NGO Lifted Strong - Traditional Tanzanian Cooking Class

Wonderful experience, wonderful women helping other women. My heart and belly are full. Thank you! I learned so much about cooking and challenges facing young Tanzanian women. And what you can do to help.

Was a nice experience, the food was amazing good. Asanthe sana🙏 thanks for your time and showing me how to cook tanzanian food🌻

Wonderful experience! Joyce and Eva run this school with their students. It was amazing to hear about the work they are doing to help the girls and community. They were great communicators and made sure we had the best experience like asking what we wanted to learn to make. We chose mandazi as one of the dishes which was amazing! We got to use local tools like the little “goat” stool to shred coconut and a wooden whisk to blend the banana soup. They also helped to arrange our pick up and return to our hotel. And they packed up the extra mandazi donuts for us to enjoy with breakfast the next day. What a great way to start our Tanzania holiday! Thank you!

Such a great cooking experience! Joyce and the ladies were super-efficient in accomplishing an entire meal (from scratch, i might add!) in the time allocated. Joyce is the spearhead for a wonderful uplifting group for women and I am so impressed with her giving heart! Definitely recommend this experience!

An amazing cooking experience led by some beautiful, strong women. From the beginning we were welcomed with open arms and friendly smiles. We spent the next few hours learning how to prepare and cook samosas, pea soup, chapati, and a chicken curry. All the recipes were so tasty and of course we had to try them all, unfortunately we were too full by the end so ended up taking some home. What was lovely was that some of the money paid for the course went directly to 2 of the girls we were cooking with to support them in their education and business dreams. It was an amazing experience and I would recommend this to everyone. We wish Lifted Strong and all the women and girls that it supports every success in the future.

Today while lending a hand to prepare delicious (kitamu) food that Tanzanian families eat everyday, I also learnt from the Lifted Strong women about their worthwhile mission. It was an enjoyable and fun experience - highly recommended.

My family and I took the cooking class, then I brought two large groups (12-14 people each) to enjoy the class also. Joyce and Eva were very easy to work with in the planning stages. When we arrived, Joyce provided a wonderful overview of the Lifted Strong organization and we met the girls who were going to help teach the cooking class. Eva joined in the cooking to help keep us on task :-) They will adapt the menu to different dietary needs. Over the course of the three classes I took, we made: mandazi (cardamom donut); pea soup; chapati; banana stew; samosas (beef and veggie versions); coconut rice; beef pilau rice; and chicken stew. We also made the coconut milk that was used in several recipes from scratch. If you take the course once, like a normal person :-), you will make 3-4 of those dishes. The samosas were my favorite. My folding skills were amazing (ask Joyce) and the flavors were delicious! Make sure you say "whee!" each time you slide the samosas into the hot oil :-)

The Lifted Strong Community Organization provides education and opportunities to local women, who in turn lead the cooking class that we took. The class was very enjoyable, but the women were the stars. We made a lot of yummy food, with guidance and assistance from the women. We learned about the organization and then enjoyed the food that we made! What an awesome morning!

We had a great experience at our cooking class here. We made delicious traditional food and loved getting to meet the women that helped us with our class. This organization is so important and it was such an honor to support their cause. Thank you for giving us a fun experience in Arusha!

I had an ejoyable morning learning how to make Ugali and Samosa’s, two typical dishes in Tanzania. Before the workshop started, Joyce from the NGO texted me to ask what I wanted to make. Because I was alone, 3 ladies from the NGO and one member cooked together with me. They welcomed me with a song. You best go by tuktuk because the location is in one of the side streets of the main road. The NGO does very varied and important work to empower women and girls. It’s worthwhile to take a cooking class with them and support the work they do.