How time flies when you’re busy. Well, that is certainly the case for us, an exceptionally busy five years. A huge thank you to all those who have been part of it whether as supporters, volunteers, community members or knowledge sources, we couldn’t have done it without you.  So what have we done? Renovated 15 classrooms and two teachers’ houses, built 4 new classrooms, built 4 sets of toilets, 3 water sources, a farm store, a farm with 3 cows, 45 chickens and 14 goats (and one dog!), 4 fish ponds and 2 market gardens and a tree nursery. We have bought hundreds of books, 80 new desks, 20 tables, 40 benches, 5 computers, one printer, electricity to two schools, 2 cows in the community, 5 sows, numerous stoves and given start up loans for 49 small businesses, there might be more!! The Waangwaray school, which 5 years ago was ranked 31st in the Babati District is now ranked 6th. The full results of our impact survey which was completed this March will be available in the summer and will help us determine the path of the next 5 years.

New classroom at Sinai

new classroom

Another new classroom has been built and finished to a high standard. This time the classroom, completed in December 2011, is for year 1 students at the Sinai Primary School. The 638 students over 7 year groups now have access to 8 classrooms which is still not enough, but we are moving in the right direction!! We are aiming at 2 classrooms per year group. The classroom is bright with educational information painted on the walls, the tables and benches allow for group activities and allow the teacher to group students by ability. It is classrooms like this that have helped Babati gain recognition as being a progressive centre of education. We are very excited that this school has been selected to have a unit for special needs children. It is early yet but we have been approached and asked for help from the Town Council.

Teach a man to fish

Fish pond

Saidi Mpore was 12 years old when for the first time he saw our fish ponds at the Waangwaray Demonstration School Farm. After that he was inspired to build one at home. He dug out a pond using a hoe, lined it with a plastic sheet provided by us and stocked it with baby fish from us. Now, 3 years later he is 15 and is sponsoring himself through secondary school from the sale of fish. When his mother told me this I nearly cried with joy. We understand that not everyone will copy us, not everyone wants to, but it just goes to show that those who do learn from us can have a better future because of it. This is self-help at its best and that is what we are doing, that is what YOU are supporting. We should all be very proud of what we have achieved together.

Supporting Small Businesses

After successful training in December, we provided each of our 49 budding Alan Sugars, sorry, Lord Sugars with a loan of £60 to help them kick start or expand a business. Mama Selle, who runs a small cafe in Waangwaray, has branched out into the stone crushing business for which there is a constant demand; Juliana, a teacher, has ventured into the goat rearing business; Christina has bought more stock to expand her tailor business; Fabino has expanded the stock range of his family shop; and others have established themselves as stall holders selling fruit and vegetables. Each business creates an income that they would never have otherwise enjoyed. Loans are charged at a small rate above inflation and any profits made from the programme are shared by the community.

Managha Primary School

Kindergarten pulled down before it fell

We spent time with the school development committee at the Managha Primary School, discussing their needs and priorities. We agreed the parameters of the community participation on the projects and agreed to work with the school IF the parents started to provide the money and food needed for their children’s lunch. We have agreed to build a new fuel efficient kitchen; to fund the digging of a well so that they can have water every day not just a few days a week; and to renovate the classrooms. The building in the photo (right) was the kindergarten; it was so dangerous the community pulled it down before it fell down and killed their children. We have much work to do here and hope we can find donors who want to help. Can you help fundraise for this? Sponsored free fall or parachute jump?

Books Books Books!!!

Science books and more.....

Our teacher motivation programme works on rewards for exam results. The more A, B or C grades a year 7 students gets in their national exams the more funds are allocated to building teachers’ houses. To assist the teachers we offer training, feeding programmes, encourage reading competitions and in February provided each school with over 500 text books. The books were received with great cheers and singing by very excited teachers. Waangwaray has achieved a ratio of 1 book between 3 students, the only Government primary school in the region to do this. This is a really fantastic step and helping to change the lives of the students. In the summer we plan to build a library at Sinai to house the books and keep them available for use.

A fuel efficient kitchen

kitchen being built

The membership of the Manyara Girl Guides has rocketed from zero 14 months ago to 108 in March 2012; this fantastic progress highlights the need/want for such an organisation. This year the Guides are joining the worldwide focus to bring the environment to the attention of the community and its leaders. The Guides, working on commission, will be selling the rocket stoves we have developed with the Waangwaray Women’s Group. These stoves reduce a household’s consumption of firewood. The guides also plan to plant 6000 trees in an effort to offset the environmental costs of deforestation. Projects like this only work with your support, so if you want to offset your flights this year, why not do it through us. There is more; the girls, having been shown some ideas on recycling plastic bottles are going to take this to heart and we may be seeing drip irrigation, direct root watering, plant pots, vegetables gardens and all sorts of things made from bottles in the near future.

