Since leaving the UK for Tanzania there has been a whirlwind
of activity and adjustments as I have got used to living and working in this
unique community. It is good to be back in East Africa again and I am enjoying a
beautiful part of the continent and being involved in a grassroots project that
is really impacting people’s lives.
I am in the far south of Tanzania in a very
remote and consequently very poor region. The improvements to the road
infrastructure that have been made in the more populated areas of the country
have not happened here and a journey of less than 100km can take over 4 hours
by road. The people are therefore quite ‘cut off’ but this project is providing
services and training that would otherwise not be available to them.
The main activity is a secondary school with about 800
pupils (exact numbers seem hard to come by…). There is also a 100 bed hospital,
which serves the local community and people come from all over the region to
receive treatment. There is a nursing school, which is currently training about
100 students and there is a vocational training school providing training to
about 250 students in tailoring, carpentry, metal work, welding (I’m not sure
how that differs from metal work) or car mechanics. All of the students and most of the staff live
on-site and so all the infrastructure to support a community (electricity,
water, food, accommodation, etc.) is also present.
Here are some photos to give a bit of a flavour of my first
week here:
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| The team I came out with - two South Africans, five Germans and me! |
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| Flying over the local area |
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| Dr Matamora - the Director of the project |
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| The new Finance Office - constructed out of 3 shipping containers... |
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| ...but still a work in progress |
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| Training with the Finance Department |
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| Food being prepared for all the students |
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