The Story:
Umonga Secondary School is located in Dodoma, Tanzania where they educate 750 students ranging from 14-20 years old. Unlike the United Kingdom, they have to pay for their secondary education which entails tuition fees from every student. The Tanzanian law is that all secondary education, even there exams have to be taught in English, even though Swahili is their first language, therefo
re it makes it even more challenging for them to pass their exams. The school exceed in certain subjects such as Chemistry, Physics and Kiswahili (Swar-heel-ee), however despite all the effort in teaching, Umonga Secondary school is still considered as a red school, ranked 55/96 within their region. A group of young entrepreneus from Bridgnorth Endowed Sixth Form, started a social enterprise ‘Taste of Tanzania’, with the help from coffee entrepreneur Carrie Bates, founder of The Little Coffee Bag Co. They developed an organic, fully bodied coffee bag which were individually wrapped providing maximum freshness. The coffee is sourced from local farms close to the school, at the foothills of the Himalayas, which allows Taste of Tanzania to also support the local farmers as well as the school. The group designed their own logo, packaging and found local businesses which would stock their products. Together they all attended local events in order to raise as much money as possible as well as company awareness within their community. The aim was to send 100% of their profits back to Umonga Secondary school, allowing the school to provide their students with extra lessons in English and Maths, hopefully this extra money will allow the students to gain qualifications and have a bright future. Since the business started in 2013, Umonga Secondary School have been able to provide 33 hours of extra lessons for their students. With the financial backing from Bridgnorth Endowed School and Carrie Bates herself, the business has expanded and become popular within the local community. The company has taught the young entrepreneurs different aspects of business ranging from team work to marketing campaigns, with many of them now wanting to become entrepreneurs themselves in the future. Each year, the leadership of Taste of Tanzania is passed down to that year’s year 12’s. The group last year were the ones to start everything off and this year’s students are expanding and getting the word out ready for the next students to take it to new heights. It is designed to be made just like a cup of tea. This provides the ease of making without any need for beans or granules. Currently we only sell the one organic blend of coffee however we are starting to branch out into decaf coffee and possibly even hot chocolate. We sell the coffee in boxes of 10, 20 and 50. You can however buy larger bags of 100 bags and also 300 for commercial use (or if you really like the coffee). We also sells bags of beans and ground coffee as well as some fantastic gift packs. You can purchase and enquire about all of this, as well as donate, through our website. http://tasteoftanzania.co.uk.