Waangwaray School Farm is Moving Forwards

market garden taking shape

first avocados

Mr Marceli, our Farm Manager has left us and returned to his farm in Bacho. He took the Waangwaray School Farm from being scrub land to being an award winning farm and we are hugely grateful to him. With his departure we were able to bring the school more closely in to the managing of the farm as we start the slow process of handing the farm back. This means that we can involve the students more in theoretical and practical learning. This we do with the blessing of the Town Education Officer. The two market gardens have been redesigned and reorganised with the strategy to provide a constant income as well as meet the troughs of the natural supply. We are confident that with a more scientific management approach the farm will become even more successful. We are also delighted that the avocado trees that we planted 5 years ago are starting to give fruit. Yum yum!

Community Development

cow in the community is pregnant

bringing home the bacon

The pig project has sold the last of the piglets and the group are at last in credit. The women have regrouped themselves to encourage greater commitment and participation and are waiting for the sows to be on heat before starting inviting a male pig to perform his duty. The Muslims in this project have dropped the chicken project for the cow project and their cow is now pregnant, so they are happy with their progress.

Supporting LTT!

Sophie

Alix

LTT welcomes Sophie Wotton (top), who will be studying International Development at Brighton from September, and Alix Odgers (bottom), who studied African History at Durham. Both have experience with community based projects in East Africa and Tanzania and are dedicated to the underlying principles of LTT, e are very grateful to them for their help and good humour!

We have a busy summer ahead with three groups coming out and plenty of work for them to do. We aim to renovate a teachers’ house, build a well, a kitchen, renovate classrooms and build a library. This will be very exciting and we will be able to provide more feedback at the end of the summer. If you want to know as we go along, please follow us on Facebook or on the website.

THANK YOU and KEEP IN TOUCH

All of us at LTT are grateful as ever to you for your on-going support, encouragement and kind words. If you would like to fundraise for us, know more about our projects or have a general chinwag don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Post Card

The Livingstone Tanzania Trust are delighted to be able to offer this fantastic photos as a post card.

The children around the Sinai Primary School benefit from our work at the school and enjoy the interaction with Wazungo.

If you would like to order this post card please contact Julian on julian@livingstonetanzaniatrust.com

Cards are 40p each or 3 for £1 +p&p

50 Years of Independence

Julius Nyerere - Father of the Nation

On December 9^th 2011 Tanzania will be celebrating 50 years since it gained its independence from the United Kingdom. Julius Nyerere, the Father of the Nation, led the country through the peaceful transition and a year later Tanganyika joined with Zanzibar to form the Republic of Tanzania. No doubt there will be big parties up and down the country to celebrate.

The Manyara Region, like many others have had their regional celebration early so as not to compete with the main event. The party was held at the Kwaraa Stadium on the green outside the Kahembe Guest House. It was led by the Regional Commissioner who amongst other things displayed our new kindergarten tables from Sinai Primary School, highlighting them as a great innovation and an example to other schools.

More recently a Government Inspector of Schools from Dodoma visited the same kindergarten and praised it as a “model kindergarten” saying it was a “must see” item for all visiting dignitaries as it “helps boost the image of progressive teaching methods in Babati.” The Town Council are happy to take credit for this but if by taking credit other schools follow our lead no one will be happier than us. 

Christmas

We hope you will buy this year’s Christmas card. Not only do they create awareness of us but more importantly they generate revenue that allows us to buy more books for the Sinai Primary School. If you’d like some cards please contact Penny on penny@igotemail.co.uk

Aside from the cards we also have some very simple sponsorship opportunities and ideas for gifts for those people who have everything . They can be found on the HERE.

A Mother’s Reality

A few years ago a mother from the Waangwaray Community approached the Head Teacher at the Primary School and asked if she could fail her daughter when she wrote the National Year 7 exams which allow entry to secondary school. The mother explained that it would be easier if her daughter failed than having to face up to the sadness of telling her that she could not afford the Secondary School fees.

When I first heard this story some years ago I was in a state of disbelief and angry that a mother would do this to her daughter. Angry that she would deny her the opportunity to realise her full potential. However after quiet contemplation I was moved to sadness for the mother, the mother who might have wanted the best for her child but was simply unable to give her the best because of her state of poverty. In the event the girl did fail her exams and the mother was spared the embarrassment.

But it started me thinking; it made me realise just how complex this world I had moved into was. All very well building nice schools, new books, training the teachers but if the families are just too poor to make the most of these opportunities then am I just wasting my time and your donations? We will never be able to help everyone, I have accepted that, but that ought not stop us from trying. It was this experience that motivated us to move our focus also into the community and work with the women’s groups, to help them get an income and hopefully prevent any other mothers having to make such an awful request.

In November 2011 we are offering a 3 day business training course to 50 members of the community who will then be able to apply for a micro loan to help them with their cash flow, their small business ideas and give them the hand up they need. We have researched many different microloan models and have taken what we see as the best and developed our own community run low interest rates scheme.

The Face of Tanzania’s Future

At 19, Catherine Kayumbo began school later than most, because she was an orphan. However, with sheer dedication and perseverance she has been applying herself. Thanks to you, we have been able to support her Secondary School education as well as the education of 2 other orphan children. They have just written their final exams and we are all eagerly waiting their results!

