September 2012

Pictured: Progress of the Mdabulo Hospital Project! CHILDREN’S VILLAGE An exciting achievement developed this month as we officially opened up the final Orphans’ house! The most important housing component of the Children’s Village is now complete, and we can now address the various needs from the community in creative ways as we have 6 completed houses. The final house gives us options to take-in children if need be, or else maybe use the extra rooms as guest accommodation for visiting relatives, or guest speakers at either the children’s village, or community hall in Igoda. The rooms may also be used for Mothers or parents who are staying with their children at the Children’s Village for a short time, while the child regains his or her health, and the guardian learns about proper child-care for the child. The Children’s Village is evolving rapidly as the need from the community is changing. More people are getting back on their feet and being able to care for their own children in the community. The Children’s Village is slowly becoming more of child wellness center, or a general community resource center, while still housing and caring for over 65 children of its own. It is still being used predominantly for its original purpose of sheltering those children with no where else to go, but as the tide changes for the better in the surrounding area with the fight against HIV, the Children’s Village is beginning to change along with it. COMMUNITY OUTREACH Home Based Care The NGO fully welcomed its second long-term Peace Corps Volunteer this month as Stacey Droll began her work as a third-year extended Peace Corps Health Volunteer under Foxes’ NGO. Stacey will be working with Dr. Leena, and other health volunteers, showing them patients to visit in the community, and coordinating the health branch of the NGO. She will do so while also coordinating the entire Home Based Care program. This year’s goal is to start a second Home Based Care team for the ward of Ihanu that surrounds the Ibwanzi Health facility that Foxes’ NGO has constructed in the past. Stacey has been busy partnering with the District AIDS Cooridinator, and HBC Coordinator, Dr. Mpiluka, and has been interviewing potential volunteers from Ihanu ward. Training of these volunteers will start on December 3rd. HEALTH CARE Mdabulo Hospital Lots of developments at Mdabulo Hospital this month, as we get closer and closer to the opening of this ‘functioning-wing’ of the facility. The rooms of the constructed area of the Hospital were painted this month, and a ceiling was installed. The facility is also now wired for electricity throughout. We were excited to have special guests Marion and Rod Gough with us from the UK sister charity Orphans in the Wild this month. It was fantastic to be able to show the Goughs the progress at Mdabulo, as all of their hard work packing and sending containers from the UK will come to fruition here as the area gets its first Hospital. Marion spent quite some time organizing bandages, medical supplies, and other resources brought over from the NGO storage to Mdabulo, and her work has added to the efficiency of the facility. EDUCATION Adult English The Adult English program is back in action this month. Classes have begun again at the Igoda Children’s Village, and an added breath of enthusiasm came into the program this month as Yusto Chumi has started to teach English at the Igoda Community Hall. This means the Hall is being used daily, and the community is becoming more and more comfortable with using the Hall on a regular basis. Igoda Community Hall This month’s Bibi and Babu chai were a great success yet again, and an added event this month included the 2nd annual career fair for students in Standard 7. The students came to the Community Hall and learned first hand about the opportunities that were in their community as they plan their lives going through school. Two guardians from the Children’s Village were present, and there were stations for farmers, shop owners, workers from tea companies, and elsewhere. It was an exciting day, even if it had a late start, and it further pushed the reputation of the Igoda Community Hall for being a great educational resource for the community.

