Our Support Grows.

Hello everyone,

During the last few weeks, Smiles To Tanzania has been supported by many kind people who have given us clothing, shoes, curtains and first aid equipment.  Church Groups and Women's Institutes  have been knitting blankets and 'fish and chip' tops etc.   Our thanks go to everyone who have provided enough items to fill the 64 boxes we have filled so far.

Northstead Methodist Church Ladies Group in Scarborough, North Yorkshire have donated school sweatshirts for the children of L.V.C, and knitted and crocheted over 20 baby blankets and other beautiful childrens' clothing....

  and there is more ......

some lovely soft blankets for babies ......

and two of the ladies who have been so busy knitting blankets, teddy bear glove puppets and little teddies (among other things) are Monica and Phyllis.  Thank you to everyone who is supporting our charity.

We had a phone call from Mrs. Jean Spenceley, President of Stokesley W.I. who kindly gave us a donation of 126 'fish and chip' vests, some childrens clothing, pencils, buttons and shoes.  Also 20 duvets/valances which LVC Tailoring will make into clothing.  Thank you, your donation is invaluable. See photo below.

Our friends from Thornton le Dale W.I. have been busy again and knitted another 32 'fish and chip' vests for us.  The little African babies will be so well dressed!  Thank you once again.

Filey Tesco donated 23 pairs of children's and adults flip flop shoes.  Forty five children's hats and some bikini bottoms which the children will use as knickers. We can never send enough hats and shoes, so your donation is very welcome.

B & Q in Scarborough have kindly donated 10 rolls of Duck Tape to help seal our boxes.

Thank you to everyone who have kindly donated goods and or helped in any way these last few weeks.  Your support is appreciated.

Until the next time,

Best Wishes,

Diane, Derek and the team. 

Alex's Outreach Programme to combat Malnutrition and Malaria in Ukerewe, Tanzania.

Hello,

We have just received the following report from Alex Magaga, Chairman of Lake Victoria Childrens Society in Ukerewe regarding their forthcoming outreach activities.

L.V.C. have won a one-off grant from the Diplomatic Spouse Group (DSG) in Dar es Salaam, the same charity who supported us to set up a Tailoring Shop in 2011.

In May, they are going to fund us to implement a project called COMMUNITY ACTION AGAINST MALNUTRITION AND MALARIA.  It will take three months to complete the project.  The outreach programme will be carried out in the evenings so as not to interfere with our other activities.   I submitted the funding request to help us with our Health Action Programme and from it I designed the Community Action Against Malnutrition and Malaria.  One of the members of the DSG will visit us to monitor the programme and we expect the grant to cover the costs for three months to educate the communities in ten villages.

PROJECT BACKGROUND.  Community Action Against Malnutrition and Malaria (CAAMM) is a project specifically designed to fight malnutrition and malaria in their wide ranging effects in children and pregnant women on Ukerewe Island.   The project will be implemented in two sections. The first being malnutrition and the second, malaria prevention.

   MALNUTRITION

Goal.   

Improvement in the health and nutritional status of children under five years of age and also pregnant and lactating women.  This is to ensure healthy child growth by strengthening services and increasing family and community involvement in health and nutritional education activities by introducing at family level the production and consumption of highly nutritious OFSP (Orange Fleshed Sweet Potatoes).

Objectives.

Increased level of awareness of the benefits of OFSP to health in children and pregnant women.

Promote and facilitate production of OFSP at household level.

Increase consumption of OFSP in all vulnerable populations.

Promote and advocate integration of OFSP in agricultural programmes.

Expand and enhance marketing of OFSP across various communities.

Activities.

Mobilisation of communities for the need for each family to produce OFSP.

Capacity building to families on the production of OFSP through training, seminars and community meetings etc. (About 150 families identified from 10 villages)

Capacity building to families on basic social marketing tips of OFSP, business skills and targeting potential buyers and post harvest handling of OFSP.

To lower the cost of seed and other advice for the improved production of OFSP.

Family based surveillance to measure production, consumption and marketing of OSFP.

MALARIA

Goal

To decrease sickness and mortality from Malaria by mobilising community action against the disease.  This will be in areas where incident rates are at the highest, especially around fishing communities.