With a huge interest in Tourism combined with giving back, Catherine was invited to join the Livingstone Tanzania Trust team in October, where she worked with a group of our overseas volunteers. She was a fabulous asset to the team and we hope we can employ her and the other young adults as they graduate – all because of your support of their education.

The Pump at Sinai

Sadly not everything is good news; the pump that we installed at the Sinai School has again failed us. In October we mended what was a broken connector pipe which was causing no water to come out. Once that was mended the constant use by the students caused the main pump head to erode and the piston to bend beyond repair. So the students are back to having to walk to the community pump. This is hindering plans to create vegetable gardens at the school which would enhance the meal programme; and hindering the orchard development which has suffered dreadfully from the drought. We are working with our friends in New York to address this problem and they are trying to get us a more durable pump head. If that fails, we will look at getting a new and local pump system which will be more expensive and cost about £1600.

Feeding programme and store

Better news is that our feeding programme is now feeding 821 young people at 2 schools; this represents 75% of the students. It is sad that not everyone is participating in this voluntary scheme but the impact for those who are benefiting is great to see. The teachers are seeing improved afternoon attendance, greater alertness and it is also improving their health. But the food is just one part of the programme. We plan, water permitting, to start a demonstration vegetable garden at Sinai along the lines of the project at Waangwaray but on a smaller basis. The lessons learnt by the students can be taken and applied at home with the Keyhole and Sack gardens (see Newsletter 12).

St Dunstan’s College

12 Students and 2 teachers came out to Babati in October for 10 days with 2 team leaders from Inspire Worldwide and started the building process for a much needed new classroom. The team worked like Trojans and in such a short time built the wall to roof height, including two lintels and installed a floor. It was not all hard work; there were visits to the local community to see how people live and what problems they face. We had talks from the Head Teacher Mr Walter and the Ward Education Officer on the problems they struggle with. We had Swahili lessons each day, played football with the builders and the girls went to visit Girl Guides and their new recruits at the Frederick Sumaye school which was an eye opening and humbling experience. It was a great trip and all came away exhausted but feeling happy with all they achieved.

The Girl Guides

In December when schools break up, The Girl Guides are going to hold their first “camp” where 60 girls from 5 schools will join together to learn about the Guides and start to identify the problems they face in the community so that together they can tackle them. Such things as discrimination at home and in the community; forced marriages; polygamy; genital mutilation; violence and abuse: and an inherent lack of self belief and inferiority. All major issues that they need to learn about, support each other over and start to address. We are on the lookout for people who can help support this phenomenal group of Guides.

The Power of Education for Tanzanian Women: Angela Mefruda’s Story

Angela is a 46 year old mother, wife and homemaker. Like many other Tanzanian women she reached only grade 4 of primary school. However through her links with Livingstone Tanzania Trusts involvement and the Sinai Primary School where she is a member of the school development committee, she attended agricultural training in Mombasa. Empowered by the knowledge and experience she had gained, Angela motivated her own community to form a collective. This group started with fish ponds and despite the difficulties the project faced with water, the group she created remained positive and started their next scheme – Pig farming. Now they also have 2 cows from our cows in the community programme.

One woman’s training has brought positive benefits to an entire community. Finding the true leaders in the community is what we want to do as part of our self help philosophy

They cost £3 for 5 or £5 for 10 or £22.50 for 50. + p&p

If you would like us to post you a batch, please contact Penny Shiret on penny@igotemail.co.uk

If you live close by to Julian or Clive, I am sure we can deliver in exchange for a cup of tea or a mince pie!!

The profits from this years Christmas cards will be spent on Books for the Sinai Primary School

Please contact

julian@livingstonetanzaniatrust.com

or

clive@livingstonetanzaniatrust.com

There are some people for whom buying a gift is just impossible. Perhaps they have everything they want or need or do not want more things cluttering up their home and they have enough socks!!

So what if you bought a gift for someone else instead and let your friend/family know about it. This is where we can help

Step 1

You select a gift idea from the list below

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

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!!

THANK YOU

Gift ideas to help students get an education

Primary School Library

By setting up a small library in primary schools in Tanzania, we can encourage the students to read both English and Swahili at an earlier age and we can make learning fun

£15 will buy 5 books for the library

Text Books for a Student

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 will 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 the schools increase 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

We are now able to buy solar lanterns that will change the quality if life for a whole family. No more spnding money on parafin, no more darkness. This is a fantastic opportunity to really make a difference to a family

£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.

Gift ideas for improved health of the students

Passion for health

We are passionate about alleviating poverty. 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.

£5 buys 5 passion vines

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

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

Gift ideas to help 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

Burning up to 80% less wood than a traditional open fire, these fuel efficient stoves, made by a local women’s group, will reduce a household’s energy bill, reduce the demand for firewood and slow down the rate of deforestation.

£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!

The change in climatic conditions in East Africa that has caused the drought in Somalia has also caused hardship in Tanzania. Not to the dreadful extent that we see in the news, but the people are down to one meal a day. Please don’t do what I sometimes find myself doing and think that is not so bad, please think what it would mean to you, your children or grandchildren.

