The meeting provided an opportunity for counselling on how to care for a child with a disability, to meet other families facing similar challenges, to know there is a community of people who love them and want to continue to work with them to help reduce their challenges and to begin to build a local support network.
The outreach at Solwa will be used as a model for the other eight villages identified for outreach.
It will be helpful for families to meet together regularly, to do group activities for the purpose of sharing experience and encouraging each other to combat community stigma. It would be helpful for the children who are in a critical condition, to get treatment and support including taking them to hospital and paying for their treatment. This will need funds.
Note: Shinyanga is one of the poorest regions of Tanzania; the incidence of disability, particularly albinism, is high; the Diocese has no funds to support this work; the Tanzanian Government, while recognising the need to help these families, does not have sufficient revenue to do so. The only resource in Shinyanga provided by the Government is Buhangija Primary School (which is not sufficiently well funded to feed the children an adequate diet, hence the appeal in 2020 to establish the vegetable garden); the nearest hospital with facilities to assist these children is in Mwanza (four hours away by public transport) and there is no equivalent of the ‘Amani Centre’ to which the children can be referred for help. (The Amani Centre for Children with Disabilities is in Morogoro, 15 hours away by public transport!)
*Denotes hyperlink – click to watch short video
Photos of the Disability Training in Shinyanga
One of the buildings at Solwa Medical Centre - before the renovation
One of the buildings at Solwa Medical Centre - after the renovation
One of the buildings at Solwa Medical Centre - after the renovation
One of the buildings at Solwa Medical Centre - after the renovation
One of the buildings at Solwa Medical Centre - after the renovation
One of the buildings at Solwa Medical Centre - after the renovation
Blessing Ceremony on 19 September
Blessing Ceremony on 19 September
Blessing Ceremony on 19 September
Blessing Ceremony on 19 September
Blessing Ceremony on 19 September
Blessing Ceremony on 19 September
1st July Update
The garden at Buhangija is thriving
Yesterday there was a joyful service of blessing for the garden
The garden at Buhangija is thriving
First Crops have been Produced
Yesterday there was a joyful service of blessing for the garden
The garden at Buhangija is thriving
Yesterday there was a joyful service of blessing for the garden
Yesterday there was a joyful service of blessing for the garden
Yesterday there was a joyful service of blessing for the garden
Conducted by the Anglican Bishop of Shinyanga, Bishop Johnson Japhet Chinyong’ole.
Yesterday there was a joyful service of blessing for the garden
Yesterday there was a joyful service of blessing for the garden
Yesterday there was a joyful service of blessing for the garden
Conducted by the Anglican Bishop of Shinyanga, Bishop Johnson Japhet Chinyong’ole.
Presenting the Bishop with harvest
Yesterday there was a joyful service of blessing for the garden
Presenting the Bishop with harvest
Plenty more to Harvest!
Yesterday there was a joyful service of blessing for the garden
Presenting the Bishop with harvest
Buhangija Residential School, Shinyanga
Towards the end of March 2020, the Rev Stanley Sewando reported on the plight of the children of Buhangija, a residential school for children with albinism in Shinyanga. People with albinism in Tanzania face widespread persecution and most of the children resident at the school have been abandoned by their parents. With the fear of Covid-19, food prices had soared and the already very meagre local support they used to receive at Buhangija, had dried up. As a result, the 250 children were facing starvation. There was an immediate need to provide food over the next few months. Going forward, the plan was to develop a plot of land adjacent to the school as a vegetable garden. This would help to feed the children, as well as giving them an opportunity to learn new skills, and any surplus produce could be sold locally.
At the beginning of May 2020, assisted by a friend, FOAT Trustees Bridget and Leslie launched an appeal to donate towards emergency food supplies and for the establishment of a vegetable garden. Stanley Sewando filmed a short video (which you can watch by clicking here) to launch the appeal.
By early June 2020 some £8,000 was raised which enabled:
· Emergency food supplies to be delivered to the school on a weekly basis from the start of May*
· The purchase of 2 x 10,000 litre water tanks
· The purchase, supply and fitting of drip-feed irrigation pipes to the one acre garden plot https://youtu.be/4O6Pdkbk7Xc.
· The supply and construction of fencing around the plot
The children, staff and School Board have been involved throughout the process, with some of the staff and board members contributing funds for water to fill the tanks as the rains had all but finished by the time the tanks were installed. (You can watch some of the work going on here: scything , ground clearance, clearing land. Preparing pipe connectors, Competing to finish the task, Connecting side arms, and Run the irrigation hoses. Watch as the technician instructs a teacher and girls to position the irrigation pipes and secure them in place by tying the end of the pipe to a stick: Technician instructs teacher and girls, Teacher teaches girls, Girls practice what they have learnt.)
In due course, the Buhangija Community Garden will become the responsibility of the School to run and maintain. As soon as COVID-19 restrictions allow, there will be detailed discussions and a formal handover of responsibilities from the Diocese.
Children clearing the land
Taking Delivery of the Water Tanks
Taking Delivery of the Water Tanks
Taking Delivery of the Water Tanks
Taking Delivery of the Water Tanks
Taking Delivery of the Water Tanks
Three weeks after planting the seeds
Three weeks after planting the seeds
Three weeks after planting the seeds
Weekly food delivery in June
Three weeks after planting the seeds
Three weeks after planting the seeds
Background Information
The constitution documentation of Friends of Amani Tanzania (FOAT) states that the application of income to the charity be used for:
· The relief of financial hardship in Tanzania, in particularly supporting the work of The Amani Centre for Persons with Disabilities, Chamwino, Morogoro
· To advance the education of people in Tanzania, in particular those with disabilities
FOAT Trustees reviewed the constitution at their meeting in December 2019 and agreed that the Charity could support work amongst the disadvantaged and disabled in Tanzania beyond the direct remit of the Amani Centre. Trustees Bridget and Leslie Green reported that Rev Stanley Sewando, Anglican Priest who had been Project Co-ordinator for the Ecumenical work at Amani, had been appointed Diocesan Secretary of Shinyanga, Northern Tanzania in May 2019.
At the invitation of Bishop Johnson, Diocesan Bishop of Shinyanga, Bridget and Leslie visited Shinyanga – one of the poorest regions in Tanzania - in September 2019 and saw first-hand some of the challenges faced by the communities there.
Learning from work with the disabled community in Morogoro, Stanley, with the backing of his Diocesan Bishop, is now developing initiatives in Shinyanga to support the disadvantaged and disabled community there.
