Community Relations - Tanzania

The following organisations are supported by British Airways and receive complimentary tickets, cargo and excess baggage.

Action in Africa

Action in Africa funds education, health-care and development projects (agricultural and industrial), in Nyaishozi, an area of extreme poverty in North West Tanzania with little economic activity, where families struggle to produce enough food for their own survival.

Over 50 students each year are funded through all levels of education from Nursery to University Post Graduate courses. Graduates include doctors, nurses, teachers and university lecturers. Funding is also given for books, science, sport and other educational equipment.

Action in Africa subsidises St. Michael’s cottage hospital, providing in-patient and outpatient care for the people of the area (including life-saving malaria treatment); and distributes hundreds of insecticide infused mosquito nets to homesteads in the malaria-blighted area each year.

Investment in small business in the area is another key area of support, including a carpentry cooperative and a clothing producer. Its biggest project, the funding of a farming cooperative for the area, is forging new cash crops for the area (including honey, bio-diesel and sunflower oils) and educating the area in modern productive livestock and crop farming practices. The charity has also provided hundreds of livestock (cows, chickens and goats) to homes and schools in the area.

Motivation

Motivation is an international disability charity working in developing countries to enhance the quality of life of people with mobility disabilities.

People with mobility disabilities (such as post-polio, spinal cord injury and amputees) in Tanzania and across Africa often face discrimination and exclusion which has resulted in high mortality rates, poor health and lack of mobility and independence. This exclusion and denial of human rights for disabled people is recognised in the new UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which seeks to address the situation. The government of Tanzania has signed the convention which means that they are legally obligated to uphold these rights for disabled people.

Motivation is currently running a project in Tanzania to promote disabled people’s rights. The project will raise awareness of the UN Convention and work towards its application, particularly addressing the right to life, the right to personal mobility and the right to living independently and in the community. The project will empower disabled people and local partner organisations – The Tanzanian Training Centre for Orthopaedic Technology and the Kilimanjaro Association for the Spinally Injured - to develop practical solutions to the needs of mobility disabled people through peer support, wheelchair provision training, capacity building and advocacy to make this convention a reality in Tanzania.

Railway Children

Railway Children supports children living alone and at risk on the streets, many of whom live on railway platforms. Children arrive alone at railway stations for many reasons; they may be escaping violence or abuse; they may be forced through extreme poverty or may have been abandoned or orphaned.

From the moment they reach the platform the children are vulnerable and in grave danger of abuse. In addition to providing the shelter, food, clothing, education and healthcare that are all essential to the child's wellbeing, Railway Children’s ultimate goal is to intervene at the earliest opportunity before an abuser can.

Railway Children aims to stop a runaway child becoming a street child.

READ International

READ International was founded in 2003 by a group of students following a 'gap year' teaching in Tanzania. There are now over 500 student volunteers involved, operating from a network of over 20 university sites across the UK. They collect school textbooks and children’s literature from secondary schools throughout the UK, sort the books and send the most relevant, up-to-date, and high quality books to schools in Tanzania and Uganda. Secondary schools there follow a syllabus almost identical to the UK, but teachers often lack the resources needed to teach, whilst in the UK good quality, but technically 'out of date' textbooks were ending up in landfill. Any books collected which are not relevant or appropriate to send are sold online or recycled to generate funding.

READ has grown rapidly over the past 2-3 years. A total of 564,000 books have been sent to Tanzania and READ is supporting the renovation of dozens of school libraries so that access to these books is also improved. Several tonnes of sports kits, science equipment, and school stationery have also been sent.

Tools with a Mission

Tools with a Mission provides tools to people in poorer areas of the world which allow them to work and generate income to support themselves and their families. T.W.A.M. works with local vocational training centres that offer life-skills, education and instruction in various trades. At the completion of training each student is given a tradesman’s tool kit. The ability to become self-sufficient increases the feeling of self-worth and creates confidence for a better future.

One example is the Arusha workshop Tanzania where 16 young men work in a cooperative workshop making furniture and other wooden household items. These skills impact on their lives and on those of their respective wider families.

The Changarawe Project

The Changarawe Project was founded in 1997 with the aim of helping the poorest of the poor in the village of Changarawe, Morogoro Region, Tanzania. From a small beginning, building a nursery school which started with 22 children in 1999, it rapidly grew to taking 60 children and after the construction of a third classroom, the numbers increased to 100. 60% of the children who attend the school are orphans. The children stay in the school for 2 years before moving to primary school at 7. It is called 'The Zawadi School' which means 'gift' in Swahili, and is the focus of the charity.

Following a request by the village community, the Changarawe project started a micro-credit scheme for women in 2002, which was very successful and extended to include young people of both sexes. It now gives credit to 150 people per annum and has funded over 700 people since its inception. Part of this scheme is a textile project which now has 2 full-time employees making bags and aprons from Tanzanian fabrics. These are sent to the U.K. and sold to raise funds for the Zawadi School.

The latest initiative is finding part-time paid employment for the many grandmothers in the village who are supporting orphaned grandchildren. 16 are employed to teach the children in the school traditional stories and games, and they work on a 4-week rota of 1 grandmother per 25 children. 3 others are paid by the project to grow vegetables, which are sold to raise money for the school. They have a gathering every four weeks to share a meal, which is provided by the charity.