Objectives.

To increase access to adequate and effective drugs for treatment at Health Facility and community level.

Increase the use of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITN) for children and pregnant women.

Increase coverage and use of personal protective measures including indoor residual spraying.

Increase awareness and practice of malaria control and prevention in the community.

Increase in effective and efficient coordination and utilisation of resources available.

Increase awareness of malaria, its signs and symptoms to prevent it on Ukerewe Island.

Link community actions with national malaria prevention efforts to control the disease.

Activities.

The distribution of Mosquito Nets to identified vulnerable children and their families who do not have mosquito nets. (About 100 families identified in eight villages)

Educating the community through meetings on the management of stagnant water and other mosquito breeding sites in the community.

Identification of malaria prevention as a priority for local action and development of a local malaria awareness to ensure timely referral of severe cases.

Train care-givers/community health workers in the management of malaria at home and in the community.

Conduct field visits to identify different facilities which need the provision of mosquito nets. 

Thank you Alex and good luck with your extensive project.

Best wishes,
Diane and Derek 
             

Smiles to Tanzania now has a Website.

Hello again,

The good news is that we have just launched our Website which you can access at
www.smilestotanzania.org.  Our thanks go to Christopher Edwards, our web master, who has designed and arranged the layout, and will continue to work with us to make sure  that the site is continuously updated.

Eventually, our blogs will go straight to the Website, which is currently linked to to our existing blog account.

Have a look and see who we are - our aims and fund raising, plus our photos and our dreams.  Please pass on the details of our site, to your family, friends and any interested individuals and organizations who may be interested in helping us.

We would appreciate any feedback which you may wish to give.  Thank you for reading this.

Best wishes,

Diane, Derek and the team.

Maendeleo Womens Group Now Make Briquettes.

Hello to you all,

Last month we heard from Alex about a new group of women who had been trained in the making of briquettes.  Here is his report about the training of the new group.

Maendeleo Womens Group is a group of 36 women in Bulamba village, about two miles from Nansio town.  They have been together for about seven years and are women from poor families.  Some of them are widows and they all struggle to feed their children.  They are exactly the kind of families LVC supports through outreach programmes.  They work together in farms, comfort and help each other during funerals etc.  What is interesting with these ladies is that they are women of the same character.  They work together in strong numbers.

When introduced to the Briquette project, they were really excited and the first training course went very well at Lake Victoria Childrens Society premises.  Further training was held in their village where I, and one of the ladies from  LVC who is still working on the project there, reinforced the initial training that had taken place at LVC.  The women are now qualified in all stages of their training and are looking forward to carrying on themselves, producing briquettes.

We provided this group with one machine, as you can see in the photos below, 5 large buckets (blue), 4 small buckets (white), one plastic sheet and one basket for storage.  I strongly urged them to keep all the things safe and will be visiting to check on them.  I want the ladies to produce enough briquettes first and use among themselves and then try to share with the rest of the community through selling them.  What matters most at this stage is for the ladies to enjoy making the briquettes.  Marketing will naturally follow and we will see how they get on.  If what I have seen is anything to go by, I feel that they will do very well. 

Although firewood is not a problem in the villages, my hope is that they will produce enough briquettes to try and sell them in Nansio.  It will take time, but these women seem very determined and have the potential to make this project a success.

Alex Magaga.



Chabona, the Trainer from Lake Victoria Childrens Society, instructing the group in the village.

Women of the Maendeleo Group.



At this stage the women are now competent enough to produce briquettes themselves.



Briquettes which have been made by the group.



Alex with the women of Maendeleo group.



The women are enjoying themselves after successfully completing their training.

Thank you Alex for your report.  We wish the ladies every success with their briquette making.

Until the next time.

Best Wishes,

Diane and Derek

Recent Local Fund Raising Events.

Hello from a cold but dry Filey, U.K.

On 16th March Filey Rotary Club held a Spring Fayre and we booked two tables to fund raise for Smiles to Tanzania.

We thought you might like to see some photos of the event.  The photo below shows a friend Margaret manning the soft toy stall, which proved quite popular.  Most of the soft toys were 'Easter' themed, being mainly chickens, rabbits or lambs.  Each toy was given a name and the customer picked a name out of the container to see which one they had won.  A prize every time!