For us at the Livingstone Tanzania Trust it makes us realise just how important our work is. Demonstrating to the community how rainwater can be harvested when it does rain; how crops can be grown using water efficient methods, how the soil can be improved using compost and manure, how the deforestation can be reduced by using fuel efficient stoves is our way of showing the community that there are alternative ways of working that could be better for them. Their lives are unlikely to get easier by carrying on in the same fashion and we hope to inspire them to change aspects of their lifestyles for the better.

It is through education that people get the inspiration to develop new ideas that will help them develop the solutions they need to the growing number of problems they face. This is why we focus on improving the educational in the schools by reducing class sizes, training teachers, adding resources, assisting with school meals and providing practical agricultural studies. It is more important now than ever before because the young will be facing greater hardship in the future and without the skills to challenge them they will continue to live in extreme poverty.

25 Piglets

The Sawe Community Group’s business has burst into life with 25 new little piglets. We started the project last April with 10 piglets and 16 months later the business has 30 pigs. That is not bad growth in any business! But the community have to run this as a business and they have to manage their cash flow, so when these little darlings are 3 months old they will be sold and the process of getting their mothers pregnant starts all over again. Next time we plan to keep 5 piglets and grow the business slowly. Food, water and shelter are the limiting factors especially in times when food prices are rocketing. But we hail their arrival as a great success and we are delighted for the women running this project.

Managha Primary School

When an earth tremor felled the staff toilet and further damaged 3 already fragile classrooms, the teachers at the Managha Primary School approached us for help. For the staff toilet they promised to provide the bricks and dig the pit. How could we turn them down? We later arrived with a team of Quest Overseas volunteers and were engulfed in a sea of eager young faces with outstretched hands trying to shake ours. It was a wonderful welcome.  While we were there we also installed a new floor in one of the classrooms. In mid morning breaks we entertained the kids and one day played a game of “spade cricket”. We enjoyed the company of the kids, teachers and community members and hope one day to return to the school and to assist the community as they strive to renovate the school and provide a safe environment for their children to receive their education.

Waangwaray Primary School

This summer with the help of the volunteers the foundations to two classrooms and a teacher’s office were laid. this involved a lot of digging in the very hard earth, then laying the pits with massive stones and cementing it all together. We then put in a sloor in one of the rooms which involved filling betweent e foundations with earth, adding big stones, them small stones and ceemnting over the top. This is hard manual work and the volunteers were trojans and showed the local builders that we were not frightened of hard work. When funds allow we will start to build.

The students continue to enjoy the library and are getting excited about reading competition; they are desperate to win the chance of going on safari. The classrooms were being kept clean which was great to see.  Some areas of the farm have suffered from the poor rains but the market garden was looking fantastic because of the borehole; seeing all the tomatoes, peppers and chillies was a testament to the hard work that is being put in.

Rocket stoves

Our fuel efficient stoves programme goes from strength to strength with a new design of cooker being even more popular. For this we must thank our friends at Sunseed Tanzania who we met through the Together4Africa network. The new stoves use the same concept as before but have a superior design and are cheaper and more environmentally friendly to make. This project reduces the rate of deforestation AND generates an income for the women. A double whammy! We have challenged the women to build at least 100 before the end of the year so that the impact on deforestation can be immediate.

Feeding programme and store

We are very excited to have started a 3 year feeding programme at both the Waangwaray and Sinai Primary Schools. This is a matching programme where if the parents contribute half the required food and pay for the chef, we will provide the other half.In years two and three our contribution reduces to 33% then 25%.

We are offering 100% assistance to the poorest 5% in each community as determined by the community themselves as long as those people participate on the school farm.

By feeding the students we hope to reduce afternoon truancy and keep the young minds active and learning.

Vegetable gardens

With students not getting a balanced diet we are eager to demonstrate how easy it can be to grow vegetables. After much research we were most inspired by Send a Cow’s keyhole gardens. These raised-bed vegetable gardens, which from above look like keyholes, use locally available materials and demonstrate how to use compost, manure and ash to help improve the soil. We built 3 over the summer at different schools and plan to build many more throughout the year. We have also improved upon our cement grow bags and are demonstrating how they too can be used by students to grow vegetables. All the vegetables that are grown at school on these projects are added to the lunchtime meals to help improve the students’ diet.

Chelsea Flower Show

Our new student farming programme is aimed at encouraging the children to learn about farming as a business. Year 3 will learn about vegetables that grow under the ground, Year 4 will learn about vegetables that grow above the ground, Year 5 will learn about “greens” and Year 6 will learn about staples such as cassava, pigeon peas, maize. Aside from practical learning on the school demonstration farm, they will also be asked to demonstrate to us what they have learnt. Their plots will be marked and their knowledge tested. Certificates will be issues subject to how well they have performed, Bronze, Silver and Gold as well as a “best in show” award. With any luck Mr Titchmarch will sponsor us!!

