Congratulations Charles!

Charles Mwagala: Head of Building amd Development Department /
House Father since 2011 at Igoda Children's Village

A note of congratulations here to one of the members of the NGO family, as Charles Mwagala was selected by his fellow citizens from Luhunga Ward to be selected as one of the areas advocates for the construction of the new national constitution. Charles was voted as a member of a nation-wide advocacy group that will give the citizen’s opinions on what should be included in the new constitution. 

He traveled to Mafinga August 3-4^th to take part in meetings to share ideas about what changes could be made. He then represented the NGO the following day at a seminar in Iringa hosted by multiple partners who hosted a stakeholders meeting for those working with vulnerable children the region. The seminar was about the effectiveness of early childhood development initiatives taken on by the various organizations working with children, and was hosted by a network program sponsored by UNICEF and its partners. Many issues were discussed including how to appropriately return a child back to the community, how to improve early childhood development, and how organizations can work together to consolidate efforts in child-care. We are still cautiously optimistic while waiting to see how/if these partnerships will benefit the community of Mufindi, but this meeting was a promising start.

We are proud to work with leaders like Charles Mwagala who is also head of the building and development department at the NGO in charge of supervision of all building projects and maintenance at the Children’s Village; as well as a house Father at the Children’s Village, helping to raise the future leaders of Mufindi!

Kujitegemea (Depending on One’s Self): Igoda Children’s Village Update

We have been overwhelmed by a reoccurring theme to start the month of August here in Mufindi.

Igoda Children's Village August 2013

Already this year we have felt that a tide is turning in terms of dealing with the HIV pandemic in this community. The area has risen out of the crisis management period, and has begun a recovery phase. For example, families have come to Igoda Children’s Village over the past few months to welcome their children back to their homes in the village, as they have built their lives up out of poverty, and can care for their children once more. The Igoda Children’s Village was opened on July 7^th, 2007 with the goal in mind to take in the children most in need of basic care, who would be using the center as a last resort for shelter and food. Two of the four children that arrived that day were Remijio and Moses.

Moses (middle right) arrived at the Igoda Children's Village on July 7th, 2007
along with Willi (bottom right), Issa (bottom left) and Remijio (top left)

They are now 19, and 17 years old respectively, and at the start of August this year, they both moved back to their families in Igoda village. They are going back to a home situation that is dramatically better developed than from when they joined the Children’s Village, but they will also help with home responsibilities as they go through their secondary schooling. They will both be working on the weekends through the NGO to pay for their secondary school fees, and school needs. They both have been helping with the weekly community outreach visits the children from the Igoda Children’s Village have been making to help the elderly and other vulnerable groups in the area. They will continue to join the weekend groups on these visits to continue to give back to their community.

Matrilda is heading home to live with
 her mother after living the past
 three years at Igoda Children's Village

Matrilda, 16, also returned home this week to join her Mother who is planning on building a new house near Matrilda’s Secondary school so she can be close to school. Matrilda will also be joining the groups going into the villages for community outreach, and she too will be working with the NGO on weekends to put herself through school. She came to the Children’s Village from a difficult home situation, but has gone through a transformation at the Children’s Village. Matrilda’s Mother is now ready to welcome her child home again, and even though she is now a single Mother, she has built a strong relationship with the NGO, and the partnership will continue with Matrilda’s best interests considered. Matrilda has done very well in school this year, and wants to continue her secondary schooling, and is excited to help her Mother start a new home for themselves in the process.

Over the past 5 or 6 years, the need from the community has changed in light of the diminishing effects the HIV pandemic has had on the area. The great progress the NGO has made in terms of access to HIV treatment, and awareness education has brought down stigma, and has no doubt played a huge part in the positive development of the community as a whole. The Igoda Children’s Village has evolved with these changes, as initially it was a last resort shelter for children with nowhere else to go, and no family to care for them, but is now seen as a more comprehensive community resource. The community slowly has had less of a pressing need for a fully-assisted comprehensive care for its most vulnerable children. As this need evolves with the ability of the community to care for its children, a bevy of great services have been provided to the community by the Children’s Village, including a kindergarten, and soon a nursery school and health clinic. The total number of children at Igoda Children’s Village is now 71, down from 80 at the start of this year. The community is growing more and more able to care for all of its children in the village, which we see as a huge sign of progress during this recovery phase for the families of Mufindi.

Thank You Ottawa!

