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!

July 15-21, 2013

The following is a description of what has been accomplished by the NGO during the week of July 15^th through 21^st, 2013

CHILDREN’S VILLAGE

This week at the Igoda Children’s Village we went through the complete cycle of emotions that can happen at this center. On Monday the 15^th a very malnourished infant who had been brought to us had passed away at a private Hospital. We had thought that Faumia had turned a corner for the better after she was transferred to the private Hospital and showed signs of improving. Unfortunately, her body couldn’t fight off the illnesses she had contracted as we awaited her results from her infant HIV testing. We never received the result, but it appears as though she most likely was HIV positive. Her funeral was Monday and was attended by Rehema Mgimwa (our head house guardian at the Children’s Village) and the care-givers from the NGO's Health Department that tended to Faumia while she was in the Hospital.

Dismas Makonye had a happy going-away party on Sunday. Pictured next to him is Isaya Mwila (his House Father while at Igoda Children's Village,
 a Village leader, and his Mother. 

On the other end of the emotional spectrum, after returning from the funeral, one-on-one interviews started with all of the older children who had returned from the village after a two-week stay in the surrounding community either with relatives, or with foster families. It made us extremely happy that the children were able to learn some lessons about life in the village before moving there full-time one day in the future. In fact, two older boys are ready to return home after this trial period, and this Sunday (21^st) we had a going-away party for Dismas Makonye who will be moving back home to live with his Mother. Dismas and his sister Matrilda moved to the Igoda Children’s Village as their Father had passed away and unfortunately their mother had re-married a violent man who was deemed unfit to care for them by village leaders. Last year that man passed away, and although Dismas’ mother will be a single-parent, she has a lot of community support, and Dismas himself is doing very well in school- so we are very excited to see this family come back together. For her side, Matrilda, 15, wants to consider her options a bit longer, as she says she wants to be sure of a way to keep the right friends while she continues her education- and she said she wants time to consider how to do that if not living at the Children’s Village.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Income Generating Projects

Longinus Ngonyani, the sewing teacher of our ‘Threads of Hope’ sewing class, traveled to a high-traffic trading town called Makambako this week to buy materials for curtains to be placed at Mdabulo Hospital and the Igoda Community Hall. The sewing class has really taken off this year, and we are hoping to see more projects like this one that are completely self-sustaining. The class offers a service to girls and women who for various reasons have not been able to complete formal secondary school. The students pay school fees, and at the end of the two-year course are given a sewing machine to start their own business/livelihood in the community. This project was started with humble beginnings by an initial donation of the first sewing machine given by Dr. Garth Myers, and his daughter Phoebe, and his since been supplemented by sewing machines sent from the UK, and other machines donated by a local phone service provider (Airtel). We are excited that these contributions are being put to great use!

'Threads of Hope' Sewing School teacher Longinus Ngonyani
with a great new product!

HEALTH CARE

Mdabulo Hospital

Plans were made for the re-roofing of some older in-patient wards at Mdabulo Hospital that have started to fall apart. The funds for the roof come from a generous donation from Kowloon North Rotary Club of Hong Kong. They have been great supporters of the projects here in Mufindi, and we are very grateful for their tremendous support!

Also this week, many items were transported to Mdabulo that will be very useful for the Hospital. These items have been painstakingly collected over the years by Marion Gough who visited various health centers in the UK to accumulate items to send in containers to the project site. We are excited that with construction of the functioning wing of the Hospital now complete we can deliver these valuable items to help serve the people of Mufindi.

Home Based Care

Stacey Droll made her final Home Based Care village visit this week to the village of Ilasa to work with the Home Based Care volunteers there who showed her the work they have been doing- helping patients, and following up on those who had not appeared for HIV treatment at Mdabulo CTC. Stacey will be moving on soon as her Peace Corps contract is coming to close. She has left her indelible mark on the Home Based Care program in particular, but will be missed by everyone at the NGO, and in the community.