July and August 2012

Pictured: Jenny Peck has spent the past 6 years in the project area, working with the community towards better health, education and child care. July 4th was one of those days where it seemed as though everything was happening all at once! The progress in July and August can be exemplified for the most part, by the activities that were packed in to this one day. CHILDREN’S VILLAGE Because Igoda Primary School had been closed ahead of Sabasaba preparations Cornelia Raymond was teaching at Igoda Children’s Village on July 4th instead of at her normal post as kindergarten teacher at the primary school. Cornelia has been working for the NGO since 2007, and her teaching has improved each year, and her passion for the children has yet to wane even in the slightest. She is a great role model for the students at the school, as well as the children at the Children’s Village. Orphans’ House number one (the sixth and final house at the Children’s Village) continued progress on this day, as mason workers laid down the cement floor. The house will bring the Children’s Village to its planned full-capacity, and we are envisioning many purposes for this house as well, as the community has begun to use the Children’s Village as a resource with a variety of purposes. The final house may be used as a version of a guesthouse for Mothers with children who’ve fallen ill who need time to learn how to support their children with proper nutrition. It may also be used for visitors of the children here whose relatives may be close to bringing the child back into the village and would like to stay for a few days to see how life has gone on for their children while they’ve lived at the Children’s Village. The Social Center/Kindergarten got a new fence on July 4th. Our carpenter finished the fence with local materials, and it has helped to further divide up the Social Center area of the Children’s Village. The Social Center has the potential to really expand the services of the Children’s Village to the community. Eventually the Center will include an administrative office, a health clinic, a kindergarten, a day care, a playground, a small social hall, and a center for the Children’s Village that encompasses all of the facets of the project in Mufindi. COMMUNITY OUTREACH Milk Formula Program Also on July 4th, 60 HIV+ Mothers arrived to receive their monthly stipend of milk formula. This program continues to thrive and educate Mothers about proper nutrition for their children. Another service was provided this month as a seminar was held by Dr. Onyango from the Mkonge Village health dispensary. He talked to all of the women about family planning, and infant and maternal health. The added education for the women in this program is intended to enhance the results of the program, and enable the families to make their own life decisions armed with all of the resources they need. We are excited to see the area become more informed about the decisions they make, and the difference this will make for the future of this community. HEALTH CARE Mdabulo Hospital Doors were installed today at the Mdabulo Hospital, and more supplies were delivered to keep the progress moving at the Hospital. Plumbing and electricity are next, and then the ceiling can be installed. The Hospital can’t be completed soon enough, as we seem to see on a daily basis that the resources in this rural area are direly lacking. Dr. Leena has to make referrals for patients to go as far away as Iringa or Dar es Salaam for treatment for example, and these places can be over a day’s worth of travel. Once the Hospital is complete, and the partnership between the government, mission, and our NGO is in place the area will have a health system that can properly serve its community. Administrative Manager Geoff Knight met with Padre Baptista Duma about forming a formal committee that will solidify the Public Private Partnership between the mission, the government of Tanzania, and the NGO. The committee will help make group decisions on the operations of the Hospital, and the overall quality of health service will no doubt improve through this partnership. Mdabulo CTC July 4th was also Children’s Care and Treatment Day, and so the 9 children with HIV at the Igoda Children’s Village joined the 100+ children in the area who are treated at Mdabulo. The Mdabulo Care and Treatment Clinic continues to test more and more people for HIV, and is also part of the prevention program in the area giving seminars to people about contracting HIV. The facility remains as the only treatment facility where CD4 can be tested, and the steady supply of reagents may soon make it a more reliable treatment center than the CTC in the district capital. EDUCATION Mwefu Primary School Building supplies were delivered to Mwefu Primary School on July 4th and progress on this project is being made each day. The devastation that this school experienced last December when a storm knocked down more than half the school is quickly becoming a distant memory. Soon the students will return to the school- they had been attending another primary school over ten kilometers away – and the community continues to contribute to ensure that this school gets re-built better than ever. Public Health Community Outreach Coordinator Jenny Peck gave an afternoon talk at the Seventh Day Adventist church today on the topic of maternal and infant health. She gave a long presentation that included a power point full of educational photos showing the development of a fetus through pregnancy and birth. The presentation was attended by several hundred women and men, and was a great success. Many requests for another presentation were made, and the NGO’s goal of spreading education for the long-term benefit of the Mufindi community will continue to be met through events such as these. Igoda Community Hall Another successful Babu Chai day took place on July 4th at the Igoda Community Hall. Over 100 grandfathers came together at the Community Hall to have tea and share in a social event to discuss the issues of the community. The grandfathers come together, as do the grandmothers on the last Wednesday of each month, and many discussions are had in a group setting that give the elderly a social outlet for their ideas and thoughts for a better tomorrow. The attendees share a cup of tea, but also get to share their burdens of raising grandchildren whose parents may have passed, and they are appreciated for their contributions to society. Luhunga Library Volunteer Sasha Bill has been with us for a few months and has shown the go-getter attitude that is greatly appreciated out of our volunteers. On July 4th he was busy teaching Leudi Mtende the basics of computers in hopes to have our Computer Lab at Luhunga Secondary School up and running. The goal is to have this lab completely functioning sometime after the August break that Tanzania takes this year for the National Census. We hope that bringing computers to this school will be another added resource that will help make this school an educational facility that the community can be proud of, and one that will help mold a brighter future for Mufindi!