Gord Bredyk and Evelyn Voigt have organized some Ottawa, Canada-area fundraisers for the projects here in Mufindi over the past few years, and we’d like to give them special thanks for all of their hard work! They have even started a website helping to spread the word about what Foxes’ NGO is doing in Mufindi district, Tanzania: MufindiOrphans.ca. They are at it again this weekend, so we wanted to explain all the good work their funds have done so far.

Accomplishments

To date, funds from these fundraisers have helped staff key health professionals at the Mdabulo Health Facility, as well as a groundskeeper who has changed her life with the income from her employment. This has improved health services for the community in a way that is difficult to measure, but is the type of assistance that makes a difference everyday.

Mdabulo groundskeeper Upendo Mahimbi pictured here with
Foxes' NGO/Peace Corps Volunteer Stacey Droll

Upendo Mahimbi is 31-year old, HIV+ single mother of 5 children who had gone to dangerous lengths to support her family in the past. Upendo asked for a job in 2009, just when the NGO needed a major land-leveling job to be done to start construction of the functioning wing of the facility. She did a tremendous job, and has been working various contracts ever since. She has been an exemplary patient at the Mdabulo Care and Treatment Clinic for HIV, advising others to be tested and know their status, and she continues to work at the facility as the lone cleaning staff member for the entire Mdabulo grounds. She has been working so hard for her family, and we are very proud of the progress she has made for herself.

Catherine Mbata has been working for over
two years at Mdabulo running the entire
 laboratory at the facility

Catherine Mbata is a Laboratory Attendant that is in charge of the entire laboratory functions of the Mdabulo Health Facility and CTC. Perhaps the most important job she has is maintaining and caring for the CD4 machine- a device that dictates what type of HIV medication is to be given for patients. This Machine is used hundreds of times each month, and Catherine has been personally responsible for its maintenance as well as communicating with various stakeholders across the country in attempts to acquire more testing reagents to keep the machine in use. Catherine is a vital part of the Mdabulo team. We are lobbying that her salary will soon ‘picked-up’ by the Government of Tanzania if funds become available, but in the meantime funds from the Ottawa fundraisers have raised enough to pat her salary for nearly two more years.

A look to the future

In the most recent fundraiser, donations were collected to go towards the construction of small clinic to be located at Igoda Children’s Village. The staff positions being filled at Mdabulo Health facility will be a temporary, but vital necessity, but will eventually be taken on by government funds. Meanwhile at Igoda Children’s Village, Dr. Leena Pasanen will be ‘retiring’ to Mufindi in October this year, and she will be thus working full time at the Children’s Village. When Dr. Leena holds clinics in the village, often over 100 people come for her services. The clinic will not only give her a place to see patients, but it will be the first health facility ever for the village of Igoda, and only the third facility in all of Luhunga ward (5 villages – population 10,000). Many children from the Igoda Children’s Village come to the center due to malnutrition, and need extra medical care. This clinic will give the leaders and guardians at the Children’s Village an onsite facility to bring their children when illness strikes.

Clinic Progress July 2013

 Good luck this weekend!

We are all excited and encouraged by the people of Ottawa, and we wish them luck this Saturday, as they embark on another fundraiser to support these projects in Mufindi! We are sad we couldn’t be there in person, but from all here in Mufindi- Asanteni sana! Thank you all so very much!

Ibwanzi Health Facility Upgrade (From the Archives)

See a video on this project by clicking here!

Completed Project Report September 14^th 2009

Ibwanzi Health Dispensary

On September 14^th, 2009 the village of Ibwanzi had a celebration that included the District Commissioner, the Chairman of Mufindi district, the Ward Executive officers for the Ward’s of Ihanu, Mdabulo, and Luhunga, and other health care officials from the district level.  There was a Disk Jockey from a radio station in Iringa town (the region’s capital) and arrangements were made by members of the village to welcome all of these special guests, who to a chorus of Secondary School Students from Ihanu Secondary, and multiple performances from Ibwanzi Primary students.  There was also a traditional Uhehe performance from some of the elders of the village, who gave a performance expressing great appreciation. All of this was done to express gratitude to Foxes’ Community and Wildlife Conservation trust (FCWCT) the NGO responsible for building a top quality in-patient addition to the village Health Dispensary.  This will eventually mean more staff, better service, and an upgrade from a Health Dispensary, to a Health Clinic.  It was a very humbling experience for all members of FCWCT, and it was a special day for everyone.

