Update #2: Merry Christmas from Radio Tanzania!

We hope you have all had a wonderful holiday. Now that Christmas is past, you can look forward to much more frequent updates from us! We have so much exciting news from the past couple of weeks. First of all, THANK YOU for helping us reach $2,238 in pledges and FIFTY backers! This is awesome!

Next, our team is growing as more people with amazing talents are hearing about the project and want to get involved. Welcome aboard, Tyler Webb! Tyler is a graduate of the University of Georgia’s Music Business program and he’s passionate about social entrepreneurship. He’s been helping us develop our idea of a revenue-generating music workshop that will train Tanzanians in the digitization and conservation process. Proceeds from music sales will help support these training sessions and provide valuable employment opportunities to local Tanzanians!

Also, we’re going to be offering some EXTRA rewards to backers who help spread the word with awesome Facebook posts, re-tweets, blog mentions, etc. I’m super excited to announce our first three winners: Alec Lovett, Phuong Nguyen, Ashley Epting, and Nina Carter. These three were selected from our backers for their creative posts encouraging others to pitch in. They will each be receiving an extra special reward: the Afro 70 Band cd from the Radio Tanzania archives. Thanks, guys! I’ll be getting in touch soon to get your mailing addresses.

I’m sure more of you have helped spread the word in creative ways. If I missed your awesome post about Radio Tanzania, please let me know! Send us a screen shot at tanzaniaheritageproject@gmail.com. We’ll be choosing new winners every week!

Last but not least, and perhaps the most exciting news of all: I’ve bought my plane tickets for Tanzania! I’ll be in Dar es Salaam from January 9 – February 19, going to the archives, meeting with representatives from the Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation, interviewing musicians, and setting the groundwork for the digitization of the Radio Tanzania archives. I have the personal savings for this trip, and I can’t think of a more meaningful way for me to give back to a culture that’s meant so much to me. But the digitization of the archives and the“Best of Radio Tanzania” compilation CD simply cannot become a reality if we don’t meet our Kickstarter fundraising goal. We have forty days left to get to $13,000. That’s a long way to go but I believe wholeheartedly that we can do it.

Krismasi njema (Merry Christmas in Kiswahili). And as always, thank you for your support!

Rebecca