I had a stall with a variety of goods where people picked a card and matched it with one on the table to see what prize they had won.  Again, a prize every time!

It was good fun, and thanks to Margaret and her husband Graham for helping out.

------------

A couple of days ago Derek and I visited the Alba Rose Residential Home in Pickering, where we met the residents, and Derek gave a presentation showing slides of us with Lake Victoria Children's Society; giving out clothes, shoes, soap etc. to the outlying villagers, and also the lining of the well at the Albino Society.

Some of the Alba Rose lady residents had helped to sew up some of the 'fish and chip' vests which we had received from Thornton le Dale W.I earlier this month.  Before our visit, the Home had taken part in a coffee morning and earmarked the proceeds for our charity.

Many thanks to the Alba Rose Residential Home Management, and to the residents for their hospitality and donations.  It was good to meet you all.

Our photo below shows Ann Marflitt (Activities Coordinator) and Lena Gowthorpe, a resident of the Alba Rose Home.

-------------

March has proved to be a busy month for the charity.  Derek has given six presentations to various organizations to raise awareness for the need to help our friends on Ukerewe island.

Robert has been busy producing a tri-fold leaflet  which can be given to interested people. 

Christopher continues to work on our Web site.  Watch this space!

We have been given donations of mens and womens clothing,  knitted childrens jumpers and baby hats, books and soft toys.  Thank you all for your kindness.  

We wish you all a Very Happy Easter,

Until the next time,

Best wishes,

Diane, Derek and the team.

Urgent help needed to support Justine Lunzagi?

Hello again,

We have received this report from Alex Magaga, Chairman of Lake Victoria Children.  LVC also have a number of Ambassadors who live in many of the seventyfive villages on the island, and they look out for families and especially children who need special help.

The Story of Justine Lunzagi.

Justine is 9 years old.  He lives in Nantare village on Ukerewe Island.  Nantare is about two miles from the Lake Victoria Childrens centre.  Justine lives with his dad who is dying of AIDS.  Justine himself is HIV positive, and was infected by his mom either at birth or through breast feeding.  His mom died four years ago.

Justine is now in Class 3 in one of the community schools.  He misses school a lot due to falling ill very often.  He is very clever and comes second out of fiftytwo children in his class in exams. 

LVC discovered Justine through our programme HAP (Health Action Programme).  He is on Antiviral drugs to improve his health and so is his dad.  The problem is Justine does not have enough to eat, let alone nutritious food, to fight his illness.  He sometimes goes to bed hungry and Antiviral drugs are too strong on an empty stomach.

We are trying to help him through our HAP but there is very little we can do ourselves,.  He needs food to eat and be strong enough for the Antiviral drugs.  He has visited our centre twice with the help of one of his dad's relatives, who cannot do much himself. 

Justine's case is one of many exceptional cases we come across in villages and feel it is important we widely share his case.  Is there anyone willing to support him?  £30 will feed Justine healthy food for one month.  His biggest dream is to be a Doctor, but unless he wins his battle against HIV with medication, his dream is unlikely to materialise.

Thank you Alex for this very moving story.

If anyone can help Justine, please do contact us at smilestotanzania@gmail.com.



Best wishes,

Diane and Derek

Helping Hands for Ukerewe.

Hello there,

We have been amazed at the kindness of people who are helping the charity.  As you know, we are continually fund raising for L.V.C  and the underprivileged people of Ukerewe.  Earlier this month we were given four dressed dollies.  The lady who had donated them has sat for many hours knitting, and then sewing on the bows, buttons and tiny pearl beads etc. and these dollies are dressed beautifully.   Thank you Mrs. Christine Thompson of Filey, U.K  for your kind generosity.  Two of them have already been sold.  We thought you would like to see them.  Brenda soon fell in love with the little boy dolly ...........

and this morning, the second dolly was sold.........

This dolly has little pearl beads sewn as eyes for the scotty dogs which are knitted in the clothes.  Vera just couldnt resist buying it!   Here are the other two which will either be sold, or raffled.

Aren't they beautiful?

We were recently given a donation of books from Filey Junior School - for which we are very thankful.  