History:

For over 15 years there has been a Dispensary in the village of Ibwanzi.  In 2001 the government re-built the facility after the poor-kept facility suffered some fire damage.  This facility was of good quality, but since then there has been very little staff (never more than one or two nurses) and very little resources to make the facility a top quality health care provider.  Many villagers for example, would travel elsewhere to get health services since the facility was ill-equipped to serve them.  Most disheartening of all, is that due to its geographical location, and how isolated the village is (over 70kms from the closest town) this facility was overwhelmed trying to serve a potential patient population that may be up to 20,000 people- which includes 8 villages, and some nearby tea and forestry plantations.

FCWCT Involvement:

Starting over 3 years ago, FCWCT started to contribute to this facility to give the people of Ibwanzi village a health care service they deserved.  The facility started to get resources that helped it become a better health care provider, as donated Hospital equipment and resources were sent over via container from our sister charity, both in the UK (Orphans in the Wild), and in Canada (African Book Box Society). At the beginning of January 2009, Dr. Leena Pasamen (volunteer with FCWCT) started routine visits to the facility offering her much needed specialize as a Pediatrician.  Dr. Pasanen has been named one of the World Medical Association’s 64 most compassionate doctors in the world and, in August of 2009, she received the award as ‘Best Finn living outside of Finland,’ an award previously won by some of Finland’s most well-known citizens worldwide.  Her contribution to the facility in Ibwanzi is immeasurable, and helps to give the village and surrounding area a quality health service they had been previously denied.

With donations from the US, via our sister charity there (Mufindi Orphans Inc.) and the UK (Orphans in the Wild) we started plans to build an in-patient service that, upon its completion would warrant more staff from the government, thus increasing the quality of overall health care at the facility.

This project would enable the facility to have up to 30 in-patients at one time, as it included 10 wards: one 6-bed children’s ward, six 2-bed women’s wards, and three 4-bed men’s wards.  Also, the project would install indoor toilets, and four showers for patients’ use.  The facility continues to benefit from resources sent out from Orphans in the Wild, as containers from the UK are sent out on an annual basis now.

The facility also has running water for the first time, which is of critical importance at a health facility.  The water system at the facility includes guttering of the entire Children’s, Women’s and Men’s wards, and piping leading into a giant in-ground tank that is 15 feet wide in diameter, and 15 feet deep.  The water tank is connected to a water pump that brings the water to a 2000 liter water tank that is placed at roof level that gives the showers, basins, and toilets the pressure used when the water is running.  All of this again was made possible through donations to FCWCT.

Recent Developments / Future Involvement:

One of the most important benefits from ‘upgrading’ the facility from a Dispensary to a Health Center, will be the facility’s new found capability to test and counsel people living with HIV.  This will occur as the government sends more staff and more qualified Health Care Providers.  Within Iringa Region, Mufindi District has the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS, and Iringa Region has the highest prevalence of any Region in all of Tanzania.*  As Tanzania is one of the world’s most affected countries,** this makes our area, without exaggeration, one of the most hardest hit areas in the entire world in regards to HIV prevalence.

Already, one of the nurses (working through the government) has returned from a seminar with the learned requirements to now test people for HIV/AIDS.  The surrounding 3 wards of Ihanu, Mdabulo, and Luhunga, and beyond (well over 40,000 people, and a radius of over 40km) had previously only one place to be tested, and therefore many people were unable to get to available testing.  With this advancement, there should be more people coming to be tested, and in fact a tangible increase to the effectiveness of the grassroots movement that is happening now as more people are tested and more people are helping others with awareness and prevention education.

In a most recent development, a grant has been proposed to Solar Aid (a UK based organization with office in Dar es Salaam).  As FCWCT has arranged in the past with Solar Aid for solar panels to be installed in two local schools, we hope that this connection will continue to be fortuitous for our community, and Solar panels may bring electricity to the facility by the end of next year (2010).

Chogo Dispensary In-patient Ward (From the Archives)

Chogo Health Dispensary Extension Project Completion Report

Project:

Addition of In-Patient service, and water collection to Chogo Health Dispensary in Chogo Village, Mapanda Ward, Mufindi District, Iringa Region, Tanzania.

Completion Date:

October 30^th, 2010.

Project Summary:

Background

Chogo is likely the most isolated village in Mufindi District. It is well over 100 kilometers from the closest Hospital, and the roads in and out of the village are impassable by vehicle for most of the year.