London to Paris in just 23 hours and 20 minutes

He made it!! After suffering a road rage assault during his training and being 49 years old!!! Hats off. Simon Page cycled to Paris in a fantastic time raising over £2500 for his efforts. His sweat, bruises and saddle sores have allowed us to buy enough books to have a ratio of 1 book per 3 students in EVERY subject in EVERY year at the Waangwaray Primary School. I am pretty sure that is not Blackpool in the background! If you would like to walk the Great Wall of China, climb Kilimanjaro or hike in the Atlas mountains please contact Julian julian@livingstonetanzaniatrust.com or if you are not so athletic perhaps a painless standing order would be better. Together we can make a difference.

THANK YOU

As always none of this work is possible without the phenomenal support of so many people. So thank you so very much for putting your faith in us and helping us deliver these projects. In particular we want to pay tribute to our volunteers Louisa, Stef, Jo, Katie, Evie, Michaela, Jordan, Alistair, Finlay, Niroj and Alix from Quest Overseas; Nikki, Abi, Tina, Ellie and Hattie from the Holy Trinity School; and Brian and Jim from Darrow School. We would also like to thank “Send a cow” and “Sunseed Tanzania” for their excellent work in East Africa and their generosity in sharing their knowledge.

Niduk has worked both academically and professionally in international development issues, ranging from universalising workers’ rights, to small holder agriculture and water harvesting.  Born in South Korea, Niduk was raised in South East Asia and North America and has spent her adult life living and working in Europe and East Africa.  She was also previously a Director of an international development NGO.  She is now Principal of small international development advisory firm based in Canada.  She holds degrees from McMaster University in Canada, the London School of Economics and Middlesex University in the UK.

In 1997, Niduk was awarded the Max Rotman Humanitarian Award and the Violet Richardson Award for her in Holocaust Education and work in the community in Canada.

We are delighted to have her on board the team.

Our volunteer partners Quest Overseas have got 10 volunteers organised to come our for 4 weeks to do some fantastic work. We also have a team of 5 from the Holy Trinity school in Merton coming out for a week as they go on to explore more of Tanzania and Zanzibar.

So what will we be getting up to?

1. We will be building a staff toilet at a primary school
2. We will be building as many key hole gardens as we can
3. We will be building bag gardens
4. We will be completing the renovation of a food store
5. We will be building a mud fridge
6. We will be commissioning some tables and chairs for the Waangwaray Kindergarten
7. We will be building the foundations of a classroom at Waangwaray
8. We will be building a new fish pond
9. We will be helping with the reading competition
10. We will be having home stays
11. Making some short movies of how we make some of the above

In addition to this we will be learning some Swahili, shopping in the local shops and markets, cooking and eating local food, interacting the community, going to church, learning about life in Babati and learning about sustainable development.

We have a teacher from the Alleyns School coming out to see our projects and explore the possibilities of establishing a twin school relationship with the Frederick Sumaye School.

We also have two teaches from the USA coming out to look at the twinning possibilities with the Kwaang Secondary School, a school in dire need of assistance.

We are also being inspected by a teacher from a school in LA, California who is interested in working with us

We will also be meeting up with the Founders of Karimu, the California based NGO we helped establish a presence at the Ufani Primary School in Bacho

The schools were we work have not been affected but had we not have renovated the kindergarten at Sinai, there is no doubt that would have collapsed and injured those learning inside.

The Managhat Primary school, a feeder school for the Frederick Sumaye School has suffered. The staff toilet fell down and cannot be used. The teachers and the community have approached us and asked for our assistance. The community have said they will dig a new pit and supply the bricks if we can help with the big stones, the cement and the skilled labour. It is estimated that this will cost between £800 and £1000.

The Livingstone Tanzania Trust wants to be able to help this school and build a relationship with them that hopefully expand in to greater things that just a toilet, with your help.

Next time you spend a penny, perhaps you could consider spending a pound and help us build this toilet.

Poverty is a complex web

The Livingstone Tanzania Trust understand that poverty is not a single solution problem but a complex web of interconnecting issues at whose heart is food insecurity, poor health and lack of education culminating in a poor lifestyle. To tackle just one of these issues without tackling the others will never result in poverty being alleviated. We believe that all must be tackled at the same time with a more holistic approach. It is for this reason that we, in partnership with the community, have designed and developed a number of different yet targeted education and lifestyle altering projects that can bring about real, sustainable and positive changes to the lives of the people we are working with. The schools act as the hub and our projects radiate out into the community with parent income generation, capacity building and health training programmes and of course child education. This community focused approach encourages the groups to be self forming and eventually self supporting.

Kindergarten – Changing Young Lives

Old kindergarten

Early learning is hugely important for developing young minds and whilst Tanzania does not yet have a compulsory kindergarten programme, kindergartens (5-6 year olds) are becoming more popular.

For the past few years the Sinai Primary School’s kindergarten has been housed in a dilapidated and dangerous classroom, but last summer (August 2010) we knocked it down and rebuilt it from the foundations up and made a safe environment for the young people to learn in.

The transformation is finally completed (March 2011) and we have without doubt created the best kindergarten in the Manyara Region. It is a safe, modern and model kindergarten where up to 96 children can sit in groups at tables rather than stand at desks.

