End of Year Greetings from the Envaya Team

Seasons’ greetings to all our partners, fellow NGO’s and supporters. It is finally the end of another year and we would like to take a moment to reflect on the achievements and challenges of the year 2012.

This year has marked two consecutive years of Envaya here in Tanzania. Within this time we have become Tanzania’s biggest network for NGO’s and CBO’s, with over 1,100 NGOs throughout Tanzania and some in Rwanda, most of which are within rural areas. The growth of Envaya has been organic and self-propagating, as Ngo’s have found it easy to build their own website with Envaya’s user friendly software. Through word of mouth and seminars, about a quarter of all Ngo’s within Tanzania are now using Envaya

This year we have undertaken various projects to enhance the usability of the Envaya website, we have held seminars and also mobilized our team into visiting Ngo’s in their respective offices all over Dar es Salaam.

The Envaya team has worked hard to make the Envaya website more interactive with its public. We have introduced various new features to this effect; like the Envaya News Story which we try to update every two to three weeks. So far we have done various articles that are aimed to informing, advising and inciting discussion within the Ngo community and the general public. We have covered a range of varying topics such as The 2012 National Census, the culture of Volunteerism, Vaccination Week and tips for fundraising and networking for Ngos. In all this, various Ngo’s have given their views, comments and ideas on the issues discussed. 

In addition to this, we added a Volunteer Page, which allows Ngo’s to connect to potential volunteers within and outside the country. The aim of this is to bridge the gap between volunteers and Ngo’s in need of young talent.  At the moment there are about 90 volunteer posts on the Envaya Volunteer Tab. We have also added a Featured News column where we highlight the latest updates from Ngo’s on the Envaya Home Page.

Outside the office, the Envaya team has mobilized itself to visit Ngo’s in their respective offices throughout Dar es Salaam to promote our SMS platform. This platform allows members of Envaya to publish news, amongst other things, using any phone through simple SMS texts.

The greatest challenge as always is encouraging more updates from Ngo’s with inactive websites. We are hoping that with time every Ngo will understand the importance of websites, social media and how it can greatly improve their work. We will continue confronting this barrier as start another year.

This has definitely been a year of progress for Envaya and hopefully for our partners and member NGO’s too. We would like to hear from you too, how has Envaya impacted your work this year? How can we better our services to you and how can you encourage other Ngo’s in the use of social media and the use of their free Envaya website? Share your stories and leave us a comments below.

Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year 2013!