Medical care in the village has consisted of local healers, and a modest health dispensary built under a government initiative. The health dispensary in existence is all of four rooms under a roof with one health professional at the site. For any health concerns requiring over-night treatment, patients have to be transported either walking, or brought by bicycle or motorcycle, to a village called Mapanda- 17 kilometers away, and if the patient has to reach a Hospital he or she must then make a bus journey starting at 4:30am from Mapanda village to arrive in Mafinga 100 kilometers later. After talking with the Village Executive Officer, it seems many patients are lost as they refuse to take the arduous journeys required of them for basic health care. Without any in-patient services, Chogo village had become a lost village where people were unable to receive in their basic rights to proper health care. In-patient services were needed so the facility could serve its community in a more efficient manner. With in-patient service, patients could receive treatment enough to get better or to ready themselves for travel to other health facilities. This service is essential to the area and will directly contribute to saving lives of people from Chogo village.

Details

Starting in 2009, FCWCT set out to build an extension to the health dispensary, which would feature a stand-alone building that would host a 6-bed in-patient ward including bathrooms and sinks and medical equipment sent from the UK through its sister charity Orphans in the Wild. Construction completed in October of 2010 and the facility was fully equipped with hospital beds, medications, and other equipment that started the facility off with enough resources to now properly serve the community in Chogo, and help the staff at the Chogo dispensary as well.

In addition to the in-patient wards, a water project was built in conjunction with the new building as well. This water-catchment project harnesses the abundant rainfall in the area and collects the water into a giant underground tank that will supply the facility with water for the sinks and toilets giving the facility water for the first time. This will enable the facility easy-access to clean water and sterilizing capabilities its instruments. It will also accommodate the cooking of food for the patients who are staying in the new facility. This is an important aspect of water access as food is brought and cooked by relatives of the patients.

Special Thanks

We have to give a special thanks here fist to our UK sister charity, Orphans in the Wild for providing all of the funding for this project through donations sent from their organization. We’d like to thank the countless people who have made donations to Orphans in the Wild over the last year that have made this project possible. The efforts put forth for fundraising, and collecting the donations are also greatly appreciated and can often be overlooked. All of this is done on a completely voluntary basis, so we must thank Bruce and Jane Fox for there time and work in the UK, as well as to Simon Shercliff as acting Chairman of Orphans in the Wild.

We’d also like to thank Marion Gough for her tireless efforts, not only in telling the story of Mufindi to donors and potential donors in her fundraising efforts, but also for her endless efforts in collecting items, organizing them, and loading them in containers that have been sent out over the years. There has been countless efforts made to make this project happen, and it would be too difficult to thank everyone involved, but suffice to say we cannot give thanks enough to the people who are giving these much needed services to the community of Mufindi. We are forever encouraged by the time, work, and effort put in by people around the world so that the people of Mufindi may get the health care that they deserve.

For more information about FCWCT and its Sister/partner charities please visit these websites:

www.mufindiorphans.org

www.wildorphans.org

www.africanbookbox.org

You can follow our daily activities at www.facebook.com by following our profile:  Facebook.com/FOXESNGO

Please contact us with any questions/comments you may have:

FoxesNGO@gmail.com, +255 782043484

Bibi and Babu Foxey!

Geoff and Vicky Fox returned to Mufindi this week after a 6-month visit to the UK, and everyone was excited to have them home again! A lot has happened in the past six months, and showing them the progress of the projects really exemplified the rapid development that has occurred this year in Mufindi.

Even on the day they arrived (22^nd) a lot was happening in the community, and things continued in a busy busy way to the end of the month. It seems everyone has been encouraged by the indelible Fox vision, and there has been so much positive development since the NGO started just a few years ago.

Consider it the 'before' picture. Re-roofing
 of the Mdabulo in-patient wards.

On Monday, Charles Mwagala finalized the plan with a carpenter to re-roof the in-patient ward wing at Mdabulo health facility. This week a group from the regional capital of Iringa has visited Mdabulo to host a male circumcision campaign. The new functioning wing is in use, and we are excited to see this facility get more developed while we search for funding to complete this project.

This same day Yusto Chumi and Jenny Peck talked with the school board at Igoda Primary about a plan for Yusto to teach English at the Igoda Children’s Village kindergarten part-time. The meeting was very productive and plans were made for the community to contribute towards the sustainability of the School kitchen program that has been a success since 2009! The school and the village of Igoda has really helped our work in the past few months by including the NGO in meetings and discussions on community development.

A baby from the Children’s Village who arrived earlier this month with poor health was taken to a private hospital Monday where Nache, an 11 year old HIV positive boy has been staying recovering from a serious of lung problems. The health department of our NGO has been very busy this year, but we see the difference that they make each day.