New Kindergarten

Early learning toys

The students have new text books, toys and other brightly coloured learning materials and our very own version of an interactive wall.  On opening day we were visited by other kindergarten teachers who have seen how they can start to transform their own kindergartens with some simple ideas.

toys

While our kindergarten might be the best in the Manyara Region, we are still sadly struggling to find a donor to help with the kindergarten teacher’s salary of £30 a month. Of the 72 children attending daily less than 15 are paying the fees and he is unable to refuse access to those that do not pay. Can you help? Please email julian@livingstonetanzaniatrust.com.

How to learn

The older children try to learn in classrooms of up to 60-100 students. It is not easy. The teachers stand at the front read from the text book and everyone learns through repetition. The lack of resources, the high number of students and the lack of alternative ideas on teaching make the lessons very stale.

Jane teaching reading and story telling

In February we were delighted to be visited by Jane White, the Head Teacher from The Priory Primary School in London. She was shocked at how far behind the UK the education process is and realised the extent of the problems we are trying to address. Jane worked with the teachers for a week to see how they teach and ended the week by offering some simple advice on how they might start to focus on child centred learning. The great news is Jane will be working with us to develop a teacher training program that other teachers can pick up when they come to visit and we already have a team planning a trip for this summer from The Holy Trinity School, London.

Teacher Training

The English classes that we fund each week for the English Teachers are still going strong and are attended by teachers from over seven different primary schools. This means that over 4500 students are benefiting from improved teaching. We will be adopting student centred learning here as well, so that the teachers can see the benefits of using this style and take it back with them to their schools.

Reading Competition

Student reading in the finals

Last year’s reading competition was a great success and the 8 winners were taken on safari to Tarangire National Park to see the local wildlife that the tourists so enjoy. The competition has started again and already 3 other schools have joined in and they are competing against each other for the opportunity to go to the Park.

In just 8 months this program has gone from concept to include over 1200 students. The competition between individuals and schools is spurring students on. They get better and better at reading and speaking English as they go. It is a really simple program that is changing lives. We want the program to cover all 29 primary schools in a few years time but as the participation grows we need help with sponsorship.

The lead judge of the competition is the Town Education Officer for Primary schools. Our aim is to get all 29 primary schools involved in the competition

Student sponsorship

Lucia, Salma and Katherine

Isabelle

Theresia and Rahema

While most of our work is aimed at the community as a whole, we could not turn a blind eye to some individuals in extreme hardship. In January the three orphans we are sponsoring (Katherine, Lucia and Salma) start their 4^th and final year with important exams that determine the rest of their lives.  Phillipo, the boy we are helping who has hearing problems, has also returned to school thanks to your kind help. Last year he was top of his class IN EVERY SUBJECT, so we have high hopes he can continue to exceed all earlier expectations.

We were delighted to start a 4 year sponsorship program for 3 girls from Waangwaray. Theresia and Rahema have started at Kwaraa Secondary School and Isabella at Singe Secondary school. As a welcome gift they also received a solar lamp to help them study at night and Swahili-English dictionaries to help them as they improve their language skills. As everyone knows making the big step from primary to secondary can be scary so we wish them luck.

Sister Schools

In November 2010 two teachers from the Harris Academy South Norwood, London came out to Babati to launch the start of a sister relationship with the Kwaraa Secondary School. They also were surprised at how basic the education facilities were but were very impressed with the hard work, dedication, happiness and respectfulness of all the students. The Harris Academy has raised over £2500 through their “Cookies for Classrooms” program.

The water tower

Market Garden

We have brought water to the Frederick Sumaye Secondary School for the first time. The impact has been immediate as the students have copied the Waangwaray School Farm and planted a small market garden to enhance their diet. This is what our work is all about, leading by example and helping other follow. Helping people change their own world for the better.

The Frederick Sumaye is twinned with the Nailsea School, Bristol

The Waangwaray School Farm

Jean, Billy's girlfriend

This year we conducted a massive strategic review on the school farm. After several years of experimenting with different crops and livestock we are in a better position to know what will be successful and what will not. In the past we have struggled to get useful management information out of the farm, but after a year’s concentrated efforts we have put together a 24 month business plan which will help us turn the corner from being a subsidised farm to being a profitable farm, one we can hand back to the school with pride.

Chilli

The review provided some surprising information:- chillies are our most profitable crop per square meter and that the fish ponds are able to provide huge amounts of organic fertilizer. The market garden we started last year has been very successful. The business plan has allowed us to restructure the land and increase the size of the market garden. There is even a food allowance for Poppy, the night security guard’s skinny dog!!

We have added a fourth fish pond and want to add 4 more over the next 3 years. Our fish ponds have been very well received in the community and enhance the household income with very little ongoing maintenance. Since the last newsletter our cows have all had calves, which is great news. The goats are pregnant, go Billy!! We have altered our zero grazing policy to 50% grazing and the livestock are all looking fitter and happier because of it. But one of the goats went off piste and was bitten by a snake and died soon afterwards! The snake has also bitten 5 chickens that were protecting their eggs. This is a big problem for us and while we are still looking for the predator we must also reinforce the protection in the livestock areas. It is a constantly reminded that this is Africa and not Surrey!