Foxes' NGO/Peace Corps Volunteer Stacey Droll
having fun with Nurse Kabonge of Mdabulo Hospital

Big Thanks to Rotary Club of Kowloon North in Hong Kong!

The Kowloon North Rotary Club in Hong Kong has been a tremendous partner for Foxes’ NGO, supporting the NGO with funds for three separate projects in the past three years. In addition to all of this, Maureen Boost has organized shipment of goods that arrived in Mufindi earlier this year that have proven very useful.

Kowloon North funds constructed a children's home
 at Igoda Children's Village

The first transfer of funds from Kowloon North was for construction of a Children’s Village house at the Igoda Children’s Village. This generous donation helped us reach our goal of 6 children’s houses that have been built around a valley to resemble a neighborhood found in the villages around.

The first three rooms of this Hospital wing were
 constructed by Kowloon North funds

The Rotary club also gave a considerable donation towards the Mdabulo Hospital Project. The Kowloon North donation was enough to complete the first three rooms of our functioning wing of the hospital. Two Doctor’s consultancy rooms and an x-ray room are currently already in use as part of a HIV prevention program that has continued for nearly a month now at the facility.

A new roof will be installed soon on these in-patient wards thanks to support from Kowloon North Rotary!

Finally, the most recent donation from the club that arrived this year was for renovation of three dilapidated in-patient wards. The Kowloon North donation will most likely be enough to completely re-roof the wards, thus paving the way for completion when new funds are acquired.

The previously-mentioned items recently shipped to Tanzania have proven quite useful, and have brought smiles to the faces of a lot of Children here in Mufindi. The most appreciated items so far have been the football gear, and the back packs that most of our children use to carry their school supplies to school- a six-mile walk away!

A very special thanks indeed foes out to Kowloon North Rotary club and the great support they have given. Their group has made a huge difference in so many people’s lives already in just a short time!

Asante sana!

Introducing Our Great Leaders!

This week we had a variety of examples of how local leadership is making a difference in the community and the organization. Our relationship with local and regional government is growing even closer, and we have some strong leaders within our organization to thank for that. Each member of the NGO seems to have a growing investment in the success of the projects, and is excited about the developments in the community. We feel this can only lead to sustainable leadership- one in which the community invests in itself for a brighter future.

Isaya Mwila leading the Big Committee
 (Kamati Kuu) meeting on July 5th, 2013

Isaya Mwila has been with the NGO since 2009 as head house-father of the older boys home at the Igoda Children's Village. Our Children's Village has six homes built around a valley to resemble a small neighborhood (rather than an orphanage/institution), and the older boys live in house number 3 with a married couple- Isaya being the Father figure. Over the years Isaya has grown into a leadership role, and this year was named chairman of our new department system, and head of administration.

On Monday he brought all of the notes from the recent 'Kamati Kuu' meeting to the administrative ward office to be distributed to leaders throughout the district. These biweekly meetings include all heads of our departments coming together to form a Big Committee who discuss and plan the projects of the organization. Sharing the minutes from these meetings should increase communication even more between our NGO and leaders in the community. Throughout the week Isaya also helped communications between all departments run smoothly so that the organization can run at a most efficient level.

Letisia Kanyika is head if our health department. She has a nursing certificate, and she manages all health issues that come up within the NGO regarding the sick in the villages, the children at the Children's Village, and she helps medical volunteers to serve those most in need. She brought Faumia, a 14-month old girl who was very malnourished, to a nearby private health dispensary. She had stayed over night Sunday night and would stay with the patient for the next few days until another member of the Health department came to take her place.

Sijali Kitalika is also in the health department and on Tuesday she helped escort two children, Nache and Meshack, to Mafinga to receive their 2nd line of HIV medication (currently only available at the district). A relative of Faumia came to Kibao as well to help in her care.

Rehema Mgimwa, 28, has a certificate of child-caring and has worked as head-house parent at House number 2 of the Children's Village since 2010. She is also a valued part of the administrative team and helped on Wednesday to explain all contracts to the guardians at the children's village. 