June 2012

Pictured: Adult Education at the Igoda Children's Village is one of the resources that the project is extending into the community.







The following is a description of what has been accomplished by the NGO during the month of June 2012.

 The Igoda Children’s Village is a resource for the people of Mufindi that extends far beyond the 68 children that live here. This month we would like to explain further about just how far that reach extends. This project alone fully encompasses everything that the NGO as a whole is doing here in Mufindi.

 CHILDREN’S VILLAGE

 First an update of the daily developments at the Children’s Village is in order as there has been a lot of progress this month. The Children’s Village welcomed a new member to the family this month, as Elkana Mduvike, 14, from Ludilo village had lost both of her parents, is an only child and her grandmother has become unable to care for her in the village. Elkana has fit right in, and the older girls are happy to have another sister for their group.
Also this month, a new committee was formed to help manage the everyday issues of the Children’s Village. 5 leaders, 2 male house guardians, 2 female house guardians, and a female gardener make up the committee that will oversee the daily issues and problems of the Children’s Village, and generate solutions on their own as a group. The committee has already had to immediately deal with some very difficult issues this month, and have done a phenomenal job combining locally acceptable cultural ideas with standards of child care that are expected at the Children’s Village, to come up with some great solutions for issues that have already come up. We are excited to see this local leadership arise, as it is the latest step in having our projects run more efficiently, by people from the area.
On June 25th this month a wildly successful meeting was held at the Children’s Village where leaders from throughout Mufindi were invited to learn first-hand about all of the things the NGO has been able to accomplish with the community. Nearly 50 leaders from local churches, local government, local schools, and two district leaders were on hand to receive a tour of the Children’s Village, and to watch informative videos on the developments of the NGO. The meeting was a raving success as the question and answer period went on for quite a while where advice was shared, and praise was given to the NGO from everyone in attendance regarding the successful projects introduced by the NGO.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Income Generating Projects

The women of the “Threads of Hope” basket group came to the Igoda Children’s Village to sell their baskets this month. The group had a great month of sales in June. A friend of the NGO living in Dar had a sale on the first weekend of the month where over $600 was sold, and then a few hundred dollars more worth of baskets were sold in Iringa at a crafts fair the following weekend. The crafts fair was exciting as Sila Ngigwa, the head basket weaver, was able to attend and share her story with people who attended. She also got to see first hand what people were interested in buying, and we feel the whole experience will help the business.
On the 27th, over 100 women from the group came to Igoda Children’s Village to sell their baskets. For most of the women it was the first time visiting the Children’s Village, and so it was exciting for all of the guardians to once again explain everything that was happening here. The women from Threads of Hope toured the Children’s Village, and then watched the same videos that were shown to the village leaders two days earlier. We are hoping that by opening up the Children’s Village, and the NGO to the community, we will have an even closer relationship with the community.

Home Based Care

Another service that started at Igoda Children’s Village has expanded into the community this month as several birth control seminars have been hosted by Dr. Onyango from Mkonge village. The first seminar, and procedure day, occurred at the Children’s Village, and the demand for such education and services has brought the seminar into the village. The Home Based Care team in Mdabulo organized a seminar at the Mdabulo CTC this month, where over 50 women came for the education, and some received procedures for family planning.
Home Based Care volunteers have also received some extra help from the Children’s Village this month, as our community service continues as the children are on school holiday. The children from the Children’s Village have been accompanying Home Based Care Volunteers on home visits to the homes of the most sick and vulnerable people in the area. This has taught the children to give back to the community, and to help those they way they were helped. We’re also hoping this will teach the community that everyone is in this struggle together, and everyone must help in this community, even vulnerable children from difficult backgrounds can do their part! One visit was particularly important for some of our children as they had a peaceful visit back to their village from where they were born. A large group of our children are from Mlevelwa village. All of the children from Mlevelwa were able to do their community service, as well as visit their families. It was difficult to convince these families to leave these children in the care of the Children’s Village in the beginning, so it is a good thing that these relatives can see what shape their children are in, and we now see that the families are seeing the benefits of the Children’s Village.