A company called Benenden Co. U.K. donated hundreds of pens and note pads.  These will certainly come in handy on Ukerewe island when we send the next container. Very often, the pupils cannot afford writing materials, so thank you for your generous donation.

Our friends Steve and Patricia who have worked tirelessly to support the people of Ukerewe have received lots of small knitted tops from the U3A group in Redcar, U.K.   We have been given 50 of these, and we thank the U3A group most sincerely for their kind contribution shown below.

There is a story to these knitted vests.  On Tuesday night we visited Thornton le Dale W.I. group as they had been knitting for the charity.  They mentioned that the vests were called 'Fish and Chip' vests and told us why.  In Africa, very often when a baby is born there are no clothes to dress the child in, and so the baby is wrapped up in newspaper, hence the name 'Fish and Chip baby.'

For our overseas readers - Years ago,  our Fish and Chip shops in the U.K. always wrapped the food in grease proof paper first and then newspaper, to keep the food warm.  

Here is a lovely photo of the Thornton le Dale W.I. who have been so busy with their knitting kneedles.  The vests shown in the photo are just a few which had been knitted.  In all we came away with 79 vests ......

and this is what they look like!   Thank you Thornton Dale W.I. for your continued support.  There will be many, many babies looking cute and snug in these vests - and thats the way it should be! 

Until the next time,

Best Wishes

Diane, Derek and the team.

Alex's New Website for L.V.C.

Hello there,

Alex now has a brand new website which he has put together himself.  He works so hard for the Lake Victoria Childrens Society and vulnerable children in the villages, as well as being a volunteer for the Tanzania Albino Society in Ukerewe.

His dream that all the children on the island are fed and educated will take years, but he has set out his vision and expectations up to 2016.  Smiles to Tanzania are very mindful of Alex's hard work and dedication and we support him and his aims one hundred percent.  To log on to Alex's new site go to http:/www.envaya.org/lakevictoriachildrenLVC.   We know you will be impressed.

For those of you on Facebook, why not pass this website on to your friends.

Until the next time,

Best wishes,
Diane and Derek

We are now a registered Charity!

Hello again,

Derek and I have been away for a while visiting family in Australia, and when we arrived home we were delighted to find that our registration with HMRC had arrived.  This means that 'Smiles to Tanzania' is now a fully registered charity in the U.K.

Our son in Australia has offered to set up a website for the charity and we hope to bring you news of this at a later date.

Thank you to everyone who has helped us financially so far.  Since we have returned home we have received a donation from Northstead Methodist Church Ladies Circle in Scarborough, for which we are very grateful.

Another lovely surprise awaited our return when we were invited to the village of Wold Newton in North Yorkshire where friends had organized a Quiz evening in their village pub called The Anvil Arms.  Everyone enjoyed a fun night and a total of £145.10 was raised and donated to the charity.  Our thanks go to John and Liz Butler for arranging the quiz, and to Sheila Baker who runs The Anvil Arms for hosting the evening.

Above are Liz, Diane and Denise who are helping count the proceeds.

John and Derek with Sheila, the Landlady of The Anvil Arms.


Until the next time,

Best wishes,

Diane, Derek and the team.

Creating a New Kitchen for Lake Victoria Children's Society

Hello again,

 Whilst in Ukerewe during July/August 2012, it was decided to create a new kitchen for Lake Victoria Children's Society. There was an existing outside kitchen, which is usual on the island.



There was an empty room available to rent, which needed painting out.  Steve soon set to work ...

and Everest, who owns the building was always a willing helper ....

Noella was the local electrician, and Noella and Terry (a volunteer joiner) made a good team.  Whilst Noella was installing cables, Terry was fitting the gas hob into the work surface.

I'll teach you some joinery Noella, so look and learn!

Robert was teaching Dorice how to tile .......

and afterwards, Steve taught her how to grout between the tiles ...

After a team effort, the finished kitchen.

The gas hob definitely came in handy for cooking pancakes for lunch

A well earned rest for Patricia and Robert

The kitchen is now an essential place for the childrens breakfast preparations.  LVC have been doing some outside catering to seminars and meetings etc. when ever the opportunity has arisen.

The stainless steel tables and gas hob, along with other things, was kindly sourced by Pat and Steve.

