CWUHA 2007 TRIP TO TANZANIA

We began our involvement with Tanzania as a result of Sarah Grogan’s trip to Moshi in 2006. Sarah works for Simpson Millar. During her stay Sarah met up with Sarah Lloyd a schoolteacher from Yorkshire.

Between them they sparked off a real interest within CWUHA to try and help the poor Tanzania children.

Sarah G taught children aged between 3-7 years at a school in Kilima Hewa village just outside Moshi. Pictured some of the children from Kililma Hewa

The schoolroom was a spare room in the home of Mr. Masawee, a retired schoolteacher, now maze farmer. Mr.Masawee saw the need to provide education for the impoverished village children whose parents could not afford the state school fees. Because of the lack of facilities the number of children had to be limited.

Sarah appealed to CWUHA for financial assistance in building a classroom so that more children could take advantage of the education. The CWUHA trustees agreed to provide £2500 for this work, under the supervision of Sarah G. The schoolroom was very quickly built and put into operation. The trustees were very proud when they toured the schoolroom and observed a homemade sign that said, “ Donated by CWUHA” They also purchased school books and desperately needed stationary, paper, pens, rubbers, rulers etc. Pictured are Chris Keggie and some children in the new schoolroom

During the year after the completion of the schoolroom Mr. Masawee had sold his maze crop and used some of the proceeds to start another classroom. He had a very hard decision to make this year. Should he use some of the profits of this year’s crop to finish off the room, thus depriving the children attending of their once daily bowl of porridge? We said NO, depriving the children of this small amount of food was not an option. CWUHA would supply the finance to finish off the work, thus enabling him to take in more children. Pictured children enjoying their daily cup of maze porridge.

At the same time Sarah L was teaching 11-17 year olds in a senior school, St Andrews Moshi. The school relied on charitable donations and volunteer teachers, like Sarah, to function. She also appealed to CWUHA for financial assistance. The Trustees decided to do this by sponsoring the education of ten children in 2006, then twenty more in 2007.

With the financial help from BT it was decided to send three trustees, Heather Park, Chris Keggie and Alex Pearson to Moshi in July 2007, to observe the progress of the projects, and to help with the education of the children during their stay.

The “three amigos” set off to Tanzania, via Nairobi Kenya. Many friends of the two Sarah’s, who immediately wished to show us their work and to appeal for further help, met them. In St. Andrews school the teachers were hampered in their work by only having one text book per subject so lots of blackboard work was the order of the day. It was decided that CWUHA should purchase one textbook per student for every lesson taught, to the delight of Andrew, the headmaster, the pupils and the teachers. You can imagine our surprise on our return to the school in the evening to find many of the pupils staying behind just to study the new textbooks. Could you imagine this happening at you local school?

Andrew was also under great pressure to pay two months rent for the school and pay the salaries of the teachers who had not had any money for many months. The three visitors agreed to take this problem back to a CWUHA trustees meeting convened on their return. The money to cover all Andrews’s costs was agreed and dispatched within two days of their arrival in England.

Another friend of Sarah G, Dogo, took them out to a very remote Massai village to be introduced to Mama Lucy, the Tanzanian version of Mother Theresa. Pictured Heather Park and Mama Lucy

Mama Lucy took in all the unwanted Massai children into her ram shackled home which grew into a sanctuary and place of simple education. We purchased a large amount of food from the local market, rice, salt, flour, fruits and vegetables etc. Just as important we bought sweets for all the children.

When asked what she needed mostly Mama Lucy replied, “new mattresses” to replace the stained ones on the beds where up to four children slept. We said we would consider helping on our return. The CWUHA trustees in England, again agreed to send the money in order to assist Mama Lucy’s unheralded work.

We were not finished yet. Dogo took even further into the interior. We were grateful that we were being driven in a sturdy 4x4 vehicle as most of our journey seemed to be spent driving along dried up riverbeds.

A once a week market was in progress on our arrival. Magnificent Massai warriors greeted us; remember the film with Michael Cain, Zulu.

A town council meeting was in progress, which we were invited to join. The leader of the council explained that this market area was the epicentre of village life, which covered many hundreds of square miles. The nearest state school or hospital was over 60 kilometres away. As a result many people died from dysentery, the local river was contaminated, and many women and babies died whilst giving birth.

He took us to a shell of a building, meant to be a health clinic, which a previous charity had begun and then abandoned. This was very cruel to give these poor people hope and then take it away. The leader explained that, for not a great deal of money, the clinic could be quickly finished by local labour. Then the government would send medical staff to man the clinic on a regular basis. Can we help? Pictured the shell of the health clinic.

We were then taken to the village school which catered for the education of 600 children, some of them walking up to six hours a day for the privilege. The school had six classrooms, 100 kids per room with one textbook per subject per room. Help is desperately needed here. 

On our return to Moshi Dogo was asked, if we decided to provide the money for Mama Lucy, the clinic and the text books would he be prepared to facilitate the purchase of the goods and to oversee the building work? He said that he would be more than willing as he had been born in a similar village, health and education had given him opportunities, he would like to be able to offer these people the same.

All of these projects would be taken back to England, discussed and agreed. The money is in the process of being transferred to bank accounts of trusted people, in Moshi.

During the little spare time that the trustees had they managed to take out all of the pupils at St. Andrews school for a lunch of chicken and chips. Normally the kids went all day with no food due to lack of funds. We also had the chance to teach simple English and sums to Mr. Masawee’s pupils. The greatest joy was to take part in an international football match with the little ones and to try and teach them “Simon Said” without being able to speak Swahili.

Sarah Lloyd is once again teaching the pupils of St. Andrews during August. Her airfare was also paid for out of the money provided by BT. An added responsibility she has now is to supervise the spending of the charities money on the projects described above.

In the New Year two more CWUHA trustees will be travelling to Moshi, the last of the BT money will be used. They will be there to teach the children, interface with the locals and observe any building work that has been completed as a result of the charities donations.

All in all a very successful and rewarding trip thanks to the generosity of BT and the support of the CWUHA trustees and all our new found Tanzanian friends.

SEPTEMBER 2007 CONVOY TO TRANSDNIESTRIA

 

Ten vehicles will set off once again carrying vitally needed aid to the forgotten break away country of Transdnistria, formally Moldova. The vehicles will visit two Psycho-Neurological Hospitals, males in Tiraspol, females in Bendery. Aid will be taken to the Mother & Baby Hospital Tiraspol, and an orphanage in Glimoy. The CWU education department sponsored vehicle will supply education needs to a Tiraspol school.