HEALTH CARE

Mdabulo CTC

A very exciting development happened at the Mdabulo Care and Treatment Clinic this month, as a child from the Igoda Children’s Village was present at each and every ‘CTC’ day to help as a volunteer. The children selected to visit the CTC and help the understaffed facility were those who have shown an interest in the medical field. Datrai Masonda, 15, for example wants to be a doctor when she grows up, and this experience was a real eye-opener for her. She was able to help patients at the CTC, and see how HIV is affecting her own community. She learned about the disease, and the patients at the CTC clearly appreciated that a child was learning about health, and helping her community as she had been helped in her life.

EDUCATION

Igoda Community Hall

Every June 16th, marks Children of Africa day, and this year marked the third year running that the Luhunga Ward official event has occurred at the Igoda Community Hall. Many children from various schools, and also from the Igoda Children’s Village put on performances, and there was a lot of talk in the speeches about Children’s rights. This year’s event was focused on children with disabilities, and it was exciting for us to bring Hezron, a boy from the Children’s Village with HIV and Cerebral palsy; and Zainabu, a girl from the Children’s Village, who is slowly learning to retrieve her motor skills after a lifetime of neglect.
The honoured guest this year, Evarista Kalalo, District Commissioner of Mufindi, gave an impassioned talk, and also included some good news for the Children’s Village in her speech. She granted permission for the Children’s Village to run a kindergarten out of the Social Center. This was exciting to hear in front of all village leaders, and the community, and so plans are continuing to have the kindergarten open this year, or at the beginning of 2013. Yusto Chumi and Cornelia Raymond Yusto Chumi has been the Igoda Primary School librarian for over three years now, and Cornelia Raymond has been the Igoda Primary School kindergarten teacher. During the school break they have come to the Children’s Village to teach the children here extra lessons, so that these children who are from disadvantaged backgrounds may catch up with their colleagues in the classroom. Other children from the nearby neighborhood have come as well to take advantage of this service, and this is just another example of how the Children’s Village is starting to be a complete resource for the community.

