much else. There was no kitchen, so food had to be prepared on a wood fire outside. Classes were held in the dormitory, in a very small room, and also outside.
 
With the coming of the rainy season, a move to a better site was necessary. On March 26th, 2008, Msamaria Center moved to Rau, in a site previously used as a Children’s center. The new site is bigger and has a large dormitory, large rooms for classes, an enclosed kitchen, a large covered shelter and a playground.

Although the site is bigger, renovation and supplies are much needed. Repairs to the supporting structures of some buildings are necessary for safety, and painting is needed inside and out. The children presently sleep on mattresses on the floor, and classrooms are bare without desks or chairs so that the children have to carry out their schoolwork on the floor. After a heavy rainfall recently in Moshi, the gutter surrounding the Center got blocked by rocks, tree trunks and rubbish and caused a flood.  By the time the children and staff were through with clearing it out the next morning, their clothes were in tatters. 

Zara and other individuals and companies have donated immediate money to meet the basic needs of the children. However, any funds, food, and clothes are still very needed and would be much appreciated.  If you can help Msamaria or require any more information, please contact Mr. Mapunda directly emailing to infomsamariakids@gmail.com or volunteer Karen Cassini at kcassini@gmail.com.  

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Maasai suffering from ashes erupted by volcano Oldoinyo Lengai – ZARA helps

Over the past 30 years near-continuous effusion and mildly explosive eruption of natrocarbonatite lava from vents inside the crater, sometimes overflowing over the rim, have been taking place. During the past months however, activity seems to increase: Several powerful ash plumes rising up to 14 kilometres have been ejected in 2007 and 2008.

The ashes make it difficult for the Maassai living in the area – especially during the dry season – to find good pastures for their cattle. In February 2008, a lack of food was evident and Zara responded with some immediate action: Maasai employees of Zara Tours were chosen to find out about the needs of the Maasai living in the affected areas and provided with a car and money to purchase corn, sugar, rice and other food items to assist their tribal members.

Read here the Oldoinyo Lengai activity report.

World Classroom Part 2

A second group of students from Yew Chung International School of Hongkong and China arrived in Karatu in February 2008 to continue what the first group started in November the year before: donating cash and materials, and personally assisting in building a new classroom for the Mlimani secondary school outside Karatu Town.

Many villagers came to bring small gifts to the visitors from the Far East. Mr. Edward Hepting, spokesperson of the group, explained that after their journey to Africa, the first group of students had set up an African display at the school. It has the aim to inform their fellow students about the help project in particular and about Tanzania more generally and therefore acts to create awareness of the needs of the country and as an ambassador of cultural learning and understanding. Mr. Hepting further said that many of the students wrote comments in the university’s journal about how much they enjoyed their mission in Karatu. He thanked Leila Ansell, director of ZARA’s Highview Hotel Karatu and her staff for the logistic support and friendly welcome.

You can read about the first group from Hongkong here.