Friends of Amani Tanzania (UK Registered Charity 1114281) Welcomes You
About Us
Focus
Our support is centred around projects at the Amani Centre in Morogoro Town for children with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities, as well as assistance with education for disadvantaged children.
Since 2019 our involvement has expanded to include Care Ministry through community-based rehabilitation, education and community infrastructure projects in Shinyanga, in close collaboration with the Anglican Diocese of Shinyanga.
The professional expertise within the Friends of Amani Trustees also involves partnerships between British educational and religious institutions with the respective institutions in the Morogoro and Shinyanga Regions.
At the heart of the FOAT aims is to support the poorest members Tanzanian society in the immediate term, whilst enhancing long term development ties.
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Trustees
The Trustees' professional network in the UK and links with previous volunteers is a dynamic resource for much needed financial and professional support. The network of support and trustee liaison spans boarders between not only Tanzania and the UK, but also the Friends of Amani in the Netherlands among others.
The Charity has five major strategies for the raising of funds and awareness:
- Educational partnership and support
- Corporate sponsorship
- Harnessing the good will of UK Amani volunteers
- Events and initiatives
- Regular giving and gift aid
The Trustees
- Ken Spours (Chairman)
- Leslie Green (Treasurer)
- Bridget Green (Secretary)
- Catherine Swanson (resident in Tanzania to December 2018)
- John Bullock
- Rachel Derry
The Trustees meet four to five times per year and endeavour to visit Amani Centre at least once per year either individually or in pairs. Trustees Briget and Leslie Green also try to visit Shinyanga on an annual basis. Regular communication takes place:
- between the Charity and Amani Centre, and with the broader network of support in the Morogoro Region, which includes the Roman Catholic and Anglican Diocese of Morogoro and the universities;
- between the Charity and senior clergy in the Anglical Diocese of Shinyanga, with responsibility for Care Ministry
Trustee Profiles
Ken Spours (Chairman)
Bridget Green (Secretary)
Leslie Green (Treasurer)
Ken is Emeritus Professor at UCL Institute of Education and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Capital Normal University, Beijing. In addition to his academic duties, he has been active in FOAT for 15 years and has served as its Chair throughout this period.
Ken has visited the Amani Centre on more than 10 occasions, with a particular focus on enabling strategic discussions with the Catholic Diocese of Morogoro that is responsible for the overall governance of the Amani Centre.
Leslie Green (Treasurer)
Bridget Green (Secretary)
Leslie Green (Treasurer)
Leslie is one of the founder FOAT Trustees and Honorary Treasurer of the Charity.
Leslie is a Chartered Engineer and was employed in a variety of engineering and finance roles by a major gas company, finishing his career managing the multi-million pound North Sea Gas purchase contracts, before taking early retirement in 1998. For the next seventeen years he worked as a part-time IT manager for a local NHS GP practice.
Leslie is an active member of his local Anglican church, where he has served for over 25 years as chair of the property group and has overseen several major refurbishment projects. He joined the local Rotary club in 2018 and is currently team leader of the International/Foundation group.
As FOAT Treasurer, Leslie takes his role very seriously, making regular visits to Tanzania to help identify the best way of supporting the Amani Centre and to ensure that the funds donated by the Charity are being appropriately spent.
Bridget Green (Secretary)
Bridget Green (Secretary)
Along with Ken Spours and Leslie Green (her husband), Bridget is one of the founder FOAT Trustees. Bridget’s interest in human geography led her in the 1970s to undertake a geography degree, with a focus on international development in East Africa.
From 2009-2018, Bridget worked as the School Manager in the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development at the University of Reading. This gave her the opportunity to develop a raft of links both socially and in the academic world, with people and organisations working in Tanzania.
Regular (usually annual) visits to Amani from 2006 have focussed on reviewing the projects supported by FOAT, getting to know the staff, volunteers and children, and meeting with local supporters and beneficiaries.
Networking, fundraising and facilitating forms a key part of Bridget's on-going involvement with FOAT. Bridget helped to establish the 'Ecumenical Project' whereby the Amani Community workers and nursing staff from Berega (Anglican) hospital work together on outreach and social empowerment projects to families of the disabled in village communities across the Morogoro Region.
Catherine Swanson
Catherine Swanson
Catherine works for Africa Inland Mission International as a Safeguarding Officer. She currently lives in Nairobi, Kenya. She and her husband lived in Morogoro for several years until 2018 and it was during that time that she volunteered a day a week in the Amani Home Visiting Outreach Programme. She joined FOAT as a Trustee in 2017.
Catherine’s particular role as a Trustee is to oversee the Safeguarding responsibilities that FOAT has as a UK based Charity. Additionally she works with the Amani Centre to develop a robust grassroots approach to Child Protection which takes into account the unique context in which vulnerable and disabled children live.
Rachel Derry
Catherine Swanson
Rachel Derry
Rachel joined the FOAT Trustee Board in 2014. Her journey with the Amani Centre began in 2008. Her love for and awe of all the work Amani does for people with disabilities continues to grow.
Rachel began as a gap year volunteer at Amani where she supported the day care function for six months. She returned just a couple of years later as a volunteer in the physiotherapy department, staying for three months. Once she had qualified as an Occupational Therapist in 2013, she stayed at Amani as a volunteer for a further six months. During this time, she worked in the therapy department three days a week and went on community home visits along with the Physiotherapist and Social Worker two days a week.
Rachel’s main roles as a FOAT Trustee are to maintain the website and to manage the child sponsorship scheme.
John Bullock
Catherine Swanson
Rachel Derry
John’s first trip to Amani was much more recent than most other trustees, when he visited with partner Rachel in 2017. Being his first experience of Africa, he was instantly captivated by the amazing work carried out by the Amani Centre, and how they cared for and educated the children despite the challenging conditions they face. It was clear that the children were happy and well looked after, and very apparent that small amounts of funding, support or guidance from FOAT, could make a big difference to the quality of the children’s lives.
John has spent over 20 years working in the apprenticeship and commercial training sector.
John’s main responsibilities within FOAT are to write and edit the newsletter, manage the supporter database, and contribute with fundraising activities.