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 | Mtumba Our First Village
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Mtumba was the first village we partnered with to provide clean water and electricity. We also initiated a number of additional programs to address the highest needs in the village as defined by the village leadership. We've learned a lot in working with Mtumba that will help us be more effective with new villages in the future. In our latest trip to Mtumba in September 2009, we met with the leadership of each program to hear what's worked well and what could be done differently. | ||||
| WATER | ||||
 | In 2005, we completed work on a clean water well to support the village. During our trip in September 2009, the village leadership was about to hire an outside agent to run the water system for the village. This will ensure proper management of the overall system and provide water to everyone in the village on an equitable basis. Use of external agents to manage village water systems is one of the best practices used by successful villages throughout the country. We are very encouraged by this progress. | |||
| ELECTRICITY | ||||
 | In 2005, we brought electricity into several locations in the village including the schools and dispensary. Several residents have also paid to run electricity into their homes. The presence of electricity and clean water have attracted a number of new residents to the village increasing the population substantially since 2005. In 2009, President Bush's Millennium Challenge program providing support to reduce poverty in Tanzania will be used to expand the electrical services throughout the village. | |||
| WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT | ||||
 | The Women's Empowerment program continues to grow. We've funded over programs for over 200 women in the village. These programs range from seminars to seed money to begin small businesses. The seed money enables the women to qualify for loans and training from another organization called SACCOS. All women who have received seed money so far have successfull businesses as os September 2009. Their success has inspired others to begin businesses and work themselves out of poverty. We will continue to support this important initiative. | |||
| AGRICULTURE | ||||
 | We completed an adult garden contest that provided education and incentive to develop productive personal gardens. Carol Torberg led a group of Religious Education students from 6 parishes in northeast Minneapolis, MN in sponsoring a children's garden contest to provide similar education and incentive to the youth of Mtumba. The sponsoring students raised money for this contest by baby sitting, working in people's yards, cutting lawns, etc. | |||
| HIV/AIDS | ||||
 | We were extremely fortunate to begin a partnership with Abbott Labs in late 2007 to help address the HIV/AIDs problem in the Mtumba ward. Abbott Labs is very generous in working with our sister organization TLP (T) to focus on specific groups within the ward. They've continued to be great partners expanding the program over the past several years. We hope to use our experience with Abbott Labs to bring other qualified organizations in to help our villages in areas that fall outside of Tanzania Life Project's primary focus. | |||
| INCOME GENERATING | ||||
 | TLP funded constructing and outfitting a carpentry shop that could generate income to support the needs of Mtumba's Secondary school. The shop has gone through several changes and is successfully doing business generating income as planned. One of their projects in 2009 was to build door and window frames for other schools in neighboring villages. | |||
| SCHOOL UPGRADES | ||||
 | The first upgrade was the repair of a couple classrooms which had deteriorated over time. Walls were repaired and painted and floors patched. New desks were also purchased since the children had been sitting on the floor. We also ran electricity to two classrooms in both the Primary and Secondary Schools in 2005. In 2009 we developed a new partnership with the Friends of Tanzania organization whose mission is to support worthy projects in Tanzania that help bring people together in support of the life and culture of Tanzania. They funded several repairs of Primary School classrooms. We are grateful for their partnership and look forward to working together to benefit the schools in Tanzania. | |||
| FOOTBALL FUN | ||||
 | We are extremely thankful to the Walpole, MA and Champlin, MN Soccer Associations for their donations of soccer jerseys and soccer balls. The youth and young adults of the villages play "football" (American soccer)on a regular basis, but many times have makeshift balls made of plastic bags and twine. They were very happy to receive the gifts and played a special game in honor of their donors. | |||
| OUR FIRST TRIP TO MTUMBA | ||||
 | From a chance meeting with a native of Mtumba in Minneapolis, MN, a trip was planned to visit the wonderful people of Mtumba, Tanzania in 2005. We instantly fell in love with our new friends and vowed to help them and other villages in Tanzania improve their quality of life by finding sources of clean water and running electricity to their villages. We focus our attention on helping them become self-sufficient with these new resources through education and mentoring. | |||
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