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.