May 2012

Pictured: Ruth Chelule arriving at the care homes complex We take a look at sustainability this month, and how the organization has incorporated this in everything we do. The following is a description of what has been accomplished by the NGO during the month of May 2012. CHILDREN’S VILLAGE Each month the parents at the Igoda Children’s Village have a meeting of the minds, and on May 21st a spirited discussion was had on the topic of sustainability, and income generation. Each parent contributed ideas on how the children’s village could start earning income to offset costs of housing all of its children. Obviously, the very nature of ‘orphan-care’ is not sustainable in a natural sense. Children without relatives to care for them have no means themselves to support themselves through school, or support themselves into adulthood. Immediate care is often needed to get the children or some families back on track for a brighter future. As a long-standing facility now, the children’s village is approaching its fifth anniversary, the Igoda Children’s Village is looking for ways to generate income in order to pay for the monthly costs of running the village. Some ventures have already started. A two and a half acre garden has been planted, and the vegetables have been enough to feed all of the children at the Children’s Village, as well as some extra produce that has been sold in the village. Over 5,000 pine trees have been planted as an investment to be sold later, as well as a fruit orchard that will supply the children’s village with a steady supply of fruit in the future. Currently, the Children’s Village is buying fruit and meat weekly. With the ideas brought forward from the parents themselves, and the development already in place, the Children’s Village may be in a position to self-sustain at least a great portion of its own development going forward. COMMUNITY OUTREACH Care Homes The community in and around Igoda village has seen some drastic development over the past few years. As the community as a whole has become healthier, more and more families are able to help themselves out of poverty, and we’ve seen more stores, more tin roofs, and more signs of positive development in recent years. The community is contributing more and more to help its orphaned and vulnerable children population as well, as committees are growing bigger and stronger, and a social network is coming together to help the community care for all of its children. One of the most encouraging signs is a group of people that has been initially helped by the NGO, wanting to help others as a form of paying back the good fortune they received in the past. This group of people includes those who have earned an income through the basket program, or chicken banda program, or those who have been helped as a part of crisis management where the home based care program helped a family get back to a level where it could provide basic care to its children. These people are coming together to form a committee in Igoda village on how to use the constructed ‘Care Homes.’ Candidates for the homes (a cluster of three homes built with sun-dried bricks on donated property in Igoda village designed after our popular Bibi’s houses) will include single mothers needing temporary shelter; grandmothers content with leaving their dilapidated homes in favour of better shelter for the children they might be caring for; and other members of the community that need temporary shelter to get through a difficult stretch of their lives. The committee has already chosen the first tenant for these care homes, Ruth Chelula. Ruth is a 19-year-old girl who was forced out of school when she became pregnant, and was told she could not keep work in the tea fields, as she had to care for her infant child. She will live in the care homes until she establishes a farm, and her own life somewhere in Igoda village. The care homes will be completely managed by the committee, and a sense of sustainability will be formed as the community solves its own issues related to orphaned and vulnerable children. Milk Formula Program The guardians from the milk formula program received an extra benefit from the program this month on May 7th, when family planning options were made available for the day at Igoda Children’s Village. Over 50 people arrived to receive a birth control procedure that currently is unavailable in the village. This included vasectomies, IUDs, and depravera shot. In a way, the sustainability of this program comes in education. In the long term if more people are educated through programs like these, the need for such interventions will drift away over time, as people are armed with the tools to prevent further infections of HIV, and are better equipped to make more informed life decisions. Income Generating Projects Income Generating Projects have long since been the most sustainable part of our NGO. We are all excited about the possibilities of these projects for the future, and we may even be in the process of starting a program that could make sustainable income beyond just covering the incidentally costs. Namely, this is the Sewing School that has started at Igoda Children’s Village. We suspect a loss in terms of profit the first year, but so far this project has shown signs of success. 8 women are already paying 15,000Tsh per month to attend the school, and items that the students have made have already been sold in the village. The end goal is for the students to start their own businesses upon graduation, and in the meantime the goal is to get some quality product produced that may be sold to not only support the class, but possibly even generate an income to help supplement donations to the NGO. Sewing machines were donated by a connection with a local cell phone carrier company, and materials for the class have been provided through the last container sent through Orphans in the Wild from the UK. We’re still at the early stages, but it looks like we may have a winner on our hands with this project! HEALTH CARE Mdabulo Hospital / Mdabulo CTC Of course no health care system is intended to be purely sustainable, but even at our health facility this month our partnership between the government and the private mission has yielded a bit of benefit for all potential patients in the area! This year the government of Tanzania, spearheaded by the new District Medical Officer in Mufindi, has brought a frequent supply of CD4 reagents, which has bolstered the supply produced by funds from African Book Box and Mufindi Orphans Inc Rotary connections. The government has also pledged this month to take on the salary of our nurse midwife Paulina Visulu, who has been sponsored by Orphans in the Wild donors since April 2008. This partnership is starting become closer and closer, and each faction, our NGO, the government, and the mission, is doing its part to contribute to the success of the Mdabulo Health Facility. EDUCATION Igoda Community Hall Titus Nyunza and Treda Pius have now been in charge of organizing events at the Igoda Community Hall for almost two and a half years. Recently they have started to take some ideas for income generation at the hall to help pay for the events that take place. Ideas that have come up include renting the hall for weddings and other events, or running a retail store, or small guesthouse near the hall for visitors. The two ‘events coordinators’ put in action this month a small plan to sell maandazi (a local biscuit or doughnut type pastry) at the community hall to earn the hall an extra sum of money to be used to help fund the various events. The profits are small for now, but still the initiative is there, and generally throughout the organization there is a feeling of desire to stand on our own sometime in the future. We have a long way to go, but with everyone on board with the idea of sustainability, there’s no telling how far the development of this community can go!

