Gift ideas

Our desire to buy gifts for birthdays, Christmas, weddings and other celebrations is usually a reflection of our generosity and love for that person. Some times we buy gifts because of social pressure and expectation.

What ever your motivation,  the chances are that the recipient has everything they want already while billions of people over the world who are in need of your generosity and love are left without it.

The people we work with are living in extreme hardship and if you wanted to help them, we would tell your friends what you have done in their name.

Remember the people you help with these gifts are real people and the impact of your gift will be greater than you can possibly image (unless you have a great imagination!)

Education

A good education is the best tool to fight poverty and so is the greatest gift anyone can be given.

The schools in our area suffer from lack of books,  classrooms over flowing with students, a lack of desks, the teachers are poorly paid and some lack the training they need to do the job, the students want to do homework but have no electricity. Everyone of these gift ideas is part of an on going programme that we are running to make long lasting changes to the lives of the teachers and students

Primary School Library

By setting up a small library in primary schools, we can encourage the students to read both English and Swahili at an earlier age and we can make learning fun. We are holding reading competitions to help motivate the students but need more reading books.

£15 will buy 5 books for the library

Text Books for a Student

Imagine being a student in a classroom where one text book is shared between 10 of you sitting at 3 different desks. In reality you will never get to see the book and as you sit there your future slides away from you. All because the school cannot afford to buy a book. It is desperately sad . At best there is one text book between three students, at worst there are no text books at all.

£2.50 will buy a text book that should last for at least 10 years. A student needs 7 books for the year. £17.50 for a set of text books for a student

Desks for kids

As the numbers of students in the schools increases the demand for more desks grows. It is the responsibility of the parents, who earn less than £0.60 a day, to buy a new desk for their children when they start school. Of that 60p there is no disposable income to buy such things

Each desk costs £15.00

Sugar for the Teachers

The teachers at the Sinai School are not well paid and have asked for help with the price of sugar for their morning tea. This boost of energy helps them through the day and knowing that they are being supported is a great boost to them.

£7.50

Solar Lanterns

Imagine coming home, doing your chores and then having to do your home work. This is not abnormal for any of us, but take away the lights and suddenly it is too dark to do home work. We are now able to buy solar lanterns that will change the quality if life for a whole family. No more spending money on parafin, no more darkness. This is a fantastic opportunity to really make a difference to a family and to the students who need to study in the evenings

£20 per lantern

Buy a brick

One brick does not a building make, but if you add 30,000 of them together you have enough for a whole classroom. At 5p a brick, this could be the cheapest gift ever. But there is a minimum order of 200 bricks

£0.05 per brick

 

Teach a teacher

By investing in the teachers we can bring about change to many children all at once. It costs £40 per lesson for up to 30 teachers (£1.35 per week for one teacher). We are offering English language lessons.

 

 

Improved health of the students

Health is something we take for granted, our GP is there, the NHS is there, we are taught to eat 5-a-day and the shops are full of fruit and vegetables from all over the world. In Babati they know they have to eat a balanced diet, but have little understanding of what that means. most households do not grow fruit and vegetables because they are unaware of just how important they are. Some families are unaware of how diseases spread and because they do not see germs on their hands assume them to be clean. We work to provide basic knowledge and opportunity for the community to improve their health through education and small scale assistance

Passion for health

We are passionate about improving the diet of the community. By planting passion fruit vines at our schools we can improve the health of the youngest students so that they can grow big and strong. We want to create small vineyards of passion fruit.

£5 buys 5 passion vines

Grow Bags

These simple grow bag kits are fantastic for families with not much land. Our family grow bag kit includes the bag, the stones, the compost and a packet of seeds. It is a hugely simple idea that can help bring vegetables to the family.

£10 for the kit

Hand washing station with soap

Many of the schools in Babati do not have hand washing facilities at the school. We want to buy each school a metal bucket on a stand with a tap on and a supply of liquid soap. 1 child in sub Sahara Africa dies ever 20 seconds from diarrhoea, that is more than HIV, malaria and measles combined (WHO). We need to teach the young people the importance of washing their hands after visiting the toilet and before meals. We need to install hand washing facilities first.

£25 for the stand

£10 for soap for the year

Working with the Community

Pigs against Poverty

The Sinai community group have started a pig project and we project that within 3 years each member will have at least 5 breeding pigs. The biggest problem the members face is raising the money to buy the materials to make new pig sties. Each sow needs her own sty for security of the piglets.

£10 towards a sty

Fuel Efficient Stoves

Up to 80% less wood than a traditional open fire, these fuel efficient stoves, made by a local women’s group out of local materials, will reduce a household’s energy bill, reduce the demand for firewood and slow down the rate of deforestation. What is not fantastic about these stoves?

£10 per stove

Girl Guides

The newly formed Manyara Girl Guides is expanding and we are supporting their growth. The Guides can tackle issues of gender equality and gender brutaity from within the community far more effectively than we can. Belonging to the Guides brings status, protection, empowerment, knowledge and courage. The uniform is a big part of that process and provides a sense of belonging. The training camps that the Guides run help them get together, learn from each other and tackle the issues they face.

£12.50 for the Uniform - £200 can help with training for 72 guides, any contribution to this cost helps

Small Business Training

Offering loans to help families with their small businesses is a great way to improve the wealth of the household. No loans will be made available without a 5 day training course of Entrepreneurial management.

£35 per person will cover the whole cost of one person attending the training and allow them to process to the loan receiving stage. No training no loan, you can make a real, difference and help start this process.

 

Don’t wait till it is too late, order today!

Step 1

You select a gift idea

Step 2

Send a letter to us at the address below stating to whom you would like the gift to go and their address. You enclose a cheque for the amount (with a Donation Form 2011 please) and post the lot to us.

Julian Page, Livingstone Tanzania Trust, 16 Ailsa Road, Twickenham, TW1  1QW

or

Send an email to Julian@livingstonetanzaniatrust.com with the details of what you want and to whom, and a scanned copy of the completed gift aid form, then organised a bank transfer from your bank to ours. Details are:-

Sort Code 08-92-99.                   Account No 65247361.

Account Name  Livingstone Tanzania Trust.

IBAN GB32 CPBK 0892 9965247361.

 

Step 3

Wait for the thank you letter from your friend

We send a personal letter to your friend informing them of the gift, who it is from and what it will mean to the people in Babati. We will keep them updated throughout the year on the progress we are making with the gift and the community so that they can appreciate the value of the gift to the community

By providing ongoing briefings we can keep the memory of your gift lasting for the whole year. A brick is much more exciting if you know that it is supporting the blackboard in a new classroom for 50 students who would otherwise have never got an education.

Buying a gift just got a little easier!!