FOAT Trustees, Bridget and Leslie, made and delivered meals to help raise money to build a Secondary School at Mvomero which will specialise in teaching for children who are Hard of Hearing.
On the menu for the first initiative in early March was African Chicken Stew or Root and Lentil Casserole. This was such a huge success, raising £770 that Bridget and Leslie repeated the initiative later in March with options of Moroccan Style Chicken or Vegetable Biryani. A total of £1,500 was raised.
After the event, Bridget commented; “We have been delighted with the response to this initiative. When we totted up how many meals we had made and delivered, we realised it was a staggering 62. It was lovely to receive so many kind comments on delivery, such as “How nice to have a freshly cooked meal delivered to my doorstep” and “When will you do this again?”
Bridget and Leslie are considering repeating the initiative in the Autumn. Watch this space!
Government regulations dictate that a new dormitory is required to allow the girls at the school to be housed in separate quarters, and if this cannot be achieved – the school may be forced to close. Amani plan to convert the current staff/volunteer lodging into a new dormitory to facilitate this.
With huge thanks to Fonthill Foundation and some very generous individuals, the £1600 required for the building works, and £1400 for dormitory equipment was raised and the school was ready in time to receive its 2021 intake of students.
Thank you to all who donated and to the Fonthill Foundation for their continued support of the Mvomero School.
The work of the Amani Centre has continued throughout this difficult year. Much of the local support dried up during the height of the Covid pandemic and has still not returned to the pre-pandemic levels.
To help the Amani Centre continue their work supporting children with disabilities, FOAT sold Amani Gift Christmas Cards. They were £10 or £20 and all money went to supporting The Amani Centre.
On 7th March, Bridget and Leslie along with their local church, fellow trustees Rachel and John, and friends Aurelia and Sumi held a successful fundraising event.
Coffee, cake, samosas and traditional Tanzanian foods (Bagia and Vitambua) were served, Tanzanian crafts were sold and a raffle was held. The children were kept occupied with activities such as craft making using traditional Tanzania cloth, beading, learning numbers in Swahili and colouring in safari animals
Thank you to everyone who came and to everyone who helped make this event such a success.
If you are interested in hold your own fundraising event for FOAT, please do get in touch.
Funds recently raised for the Helena Memorial Fund have supported young Sinyati with medial support that is not available in a rural area, and otherwise relatively expensive. Her parents were very grateful for the support and care received in Mororgoro Town. This is a good example of how Amani Centre is reaching out to the most traditional of cultures in Tanzania with a very contemporary message of support for the disabled.
On Saturday 30 March 2019, Amy Fancourt hosted a Quiz Night with Tanzanian Supper in Redlands Parish Hall, Reading to raise funds for Friends of Amani Tanzania (FOAT). She was supported by four of the FOAT Trustees, Bridget & Leslie Green together with Rachel Derry and John Bullock who ably took charge of the raffle and bar respectively.
Following a brief presentation by Bridget outlining the background to Friends of Amani Tanzania and the work of the Amani Centre, Graeme Fancourt took to the Quiz Master chair. Graeme’s choice of theme – ‘Remarkable Women’ – was in recognition of two such women:
· Amy, who, in addition to organising this event, was preparing to run the London Marathon for the charity, and
· Mama Bakhita, the founder of the Amani Centre in Morogoro, Tanzania.
In between rounds of the quiz, guests were served a Tanzanian themed supper of banana stew with rice and pitta breads, followed by ‘vitumbua’ with tropical fruits.
Quiz teams were made up from across the local community including members of the church, the university, local friends and Queen Anne’s School staff. Graeme’s quiz was challenging but fun with two teams vying for first place meaning a tie breaker was needed to determine the champions.
FOAT has a charity ballot place for the London Marathon and we welcome supporters who are keen to run for Amani.
Trustee Rachel Derry completed the Marathon and along with partner, John Bullock, and Graeme Fancourt in 2018 raising over £5000 together. These funds all go towards continuing projects at Amani’s three sites and have supported their financial requirements and running costs.
On 11th December 2018 we had news of a devastating storm at the Special School at Mvomero! Luckily everyone was safe, but the damage was extensive.
We asked all our supporters to help raise £3,000 and the appeal more than delivered with over £4,000 raised. The images show; the rebuilt school - still to be rendered, and the damage beforehand (images between December 2018 and February 2019).
Barbara Bristow, a retired teacher has been supporting the Amani Centre for over six years. In that time she has raised over £10,000 for the Amani Centre. In 2015 she raised over £4,500 towards the tractor seen above. The tractor has increased the income from agricultural projects considerably. Last Year she raised over £2,000 utilising FOAT's Just Giving pages. Barbara has helped FOAT in raising funds to start the school for the hearing impaired at Amani's vocational training centre at Mvomero. Barbara makes regular visits to Tanzania and is planning her next visit later this Summer. In past years she has arranged for students from COBC to visit Amani and undertake a number of useful projects.
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