Tarangiri Safari Park

We take a break for the weekend and leave the hustle and bustle of Arusha behind as we head out for a 2 hour drive to Tarangire Safari Park. We stay for 2 nights in the peace and tranquillity of the tented camp with only the animals for company, it helps to revive us for the busy week ahead.

 

Chris Visits TEKUA

Chris has still to see TEKUA , so we make that our first visit of the week. After looking around the buildings and classrooms we are taken to meet Joyce’s family, typical of the disadvantaged students who come to TEKUA: a very poor one parent family who could not afford to send her to secondary school. Her mum welcomes us into her small home. She tells us that she rents it for £8 per month, she has no land or animals but does have a few chickens. She makes a small income working on the land for neighbouring families. Your donations are paying for Joyce to attend catering college giving her the opportunity to improve the quality of life for herself and her mum.

 

Vocational Students From TEKUA

We then return to TEKUA to meet just a few of the students who have been on vocational training. We are so impressed with their enthusiasm and commitment. We find it hard to believe that some of them think we will be disappointed that they are working but not in the jobs they were trained for. How wrong they are. We know that without TEKUA and the training your donations have paid for, these young people would not have had a chance of any employment.

We want to take Chris to see the progress of the building at TEKUA 2, but as we set off for Nduruma, the rain begins to fall and the roads become very slippy!! When we see the local dala dalas (buses) stuck in the mud in front of us we know it’s time to turn around. With some tricky reversing and turning in a field we manage to get back to the tarmac road, Chris will have to come back another time, as she is leaving us the next day to start her trek of Mt Meru at over 14,000 feet the second highest mountain in Tanzania.

 

Grandparents Project - Part Two

We continue with the visits to see some more of the grandparents we are helping, driving our vehicle through a maze of small dwellings on muddy and bumpy tracks. Some have very small pieces of land to grow maize, a few bananas and sometimes coffee: some have no land at all.

It becomes increasingly evident that the impact of HIV/Aids, in leaving orphaned children with elderly grandparents, is taking on a new twist, as older grandchildren, like Hilda, who at just 14, inherits the burden of caring for her siblings as her grandparents health declines.

Despite the emotional and often distressing stories, we still take inspiration from these amazing people. Like Maria, who told us that she had sold one of her 3 kids from the goat to buy special food and new clothes for her grandchildren for Christmas.

At the end of the week we meet with Emmanuel at WAMATA to review the progress of all 20 families in our "Helping 100 Grandparent" project. It is heart warming to see the success of the project and Emmanuel explains that he has used it as a template, in a presentation at a HIV seminar in Dar es Salaam. We have agreed to support a further 10 grandparents with your donations.

 

Entrepreneur Project

Some months ago we sent a special donation to TEKUA to be used as a trial for micro-finance loans for students who aspired to be budding entrepreneurs. After careful scrutiny, Ollie, a friend of the charity and Pendo, approved 4 loans each of for £20.

We meet with the 4 students to hear their results. It must have been like coming into Dragon’s Den, and Garrie played the part of Peter Jones with some searching questions. The outcomes were impressive:

• 

  Michael

  Michael: Bought eggs from local families for 200Tsh and resold to one hotel for 300Tsh. Paid back the loan and subsequently expanded to provide 2 hotels daily, and employs his brother to help.

  
  
• 

  Rewardi

  Rewardi: Bought 80 pairs of trousers and sold 30. He has repaid the loan and is looking to expand into other and better types of clothing.

  
  
• 

  Martin

  Martin: Bought 15 chicks at 1500Tsh with a view to selling at 3000Tsh. Learned a hard lesson when 5 died due to inadequate fencing, but has sold 3 and is hoping to sell the other 10 for Christmas.

  
  
• 

  Alice

  Alice: Bought materials and accessories for her family sewing machine and made a profit of £30 after returning her loan.

  
  

A heart warming and successful trial, and one that we would like to extend.

 

Chris & Gill Go Trecking

We visit Marangu at the weekend, a reminisce of our trek up Kilimanjaro in 2008, to wave off Margaret’s sister Chris and her friend Gill, on their trek to be on the summit of the mountain on Christmas day morning. Chris’s parting message to our supporters:

"In the last week I have seen first hand the charities grass root community projects and the real difference it is making to so many very poor families. Most touching, was meeting some of the grandparents on the goat project and I hope you will sponsor me to help buy a few more goats"

To sponsor Chris please click on the following link http://www.justgiving.com/chris-lawrenson

 

A Final Word

Our work has nearly come to an end for this time, we have some financial reports to write over the next couple of days for our Trustees and some "goodbyes" to say.

Thank you for reading our diaries and on behalf of everyone here, thank you for all your support.

Happy Christmas!