On the 28th-29th of May 2008 in Warsaw was held a workshop for volunteers who will implement with coordinators Simba Friends the project TEHAMA “Computer technologies as a key to Kilimanjaro region development”. Project’s implementation place is Moshi, located in the northern part of Tanzania. Nine volunteers have been qualified to take part in the project in various terms within the second part of this year. They will be responsible for computer courses and teaching the basic MS Office programmes. Beneficiaries of this project will be first of all teachers of primary and secondary schools, administration staff and youth.

The aim of the training for volunteers was to show them detailed objectives of the project and to give them information about the place where the project will be carried out. The participants of two-days workshop received information about Tanzania: political situation, history of the country, society and about the most interesting tourist attractions. We discussed also basic issues, but important, before departure and after reaching the destination (visa, preventive vaccination, insurance etc).

The second part of the meeting was spent particularly on computer trainings. Explaining the courses programme, teaching aids, rules applicable for teachers and students as well as the photo show, presenting the similar project carried out in Kenya, helped to persuade volunteers to the purpose of TEHAMA project and to dispel any doubts.

During the next day of the workshop Tanzanian culture and tradition was presented in details. A lot of attention was dedicated to explain a problem called “cultural shock” what, hopefully, let our volunteers to pass through this difficult period smoothly.

Talking about possible danger and having a Kiswahili lesson was supposed to help volunteers to prepare themselves better. An important part of the whole workshop were active games. They allow the participants of the project not only to know each other better but also let us share ideas and plans which might be useful in Tanzania.

At the end of the first day volunteers could listen to stories and watch photos of Ania who has spent 4 months traveling through Western Africa. She shared her experiences and told us about fascination of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Finally all participants got the questionnaires summarizing the whole workshop, its need and realization level. The feedback we got from volunteers allows us to think about this training as a good work. We would like to thank all the volunteers for their presence and active participation in the programme. We are also grateful to Tricomp company for making available their office to our disposal.