Priorities at Ndoombo

We waved goodbye to our visitors yesterday, now we start the hard work of monitoring progress and establishing the priorities of where to spend your donations, so a week of meetings ahead.

Our first meeting is with Horace Nassari, the Director of Ndoombo Secondary and the new headmaster Joseph Peter. We have already seen the progress at the school but know there is still a lot of work to do, so many priorities and some hard choices to be made. Horace prioritised building, Joseph prioritised books, but both unanimous about solar power especially for the dormitories.

We understand the split of free places at the school for disadvantaged children and those that are fee paying which provide funds for the school and are helping to make it sustainable. There is also a recognition and agreement that the limit of the school is 200 pupils in total.

We leave with much consideration and difficult decisions to make; we can't satisfy all the demanding needs.

 

Progress at Living Water Children's Centre

Next, we catch up with Dora and Anza Kimaro at Living Water Children Centre. We meet them at the new site with 3 classes of children just settled into their brand new classrooms and brand new dormitories. It's hard to believe that just 12 months ago we bought the roof for one of the buildings and 6 months ago the windows and doors.

The buildings have been inspected and approved, and the school formally registered.

We're pleased to see the first solar power fitted for one dormitory, and clearly one of the main priorities is to install further solar panels to the other buildings.

The main challenge for sustainability for Living Water is to attract some fee paying pupils at the new site. This will support the 50 abused, neglected or orphaned children who rely on Living Water for a home and education.

 

Helping Grandparents at WAMATA

The following day we meet Emmanuel at WAMATA, and we're pleased that they have received some international funding which recognises the huge problem of HIV/Aids.

Our main focus is to work at grass roots level to help those people most affected.

Without doubt, the demands placed on grandparents left caring for grandchildren following the loss of a child makes them a very high priority for help. We start to consider ideas for their sustainability and we decide to consider the launch of "Helping 100 Grandparents".

The starting point is for Wamata's outreach workers to identify and visit those grandparents in desperate circumstances so that we can assess how to best help eg. buy a goat, chickens or gardening tools.

 

Difficult Time for Tour Guide Trainees at TEKUA

Before we meet with TEKUA, we want to explore the opportunities available for field experience for the boys we sponsored to Mt Meru Tour Guide School last year. Horace introduces us to the Director of Nomad Safaris, a local company operating in all the parks of Tanzania. Not surprisingly, he refers to the dire consequences of the economic downturn, and he has already starting to lay off driver/guides due to fewer tourists. However, he was most helpful and promised to consider work experience for at least one of the boys and to provide us with other contacts. Work experience in Tanzania means food and lodgings only, no pay, but the boys want to seize the opportunity of gaining some experience.

At TEKUA, waiting hopefully for news from our meeting with Nomad were 3 of the boys from Mt Meru Tour Guide School. As difficult as it was we had to explain about the current safari market, it is not easy for them to understand.

It is so clear that your donations have helped TEKUA to grow and develop more than we dare have hoped. The priorities that emerged were some finishing touches to buildings and making the premises secure. Most of our discussions concerned ongoing vocational training and the need to build links with businesses to assist students into field experience following their training. We were pleased to see that Chris has already contacted some local hotels/lodges to try to secure placements for the girls that had been on the catering course.

 

Some Networking Opportunities

Our week ends with a day of networking.

Firstly, Konnect9, a UK based charity approached us before we left home, explaining there was a unique opportunity for us to have some space in a container of much needed supplies bound for Tanzania in March 2009. In return, they asked us to visit the Little Sisters of St Francis, who receive the container.

We met with Sister Genevieve who proudly showed us the disadvantaged and disabled children in the area who they help in their centre. The children were overjoyed to see us.

Secondly we meet Carol Parker, founder trustee of USA charity Pamoja, who seeks educational sponsorship for orphans, runs a micro finance programme and a small tailoring project.

Finally we meet with Nick Hutchinson of the charity Arusha Project who provide micro finance loans on a larger scale and accommodate USA volunteers.

Good to compare experiences and exchange ideas.