March and April 2012

Pictured: Physiotherapist Dr. Cathy Jansen works with children with disabilities at the Igoda Children's village The following is a description of what has been accomplished by the NGO during the months of March and April 2012. CHILDREN’S VILLAGE At the end of March, Hezron, a 14 year old boy with HIV and cerebral palsy, benefitted from a week-long intensive care visit organized by an Italian organization called Inuka (to rise up) that works with children with disabilities. This visit had been organized since a most recent visit by Physiotherapist Annie Gibbs, who suggested the visit for Hezron could be very useful for his development. The Community Based Rehabilitation Center in the village of Waning’ombe is about 175km from Igoda village, and is run by some very professional Italians, who have been in Tanzania for years now. The week of intensive care included visits by virtually all of the physiotherapists in the entire regions of Mbeya, and Iringa, and from elsewhere as well- 7 doctors in total. This is a profession that is lacking throughout Tanzania, and we are still considering the correct course of action as to how to continue with Hezron’s treatment as he grows older. He is happy at the Igoda Children’s Village- even taking on the role of ‘Assistant Teacher’ during pre-school each day. The suggestion from the professionals at the Inuka center was to have Hezron stay at the Igoda Children’s Village, and continue to be an integral part of the lives of the children there. COMMUNITY OUTREACH Milk Powder Program This month we received some very good news for the Milk Powder Program in the form of funding that should sustain the program for possibly the next two years! Funding from the Goat Races Charity Event started this program off, and then start up funds from UK (Orphans in the Wild) and Canada (African Book Box) kept it going, and now we’ve had several donations come from the US to keep the program going for quite some time to come! The program is the only way to prevent HIV transmission from Mother to Child after the child is born, and it has been very successful in terms of improving overall health of all of its children. The education that has come along with this program has also decreased stigma of HIV for HIV+ Mothers, and has educated vast parts of the community about HIV prevention methods. Home Based Care Dr. Cathy Jansen, from Holland, has visited us again in March and April. She is a physiotherapist that has not only helped with our two physically handicapped children at Igoda Children’s Village, but she also has met with our home based care volunteers to teach them exercises they might be able to share with relatives of people with physical disabilities in the area. This visit, Cathy saw patients in the villages of Mlevelwa and Ludilo, and many families were taught exercises that will get these previously neglected patients off the ground, or physically mobile. The Home Based Care volunteers continue to give services to the families in their communities, and are really spreading the word about health education, and getting people more accustomed to using the health care system. This is perfect timing ahead of the completion of our Hospital project in Mdabulo. If the community is more accustomed to using the health system, it will be all the better for the overall running’s of the Hospital. Health Care Mdabulo Hospital We have a ceiling frame in at the ‘procedural wing’ of the Hospital now! Next will come the veranda, and then when window shutters and doors are complete, electric wiring, and plumbing will go in and with it, sinks, toilets, etc. and then furniture, and donated medical supplies! When this projects is complete, the government has said it will immediately have an opening ceremony for the facility upgrading it to a health center.