Until the next time.

Best Wishes,

Diane and Derek.

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas

We would like to wish all of our friends of "Smiles to Tanzania" in Australia; Canada; China; France; Germany; India; Latvia; Russia; South Africa; Sweden; Tanzania; Ukraine; United Kingdom and United States of America a Very Happy Christmas and a Peaceful and Healthy New Year.

Thank you for looking at our blog and taking an interest in what we are trying to achieve in Ukerewe.  Please feel free to register (it is free) and if you have any questions, we will be glad to answer them. 

Since we arrived back from Ukerewe in August, Alex and the Lake Victoria Children's Society - and also the families in the villages - have constantly been in our thoughts.  So much so that we have lodged our Registration for our own Charity also called Smiles To Tanzania.

Our long term aim is to build bigger premises to enable Alex to educate and feed more children and all of us in the team have already started fund raising for this.  But in the meantime, we would dearly love to send a container out next year full of clothes, shoes, soap, school books, bedding, material etc.  To enable us to do this, we need sponsors to pay for the shipment of the container.

There is so much we can all do to improve the lives of the orphaned and disadvantaged children and other families in Ukerewe.  Not only do the recipients feel good but the donors do too!  If you can help in any way, it would be greatly appreciated if you could contact us at www.smilestotanzania@gmail.com.

2013 will be a very exciting year and with your help we can send them lots of Love and Smiles.

Seasons Greetings

from Diane, Derek and the team.

From Trash to Treasure - Buckets for Ukerewe

Hello again,

Steve Pratt has kindly written this blog for us.

Having volunteered in Africa twice before, we know the value of empty plastic containers - more specifically 5, 10, 20 and 25 litre buckets - and if they had lids that fitted, that made them even more desirable.

Prior to our first visit to Ukerewe, there were plans to start a bakery producing bread, and as Pat and I live just up the lane from Thomas the Baker's factory, we went to see them for advice.  The bread-making didn't materialize on that trip, but we saw that their mayonnaise, jam, mincement and syrups all came in 5 to 25 litre tubs - all with lids!

Why were we so excited?  Because if you don't have proper storage for your food, the mites, insects and other pests will soon find and contaminate it.  (This trip we also needed some large buckets for the briquette making project we had planned).

When the container is getting a bit battered or the lid has been lost, it can then be used to carry water.  This is usually a job for the women and children, and they have to carry containers with 15 -20 litres of water (thats 15 - 20 kilos) balanced on their heads for several miles a day.  The girls are started young with smaller buckets.

With so many empties Thomas the Baker was only too glad to let us have as many as we wanted.  We felt that 20 of each size would be all we could deal with on this trip, so they were collected (with lids) and washed out.  You wouldn't believe how hard it is to clean a bucket that had  had syrup in it, and how the smell of mincement will still be there months later when the container was unpacked!

Chris Chapman, quality assurance manager at Thomas the Baker said "Due to the quantities of ingredients used at the bakery here in Helmsley, we're inundated with large containers and tubs, and its fantastic that they are of use to the residents of Ukerewe and the orphaned children for day-to-day tasks such as carrying food and water.  Who'd have thought our old containers would be making such a difference to the lives of people half way across the world?"

Thank you Thomas the Baker - I'm sure we will be back for more.

Stephen Pratt.

Thanks Steve.  It is heart-warming to think that someone who has so little, can be helped with a simple bucket.  As you can see above, the empty plastic paint containers were soon put to other use at L.V.C.

Until the next time,

Diane and Derek.

Lake Victoria Childrens Society win Award

Hello again,

During October, Alex Magaga of Lake Victoria Children, made an application to PANITA which is a Partnership for Nutrition in Tanzania, who work with Save the Children, for funding  to commemorate a day to raise awareness regarding nutrition.

Forty seven organizations in Tanzania submitted a proposal and ultimately LVC was selected to receive funding to commemorate the event.  It had been agreed by all African OAU Member States, that the 30th October would be a day to recognise African Food and Nutrition Security Day.

In Ukerewe the event was held in Bulamba Village, and Government Personnel and Dignitaries were invited.   LVC introduced the event which is specifically held to mobilise and create awareness across communities about the importance of food and good nutrition, especially for children and expecting mothers.

