Newsletter Vol 1

The Livingstone Tanzania Trust is now a registered company and the paperwork for charity status is under way with the Charity Commission. This is great news and means that we can now start to operate officially.

We have been operating for 5 months now with me (Julian) being out in Tanzania researching and helping to build the Waang’warai Primary School. When you think of the standards that you want for your children in their schools you think of an environment that inspires, an environment that says you can be anything you want to be and our job is to make that happen. Well, most Tanzanian schools are like a time warp, going back 200 years with kids squeezed onto little desks, hardly any books or writing implements, 50-60 to a class rather than 20-25, teachers with very little experience of teaching and other teachers straight out of secondary school now teaching. You would never accept that, and nor do they. The community want more for their kids and are striving to build a bigger school with better facilities, but they lack the resources to move forward. They are happy to take time out of their jobs as subsistence farmers to make bricks, carry water for cement, make food for workers, they just can’t afford the expertise or the cement, roofing materials etc. That is where LTT steps in and helps them to help themselves. We are going to help them build their school, we are going to help the teachers get more skills, we are going to help the kids through education to get out of their poverty trap. LTT with your help can make a huge improvement to a great many people’s lives.

You can see the impact of the work we have undertaken. It is, I hope you agree, quite staggering what can be achieved when a community receives the right help.

BUT it is not over yet, we now have 3 nearly good classrooms, they need to be finished, the other 4 need to be brought up to scratch, 7 more need to be built from scratch. The one teacher's house needs to be finished, and 9 more built, the toilets need to be built, the kitchen improved upon. So much to do and we very much appreciate any assistance you can offer.

The LTT is not just a development charity that relies on the kind donations of a caring population. We are a tour operator. We have designed several tours of the region, including mountain climbing, game viewing and cultural exchanges, all of which are design to be educational, enjoyable and to stimulate the mind.  And the plus side is that included in each holiday is a development fee of which 100% goes to the community development projects that the tourist will visit. This will not only provide a steady source of income for the projects, but will also provide employment for local people and provide a boost to the local economy. We are also looking for volunteers to help either build parts of the school or teach in the school or help with teacher development. All details can be found on the website.