VILLAGE PROJECTS

Secondary School

There are now 450 students on roll with 19 teachers. The new intake in January will take numbers up to 550. Under the supervision of Joseph Tago they plan to build 3 more classrooms to accommodate the increased numbers. They will also need 100 more desks. The girls' hostel was completed in May and 100 sets of bunk beds made by a local carpenter in Songea.

I have been concerned that the school is growing beyond our means and there could come a time when we can no longer fund its running effectively. Our sponsorship scheme pays for half the school fees of all the students from the Gumbiro ward. There are many students from outside the ward. These are not within our scheme and they pay the full fee. So in addition to our sponsorship the school should be collecting sufficient funds to comfortably cover all costs.

However there are still many immediate needs - books, equipment and furniture. The total cost of these will be about 12,000,000/= (Tanzanian shillings) which is about £6000. The headteacher said they could find half of this and asked if we could help with the other half. Our Gift Aid claim from the Inland Revenue should come to roughly this amount so I suggest it is used for this purpose. I suggest that once this has been achieved, we continue with our sponsorship scheme, but encourage the school to meet all other costs from their collections from outside the ward. In this way it will be self-supporting and not so dependent on the project.

Likarangilo and Ngembambili Primary Schools

These two schools are wonderful examples of the community working together very positively to achieve their goals.

Likarangilo used to be an outlying area of Luhimba but is now a very forward-looking village in its own right. We helped build the primary school at Likarangilo 10 years ago and in recent years have had very little input. However the staff, parents and village leaders have worked together to produce a school of 550 children with extremely high standards under excellent leadership. Patricia and I spent half a day at the school and were very impressed.

The head Mr Kyombo told us that 50 out of the 55 standard 7 pupils achieved the entrance qualification for secondary school last year and that the school carne third out of 182 primary schools in the league tables for the Ruvuma Region. And to think this all started with a small group of children being taught in a tumble-down shelter with a grass roof just over ten years ago!

Ngembambili is a part of Luhimba about 2 miles from the village, near the main road. Last year the villagers asked us if we could help them build a primary school for the children of that area. At the time we were unable to offer support due to commitments to other village projects. However, undeterred, the villagers got together, started making bricks and eventually opened their new school earlier this year, with no help from us. This school now has 150 kindergarten and infant pupils and two dedicated teachers.

In April we were able to make a donation of 100,000/= to the school. They put this to excellent use and we were pleased to make another similar donation this time.

It is so heartening to see that there are groups of people with such motivation and drive to achieve what they have. I think we left a clear message in the village that we are very pleased to offer support and help to those who help themselves. This attitude moves people away from 'donor dependency' and encourages sustainability.

Health

Before leaving for Luhimba I was approached by Colin Bennett who lives in Weston. Colin is blind and has recently done some marvellous work to support the blind in the Weston area. He told me he would now like to help those with eyesight problems in Luhimba. So during our visit we asked George Pallangyo the medical officer how Colin might help. We found that there are so many people in the village suffering from eye problems, especially a condition called trachoma. This is spread by flies and causes eyelids to turn inwards so that the lashes rub against the cornea, eventually leading to blindness. A simple operation can cure the problem but the cost of this is beyond the means of the villagers. However, George found out that he could train to carry out the operations himself in the village dispensary. The training takes three months and costs £1200. Colin has now started collecting to pay for George's training.

The Angela Carey dispensary in the village is providing a first class service to the community. George and his five assistants, as well as providing day-to-day care, also run Mother and Child Health sessions, which support parents in looking after their children. Also there is a very good family planning scheme. Over 1000 women are registered for this.

Water

During my last visit in April I noticed that one of the 19 wells was broken. I pointed out at the time that it was the responsibility of the village to carry out repairs and maintenance as someone in the village had been trained for this. But I did agree to meet half the cost of repairs from our funds if the village found the other half. They promised to do this by August. However, during our latest visit they told me that they had not found the money and I noticed that another well was now broken. In a council meeting which we attended we reminded them of their agreed responsibilities and they are now considering their position.

In April I left some money with Joseph Tago to install a new well near the dispensary. Work on this was well in hand and will be completed when the rains start in November.

Village Carpenter

We were pleased to see that the lathe bought for Mr Jumanne by Weston Homemakers in April had been installed and was ready for use.

Small Business Scheme

To me this was the most exciting development of the whole project. Back in April a village committee had been chosen to run this scheme. The committee consisted of 6 business men and women. In the time between April and August the committee had put a tremendous amount of thought and preparation into the scheme. They had drawn up a very good agreement form and had invited applications from groups of 5 people who needed loans to expand or set up businesses. The committee had received 13 applications and had accepted 5 of these. During our stay in the village we met all the groups and were present when the money was handed out.

Repayment of the loans will be in stages, starting 8 months after receiving the money, with the final instalment due 6 months later. This is a pilot scheme and the committee is determined that it will succeed.

I feel that this is a major step forward and could influence the way the project goes in the future. If we can build on this and help the villagers reduce the poverty that exists in the village by helping them to help themselves, then the sustainability of the whole project will be assured. I would like to extend the thanks of the trustees to Helen Sweet for all the work she did to research the small business scheme. Her input has been invaluable.