Rehema Mgimwa is head of
the guardianship department
 at Igoda Children's Village

Charles Mwagala has been a house Father at house number 1 since February 2011, and he is head of our "Building and Development" department. On Wednesday, he made a comprehensive plan to continue construction of Dr. Leena Pasanen's housing, and organized delivery of building supplies to keep the project moving as Dr. Leena Pasanen will be moving in full-time this October! On Thursday the 11th, Charles made a budgeted plan to help renovate classrooms at Ikaning'ombe primary school. This work has enabled the NGO to get accurate estimates of building costs for all our projects this year.

Charles Mwagala is bringing even more structure and
 efficiency to the organization's building and development projects

Charles and Isaya also met on Thursday with Dr. Ndenga and Father Duma of Mdabulo Mission to start a committee for the health facility. This committee will ensure that the public private partnership improves the service of Mdabulo Hospital. We are excited about the developments of this partnership as we look for funding to complete construction of the facility.

Yusto Chumi in the Igoda Primary
 School library

Yusto Chumi has been our 'teaching librarian' at Igoda Primary School since 2008, and is head of the education department. He's responsible for sharing all of the educational needs of the children from the children's village, and for communicating all of the developmental needs of our education projects. On Friday, he joined a meeting at Luhunga secondary School to help facilitate the library project to be run by the school itself. We are excited that Luhunga Secondary and its community has asked to take on more responsibilities in running its school instead of depending on regular assistance from the NGO. The school has already started a program on its own of adding a girl's dormitory. This is to protect the female students from the dangers of having to make the long walk to school in the evenings. The community has already contributed money to build the beds for the dormitory, and will soon contribute to the ongoing food costs. The school has asked the NGO to hold another seminar about teenage pregnancy and its negative effects. This was done once in March and has helped raise awareness for the students and community that teenage pregnancy is a major deterent to community development in the villages of Luhunga and Mufindi.

The initiation of the department system (consisting completely of pre-existing NGO staff) has helped bring an even closer relationship between the community and the organization. Ultimately, it will be through this local leadership that the projects will truly make their lasting positive effects.

Public Private Partnership Plan for the Mdabulo Hospital Project

The following is a brief about the partnership status between Mdabulo Mission, the NGO, and the government of Tanzania. The Public Private Partnership (PPP) plan is a 3-way partnership between the parties aforementioned. We have talked to our friends in Dar es Salaam like USAID and CIDA, about pre-existing documentation for PPPs and what it looks like, and we've received a few examples. The District Medical Officer is also crafting a new form for a PPP, that should be ready soon and this will mean that we will have an officially recognized written agreement involving everyone, and all facets of the project at Mdabulo will be agreed upon.

The agreements will include, but will not be exclusive to:

-operating of the Hospital: How will medicine and treatment be given to patients, at what cost etc?

-what measures will be taken to provide the best quality services to the people in this rural area? 

-what contributions, start-up and ongoing will each party be responsible for providing?

-how will future agreements and changes be made between the parties going forward?

In conjunction with this agreement, a committee has been formed that will include a member from our NGO, the Ward Executive Officer (local government), the longest standing nurse at the facility, and Dr. Ndenga who has been Clinical Officer at Mdabulo since 1984,  who will act as second in command to Chairman- Father Duma who is priest at the Mission. The committee will meet four times a year and discussions will continue referring to the objectives above. 

All of this will ensure that proper services are given to this community. This will avoid the mission facility raising prices of the treatment and services, thus out-pricing the local community (like what has happenned at the nearest private hospital at Lugoda). It will also help us stave off corruption as there will be more people from different places involved, and, finally it will create a system of encouraging excellence for the whole program.

Each shareholder’s contributions have already been realized to a certain extent. The following are the so far informal agreements that have been discussed.

Mdabulo Mission:

Initial contribution of the land and existing buildings, ongoing contributions of supplementary staff such as nurses, and monthly top-up of medications that will be needed.