Fraida Kavaya

On Tuesday, Fraida Kavaya traveled to Mafinga to start her first day at Teacher's College. Fraida has an amazing story of perserverence as she comes from a very difficult background, where she grew up in a very remote village, with very little family to support her. She worked hard through secondary school and has worked at the NGO during her school breaks, and in between school years, to make an income to support her younger siblings. this year a family from Canada reached out and has agreed to support her through Teacher's College. She has worked hard to reach her goals in life- she says when she is finished school she wants to be community service provider of some sort- "either, a nurse, a teacher, or a social worker." We wish her the very best this year in school, and we can't wait to see where she will go!

Wednesday saw three older children from the Igoda Children's village move back with their families. At the end of July, 62 children now preside at the Children's Villlage. We are seeing more and more children reunite with their families as the community as a whole is shifting from crisis mode to recovery mode in response to the devastating effects of HIV. This is a crucial point in the battle against the disease, as we hope long-term measures will start to be put in place to help the area recover from this disease in a sustainable way.

Stacey Droll and our Home Based Care team

This week saw the final Home Based Care meeting featuring Foxes'NGO/Peace Corps Volunteer Stacey Droll. She has been a tremendous health volunteer with us for the past twelve months, and her work will not be forgotten. She made an incredible bond with her home based care team, visiting each of the for several days at a time in their homes as she worked with them on implementing their work in the villages after their training last December.

The month ended with a plethora of visitors, and not just the guests brought by Geoff and Vicky Fox from the nearby tourist lodge that were impressed and uplifted by the great work being done at the Igoda Children's Village. A group stakeholders in most vulnerable children from various NGOs in the region of Iringa led by members of Afya Women's group, Tunajali, and Africare. Rapidly the NGO has become a leader in orphan and vulnerable children care in the region. We are all happy to be part of a successful project.

'Bibi Yetu' Bernadetta from Baylor Mbeyatalks with Jenny Peck

We also were visited by two professionals from the Baylor Children's Foundation of who helped give several services to our guardians, and children at the Children's Village. A two-day seminar to our guardians on child care was held, as was individual counseling for each of the children. In addition, the guests tested each child at the facility and a gave a seminar on the risks and dangers of HIV for youth. This is part of an ongoing attempt by the NGO to provide psycho-social support to this vulnerable population. We give our sincere thank to the people from Baylor for their support!

Finally we had visitors from an organization called CIEE that will be hopefully connecting with us for future student volunteers to start coming on a regular basis to help with education, human capacity, and other endeavors. 

We are happy to be making these connections with other organizations, and we see it as a sign that the success of the projects in Mufindi are starting to be recognized on a regional and national  level. We are excited to see so much development in the community, and we are all brimming with pride this week to get to show Geoff and Vicky how far their dream has come!

Luhunga Girls’ Dormitory Project

A little over a year ago our organization and its stakeholders began discussing the benefits that might occur if a girls’ dormitory project was started at Luhunga Secondary School. There were some challenges discussed- such as costs of building, ongoing costs of proper supervision, and whether or not the school/community would want the project. The advantages of having a dormitory on the other hand were evident. Female students would no longer need to walk to and from school at night as evening classes were taught, and those from further-away villages would no longer have to rent rooms in the village to live on their own, thus avoiding that vulnerable situation.

This year the project has developed rapidly as the community has seen the importance of this project, and has made it a top priority. This may be a result of an intervention that occurred in March. The NGO teamed up with a health professional from a local Health Dispensary to administer a seminar at the school about the dangers of teenage pregnancy. After the seminar, all female students were given inexpensive pregnancy tests. A surprising discovery resulted: 9 of the 172 female students were pregnant. This sent shockwaves throughout the community, and was reported to the district leadership as well, and the community wanted to take immediate action to help address this problem. The problem itself had a hard figure to reference, and so people had evidence that the female students were not protected. This was different than guessing and gossip, there was a factual base upon which to start a program that could make a difference.

Since this seminar and testing day, parents of all of the students have started to contribute ideas on how to initiate the girls’ dormitory project as soon as possible. Currently, there is a small excess in classrooms, and so the school board and parents decided to turn one classroom into a girls’ dormitory. The parents are already contributing money for the construction of beds and food for the program. The goal is to get a dormitory in place by the end of this year. Next year there are high hopes for improvements in the school’s national results as the Form Three class this year is a promising group. This has added another incentive to protect the students, as the project is not just seen as a public health, or social welfare project, it is expected to improve the overall quality of the school!

We would like to applaud the community of Luhunga for not only recognizing a problem in their community, but finding a solution and acting immediately towards rectifying this deterent to community development. The community is turning a corner and creating sustainable solutions to one of the biggest problems it faces. 

Hongereni WaLuhunga!