Feeding Program

hungry kids in lunch queue when we did a trial

I find it hard to go without breakfast; I find it even harder to go without lunch. I cannot even imagine what it must be like to go without breakfast AND lunch. But this is what all the students at Sinai do every day; this is what 75% of the students at Waangwaray do every day. The impact of no food is malnutrition leading to poor mental and physical development, lack of ability to retain information and general tiredness. The students often leave school and miss classes.

It is the responsibility of each household to provide the school with 40 kg of maize and 8-10 kg of beans and £2 a year (to cover the salt, oil and chef costs) per student. But the families are not contributing and their children go hungry. We wanted to understand why this is so, so we held a number of meetings with the community and the local leaders to gain a clear understanding. A basic lack of understanding of the importance and make up of a balanced diet; poor food collection systems; a belief that the food is shared with others who don’t contribute; poor harvests; insufficient land; and extreme poverty are the underlying causes.

spoon at the ready!!

Working with the community leaders we have developed a sustainable community run feeding and education program that will address the problems raised by the community. Funders needed!! It is a 3 year program that will operate on a matching basis. In the first year if the household contribute half we will match it, our contribution diminishes each year.

We have also set up a Hardship Fund for those living in extreme poverty where we contribute up to 100% of the food. The fund will be managed by the community leaders. We will run nutrition seminars twice a year to help educate the community about the importance of diet.

chefs hard at work

Each school has agreed to donate an acre of land to the project where cash crops can be grown and the income used to fund the hardship fund after the end of the period. It will be farmed by the students and the households who benefit from the fund, this is their contribution. The students also participate in agriculture classes and will plant their own market gardens and the crops will be added to the lunch pot to improve its nutritional value. This is a very exciting project and we are seeking funding for different aspects of it. If you can help fund this program we would love to hear from you. please click HERE for a more detailed breakdown.

Water

Joas, Karen, John, Daniel and Julian

Without water there is nothing, water is the essence of life. For a school not to have water is unthinkable. The students at the Sinai Primary School and the Fredrick Sumaye Secondary School had to walk, often during class time, over 1 km each way carrying 20 litre buckets of water just to be able to drink, cook, wash their hands and clean the classrooms. Not anymore. Water is no longer a punishment but a pleasure.  In just a few weeks in January/February this year we brought water to both schools. The Sinai School’s water pump was brought from the USA by our friends at Sabre and Woodland Hill Montessori School. The Frederick Sumaye School’s well was sponsored by the Julie Baldwin from the Nailsea School and built but the volunteers from Quest Overseas. To the 606 students at Sinai it means they are at last able to start their orchard and their market garden which will form part of the school’s education program and play a lead role in our school feeding project

Pigs against Poverty

A sow

The Pig Project has captured many people’s curiosity. Of the ten piglets we loaned the community last March the 5 hogs have been fattened up and sold, while the 5 sows are all expecting litters in June and the Quest Overseas volunteers built special birthing sties to protect the piglets from their tired mothers.

It has not all been plain sailing; some of the community members were not making their monthly payments but still expect a share of the profits when they come. We had some very serious meetings with the group and they have learnt that this project is a business not a charity and that in business one must be fully committed or walk away. Of the original 30 members there are now 20. With these ladies we discussed cash flow, profit and loss, and planning. We examined the problems of feed, water, shelter and health not just of 5 pigs but 30-50 pigs and together we have all agreed a 24 month business plan which is designed to focus on just pig breeding, rather than pig breeding and pig rearing. This will help them manage the cash flow of the business and improve its likelihood of successful

The Girl Guides of Babati

Girl Guides

Last summer the Livingstone Tanzania Trust planted the idea that Babati ought to have a Girl Guide group. We thought that the Guides could work with the girls in the community and assist them with health and hygiene issues, equality and rights issues and offer moral guidance and support to help them develop into good leaders for their families, their community and the country.

We are delighted that Mrs Kahembe took the idea and ran with it and has now established Babati’s first girl guide group. Although none of the initial 12 dedicated and up standing members of the community can be called girls, these women represent women who want to make a difference and want the girls in the community to be empowered to change their lives and fight the problems they face head on. We are honoured to have played a part in their establishment and are delighted to have been able to assist meet their early financial costs. We wish them success in all that they do. We continue to look for links for them with the Girl Guides movement in the UK so that they can grow and learn more about the outside world. Can you help us develop this project and support this newly formed group? Please email julian@livingstonetanzaniatrust.com

Fuel Efficient Stoves

New Stoves

The Waangwaray Womens Group’s product research identified a demand for the stoves, but also recognised that the cost is greater than the community can afford due to their limited disposable income. The Livingstone Tanzania Trust have recognised the potential environmental impact of not using the stoves and have agreed to subsidise the sale of the stoves by 25% and have put in place an accounting system to ensure transparency. We believe that this will help kick start this project and help the community reduce the rate of deforestation.