All the children from the LVC Centre were taken, to be involved in this event.  Furthermore, all of the LVC Ambassadors from across the island came to join in too. Here the LVC children are sitting so patiently waiting for the proceedings to start.

The commemoration kicked off at 2.30 p.m. in a spectacular fashion with a thirty minute demonstration from a Health Centre in Bulamba village, and then on to a football pitch where the event was to take place.  Participants were holding up banners carrying the message for the event.  Dunga Ngoma Group, the most popular one in Ukerewe entertained with their music and dance, and played a vital roll in attracting the maximum crowd for the event.  Unbelieveably the crowd grew from about 100 to over 700 in the space of three hours.  Here Alex is giving out leaflets to the crowd.

The guest of honour, Mr. Toto Mkama the Ward chancellor in the area said the time has come for people in Ukerewe to learn and understand about nutrition and its relevance to a healthy life, saying many children on the Island die not from witchcraft which is what many parents believe but lack of adequate nutrition and this makes children vulnerable to diseases such as frequent malaria, diarrhoea and malnutrition.

Four extremely qualified individuals in nutrition stood up one by one and described the importance of good nutrition to life.  They explained how lack of nutrition at a tender age can permanently affect growth and mental ability and therefore ruin the potential of a child in later life.  "Without proper nutrition at early years of child development, is like a plant without fertilizer - it will never produce adequately", the crowd were told.

The need for growing and eating diversified nutritious foods was explained and residents on the island were urged to cultivate orange fleshed sweet potatoes.  The integration of Nutrition Services in all routine and outreach health services and programmes were needed.  Nutrition for sick children; pregnant women; lactating mothers and other women of reproductive age is vital and breast feeding is critically important for the growth of a healthy child, the crowd were informed.

Families in Ukerewe need to live in a healthy environment with good access to toilets and other sanitation services.  Boiling drinking water was important and the government at local level needs to improve,  and put in place effective health facilities and services, including nutrition services, such as micronutrient supplementation and nutrition education, the official said.

The audience asked questions and it was obvious that a large proportion did not understand about nutrition.  They now know that children with swollen bellies were malnourished and not bewitched as their parents had believed.

The Ambassadors from LVC went back to their own villages and passed on to the local population the information gained about nutrition.

Alex Magaga then travelled to Dar es Salaam to participate in the National Commemoration organised by PANITA - but not before the LVC children had been given a very nutritious meal back at the LVC centre, to celebrate!

Our thanks to Alex for sharing this special event with us - and our Congratulations to him for organizing such a successful event in the community.

Best wishes,

Diane and Derek



A loving 'thank you' from Ukerewe.

Hello again,

A couple of days ago we received an e-mail from Alex Magaga.  We thought it would be good to share it with you.

Dear Diane and Derek, Steve and Patricia and Brenda and Robert,

Hope you are all keeping well.  I just wanted to share with you some feedback we have received from our Village Ambassadors following our outreach programme in which you fully participated when you came out to volunteer with our Organization. 

The reaction has been simply overwhelming.  We have received a lot of thanks from members of the community in the villages you went to with us.  We are thanked for the things we gave to people in the community and members of the community here send lots of love and deep appreciation for all your support.  Our organization has always worked to support people in the community in the same way, but we have never been able to reach so many people in so little time and be able to give so much to so many.  Our village Ambassadors are being thanked everywhere in their villages, and been asked to send lots of thanks to you all for coming out and be part of our community and support people in a way not many people have done before.  We are getting a lot of credits as an organization and it is all coming from the villages, but we feel you deserve the credits more than we do, as nothing could have happened without you coming out with so much for people in our community.

The village where I took Diane and Brenda the first day, the LVC Ambassador told us how one family said you were the first visitors to walk into their home and give clothes and soap, things that matter so much in their lives. 

The village Derek and I went to, one child told our village Ambassador that it was hard for them to understand how it was the first time we had met them, yet we loved them so much and gave them things they have never had all their lives (Shoes).  Hope Derek remembers the family. 

The village I went with Patricia and Stephen towards the end of your trip, the Ambassador was asked by one poor family (we gave toys and clothes first), 'When would you ever return to the island to see them again', as you were such lovely visitors.