Tanzania Government:

Initial and ongoing contribution of Dr. Ndenga (Clinical officer who has been at the facility since 1984) and certification of the facility to be upgraded to a Hospital. Govt. has already given certification for the facility to to be a static stand alone Care and Treatment Clinic site. The govt. will then be responsible for ongoing sponsorship of key staff members including doctors, lab technicians, nurse mid-wives and appropriate medications, treatments, etc.

Foxes' NGO:

Initial contribution of building and refurbishing of existing buildings, and bringing key medical equipment, supplies, and resources to the facility. Ongoing contribution of foriegn and local volunteers with medical expertise that will visit the facility as volunteers at Foxes' NGO, and will be working to give the facility a boost in quality and human capacity.

The plans are moving along nicely as is construction. This partnership is important to all parties as big investments have been made from all, and so a trustful relationship going forward for everyone will ensure the best quality service for the community of Mufindi.

Foxes' NGO Health Department

Letisia Kanyika and Sijali Kitalika lead the organization’s Health Department. They are two busy women! As we live in one of the hardest hit areas for HIV in Tanzania, there are countless related health problems that arise, and not just with the 75+ children that live at the Igoda Children’s Village. Letisia and Sijali also assist medical volunteers (especially Dr. Leena Pasanen) and regularly visit patients in nearby villages to help bolster the health services in a community just beginning to recover from the devastation wrought by the HIV pandemic.

Letisia Kanyika came to the NGO in 2012 asking for work as she had recently completed her certification as a nurse. The NGO was looking for a nurse to help with the various health issues presented regularly by the Igoda Children’s Village. She joined an organization with a bevy of health needs, and she has since taken on each challenge she has faced with professionalism and compassion for her patients.

Letisia Kanyika heads our organization's
Health Department

Sijali arrived at the Igoda Children’s Village when her child was very sick. She came to the organization not for a hand-out, but to ask if there was any work available that she could do to pay for her child’s medical bills. She worked in the garden for several months, paid back her loan, and has since worked on and off with the organization if and when a position has been open.

Sijali has a certification in first-aid, and has been a valued member of our health team this year.

Sijali Kitalika is making a difference in her community
as a member of the Health Department for Foxes' NGO

Both have traveled across the country several times to help patients get service in the often-crowded health facilities. They have acted as the voice, or advocate for these patients staying by their side as they stay for extended periods of time at various hospitals. This is a tremendous service as the patients get the treatment needed in a timely manner reducing the suffering of the patients, and also the costs of treatment, which can be crippling to an impoverished family.

Letisia and Sijali have had their salaries for this year sponsored by a very kind donation from the Rotary Club of Port Townsend. We are very thankful for the support that has enabled us to add these two remarkable women to our team!

Asante Sana!

Ezra Mhegele

These computers were donated through some great work done by our friends from Orphans in the Wild (WildOrphans.org)

The computers that arrived in the latest container have been a great help to the organization. One young man, Ezra Mhegele, has taken full responsibility of these computers and has really utilized them in a productive way.

Ezra Mhegele setting up the computers with Juma and Steven from the Igoda Children's Village

Ezra has been working during his school break between secondary school and university to earn money to pay for his own school fees. He studied computer technology, and he is now sharing what he learned with everyone in our community. He has been teaching adult computer courses for free, and a service is now available in the village that was not around previously.

"Ezra's Adult Computer Class happening each night

In the village of Igoda, a classroom has been built to host an adult computer classroom. Now that we have the computers to furnish the classroom, this goal can become a reality. We are hoping that Ezra will be able to teach one of his adult students to become a teacher at the classroom so that education can be spread throughout the community.

The computers have already come in use with NGO as databases are being formed by Ezra and his students to help organize the many activities of the organization including the various data of HIV+ patients collected by our home based care program; the building supplies for the various development projects; the needs of both food and household for the children's village; and the family history forms that are filled in as each child is entered into the children's village.

The computers have already had their effect on the community and the adults who have learned from them. We are excited to see the future uses for these valued educational resources!

Congratulations to Ezra for making a difference in his community!