Clean Hands Saves Lives

Hand washing is essential to prevent the spread of diseases

With diarrhoea being a problem for young children because it can lead to death, we felt it important to launch this educational health program at our two primary schools. The toilets at most schools do not have water or any hand washing facilities, nor do they have toilet paper. You do the maths!

In our workshops with volunteer Lesley we got the kids to identify 5 good or fun things they do with their hands and then 5 dirty things they do with their hands. We got them to identify where on their hands bacteria might live. We made them think about how bacteria moves from person to person. With everyone using their hands to eat the need for clean hands is vital. Why don’t you think about how you wash your hands, do the action. Ask yourself, did you really clean your thumb? Your thumb does everything but it rarely gets the cleaning it needs. We also encouraged coughing not into your hand but your shoulder. We then provided a water tank for each school and soap so that now the kids can all wash their hands after the toilet, before preparing food and before eating food. It is not rocket science….. If you want to help sponsor the Clean Hands Saves Lives programme at other schools, we would love to hear from you.

Quest Overseas

Quest team

As always we are grateful to Quest Overseas whose supply of high quality volunteers and team leaders makes it a pleasure to work with them. The volunteers on this trip had a fantastic, life changing time. Aside from digging wells, building fence posts, holding reading classes, learning Swahili, looking after the livestock, farming the land, building a fish pond, staying overnight with the community, cooking and cleaning for themselves, also found time to make loads of new friends and learn what life is like on the other side of the word.

Volunteering in the Summer 2011

Paul and Vincent came for a month

We already have a number of people planning to come out this summer, some teachers and others with no relevant skills but full of enthusiasm to get involved and help where they can. We are very excited about the trip and hope that we can raise the funds to get a new library built, as well as a food store for the food programme, some more fish ponds and tables and benches for another kindergarten. The contributions that our volunteers make not only goes to buy the materials for each project but also contributes to the ongoing wages costs which make the projects sustainable.

What does sustainable mean?

The term sustainable is horribly over used and often in the wrong context. In development speak sustainability refers to the use of resources in such a way that they meet the social, environmental and economic needs of today’s generation whilst preserving the environment so that future generations can continue to enjoy them. For a project to be sustainable it must be able to survive after the funding and the management leave. The best place therefore to start any project is to work out what you need to do to ensure the project survives after you have gone. Our school income generation schemes will provide the school with an income to supplement the income from the government so that the building we help them build can be maintained after we have left. The training we provide to the community allows them to understand the how’s and why’s of the projects to enable them to manage it successfully on their own. We would be wasting our time and your donations if we failed to consider these things.

What a relief!!

New toilet, good for the thighs

It may at first seem unimportant, until suddenly it is you who needs to go, but a decent toilet should be a human right!!! The appalling staff and guest toilet at the Sinai Primary School has at last been replaced with a flush toilet with tile surround, a shower, a skylight and rainwater harvesting.

Talking at Schools, Colleges and Community Groups

The Livingstone Tanzania Trust enjoys talking to people and telling them about the work we are doing because we are proud of what we do.

We have spoken at several schools and colleges because we think it important that young people know about and appreciate their good fortune and understand the misfortune of those who are born into extreme poverty. As one student from Richmond College said “This is really important for our generation to know, so we are not just in our little boxes”.  It is important to us that people understand what poverty is really like in Tanzania rather than the images that the media would have us believe.

If you would like us to come and talk at a school near you we would be more than happy to.  If a contribution can be made to cover travel expenses and a donation to the charity that would be even better. It seems dreadful to ask, but it is not fair that our UK donors pay for these costs. Please email Julian on julian@livingstonetanzaniatrust.com

Inheritance tax avoidance

In the March 2011 Budget the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, announced that he would, with effect of 6^th April 2012, reduce inheritance tax from 40% to 36% IF 10% or more of the value of the estate was donated to charity. Donations to charity already fall outside the taxable estate so if your intention is to reduce the tax burden to your family then leaving a legacy to a charity is a great way forward. We would be delighted if you would consider the Livingstone Tanzania Trust as one of your selected charities.

London to Paris

Simon

Simon Page has kindly agreed to put his body through hell for the Livingstone Tanzania Trust. He is spending months training for what will be a massive challenge. To cycle from London to Paris in just 24 hours. Most challenges like this take 3 days, but Simon wants to make it harder and more worthy of your donation.  Call him crazy, call him what you like, but he is going the extra mile to help us buy the books we need and we’d love your support. Please send a cheque made payable to Livingstone Tanzania Trust to Julian Page at the address below saying what the cheque is for or go to http://www.bmycharity.com/L2P24 and donate on line.

THANK YOU

As always none of this work would be possible without the phenomenal support of so many people.

In particular I want to pay tribute to Lorna, Hayden, Dominic, Kari, Emily and their team leader Alix from Quest; John, Karen, Chris and Penny from Sabre and Brian and Daniel from Darrow School NY, USA; my friends Jane and Lesley and especially to my new friends Paul and Vincent whose patience with the business planning, health training, and building works has been fantastic. The people of Babati owe you all a huge debt.