The village we went with Robert and Brenda (Musozi) I think this was the village we gave out so much stuff in one go! the community was thrilled.  The village leader said to our Ambassador that how you helped people in the village was the best and most generous way people in his village have ever been served.  He asked if there was any way many volunteers like you could come to help people in his village in the same way in the future?

So you can see how the reaction has been from the community.  We are so happy you chose to help the community through our Organization and the name LVC has grown faster than ever!  Receive lots of greetings from all of us, Mama Lucy, Benjamin, the teachers (Mpuluko), the Tailoring ladies, Briquette ladies, Everest and all the children at Lake Victoria Children, Ukerewe.

This is what I wanted to share with you all,

Many thanks and Best Wishes.

Alex Magaga
Chairman LVC. 


Our thanks to Alex for his moving report. We will remember the time we shared with these lovely people as one of the most rewarding times in our lives.  Sometimes you don't have to speak the same language to experience a very strong bond. Just being there together, sharing smiles and understanding their hardships goes a long way to supporting each other.

Until the next time,

Best Wishes,
Diane and Derek

Update on Lake Victoria Childrens Tailoring Shop, Ukerewe.

Hello to you all,

Recently, we heard from Alex Magaga, Chairman of Lake Victoria Children, that the Tailoring shop was going from strength to strength. It was not only Alex's dream, but the wish of Mage and her team of machinists, for material from which they could make clothes as well as doing mending for the community.

Thanks to a local hospital in the UK who were replacing the ward curtains, we were given a large quantity of material which was transported in the container to LVC Tailoring shop, and the machinists are now busy sewing and the goods are successfully being sold.  The machinists get paid for what they produce, thereby helping the ladies to support their families.  For a very small fee, the ladies can also use the machines to make their own childrens clothes.

In the photo below, Alex and Mage are discussing the material.

We were also given a quantity of white bedding sheets, which had been discarded from a nearby Caravan Park.  The sheets had all been laundered and again these are in LVC Tailoring shop and are now being made into white school shirts, and sold.

On the left of the picture below is a wooden unit which Pat and Steve paid for, and some of the sewing goods which they also sent in the container.

It is truly wonderful that goods in our country which have become surplus to requirements here, can have a second life in a country thousands of miles away, and importantly, bring in revenue to help educate and feed small children.   It makes you feel good to be part of the process in helping others to help themselves.

Until next time,

Best Wishes,

Diane and Derek.

More Village Stories in Ukerewe

Hello again,

A particularly interesting gentleman who we met was Sebastian. We were surprised and delighted to hear him speak in perfect  English. He asked where in England we had come from and was very interested in what we were doing on the Island.

Sebastian looks after more than twenty grandchildren. He explained that three of his sons had passed away. We were able to give clothes, shoes, soap etc to the family

Other family members.

In the next village that we visited, we met the Village Chief Executive and Alex explained who we were and what we were doing. We also met the Ward Health Officer and of course the Lake Victoria Childrens Ambassador. We were told there were 2953 people living in this village.

We were taken to the home of Rachel who has five children whose ages range from four to thirteen years. Her husband deserted the family two years ago. The children have never been to school or worn a pair of shoes. Rachel cannot send the children to school as she has no money for uniforms or books. She can hardly afford to feed her family. In the background you can see her home which is only nine feet by fifteen feet in size.

She selected clothes for her and the children ... ... ... ...

... ... ... ... and the children each had their first pair of shoes.

This is Kambona who has eight children. Her husband died two years ago. Five of her children go to school and Kambona gets help with uniforms etc. through a Christian organization. We left clothes for her and the children, and also shoes.

This is where the family live.





This nineteen year old is Reuben. He lost both of his parents last year with stomach problems. He has now taken on the roll of guardian to look after three brothers and one sister. He attends Secondary school in the mornings and in the afternoon he gets any work that he can in the village to try and support his family financially.

This is home for Reuben and his family

As we have said before, it was very emotional to meet these families and see the hardships which they face on a daily basis. We shall continue to work towards helping them in whatever way we can.

We will bring you more stories from the villages another time.

Until then, best wishes,

Diane and Derek