February 2012

A bit of an unorthodox monthly report this month, as we look at one family/neighborhood, and how they have been effected by each part of our organization. CHILDREN’S VILLAGE: The house guardians at Igoda Children's village have a very familial job title. They are called Mothers. To the children living here, whether for a temporary time, or permanently, that's what they are. These mothers have been witness to quite the spectrum of human existence in respects to living in poverty. Each of these Mothers is from one of the villages that our NGO works with, and each has seen a lot of suffering, and a lot of successful perseverance that has come out of hope and hard work. On Feb 8th, 2012, two children from the village of Mlevelwa joined the family here at the children's village. Their names are Kastory and Kaizer. On this day, our Mothers were stunned to see what poor condition the children were in, and some could not find the words for their thoughts. Those who could were humbled. Mama Ene thanked God that we were all here and able to help these children. Ada said she never knew children lived like this. The Mothers fed them and took the children in, and within moments the two kids were part of the family- playing with the other children, and enjoying life as kids. This is what the children's village is all about. There may not be every convenience available to these children, but they are able to be children here. Underprivileged children in this area don't get to be kids. By giving children their basic rights, food, shelter, and a right to school, the children's village allows these kids from the roughest of backgrounds to enjoy life, and to take back their childhood. COMMUNITY OUTREACH Home Based Care These two kids were found through our Home Based Care program. In Mlevelwa village there are two volunteers: Maria Mtunge, and Ibrahim Chunga. On the first of February, they organized a meeting at the village office to talk about these children and another family who lived next door. Present at the meeting was the chairman of Mlevelwa village, the village executive officer, the para-social worker from Mlevelwa, the Mdabulo Ward health officer, the head of the orphans and vulnerable children committee, and the head of the people living with HIV/AIDS committee. Each one present was member of the community, and each a concerned adult truly caring about the well-being of these kids. Each of these leaders from the community pleaded with the family to let the children stay at the children's village until they reached a more stable point in their lives more appropriate for child-rearing. Each family agreed and allowed for the children to move to the children's village and join the family here. With the intervention of these Home Based Care volunteers, we are certain these children's lives were saved. HEALTH CARE Mdabulo CTC Each month the Home Based Care volunteers meet at the Mdabulo Care and Treatment Clinic (CTC) to discuss the issues that have come up in the previous month, and the goals of the upcoming month. The CTC gives them a platform to discuss their common issues, and the volunteers are able to share their ideas, and hear from their colleagues who have similar problems. One issue that comes up is the refusal to be tested by HIV. Kastroy and Kaizer’s family and neighbors have been a very big problem on this front. There is a lack of knowledge about the issues, and unfortunately, for some, alcohol seems to increase ignorance and stubbornness. A breakthrough happened this month, where through support from her fellow home based care volunteers, Maria Mtunge was able to get Aloyse (Father of Kastory and Kaiser) to agree to be tested, and on a CTC day he tested positive for HIV, and started treatment straight away. Without the readily available treatment supplied by the CTC, this effort would have proven much more difficult. To be able to tell someone that you will walk with them to the clinic to get treatment, that you are together with them, is worlds different than asking them to get on a bus for half a day, only to have to do the same each month for your treatment. We’ve come a long way in the past few years with treatment, and with the increased accessibility, there has become less stigma, and more education about the disease. We hope Aloyse will set a great example, and be an agent for change for the family of Kastory and Kaizer, and the entire neighborhood in the village of Mlevelwa may have a chance to start there own positive development. EDUCATION Igoda Community Hall It is also possible that this agent of change may come from the community as a whole. The Igoda Community Hall so far has served as a fantastic educational resource for education for the surrounding area, and has enabled the community to educate itself about the issues that it finds important. This month the community hall hosted two seminars. The first was a women’s conference, and the other a conference centered on girls’ rights. These conferences are designed by Tanzanians to give their women and girls to stand up for the rights of women everywhere. It is from conferences like these that women learn to get the confidence that Mama Toni, mentioned in last month’s report, showed this month. She comes from the same neighborhood as Aloyse, Kastory and Kaizer’s family, and she appears to be more confident as she has since confronted her family about the lack of caring for their small children, and has tried to educate her family about the dangers of ignorance towards HIV. With events such as these educating the community about vital topics, the problem of this knowledge void is slowly evaporating. People are feeling comfortable enough to talk about issues that for far too long were kept in secret, which prevented new knowledge about the topics to come to light. This mass-education happening in Igoda village, and affecting the surrounding 15 villages or more, must be the only way in a long-term sense that issues as big as stigma and the spread of HIV can be beaten once and for all. There is still a ways to go for treatment accessibility in greatly forgotten rural areas such as ours, but the Community Hall in Igoda village gives the community a powerful weapon for the fight against HIV. These two children, Kaizer and Kastory, come from one group of households from a corner of a village that has been reversing the trend of positive development in our area. Due to bad choices, and ignorance, this small group of people are setting themselves in the opposite direction of positive development. This must be as bad as it gets in this world. As harrowing a thought that might be however, it's what keeps us all going. We know a difference is being made by all of the work being done here. The people who are benefitting from the services are the absolute most in need. When a community comes together to help it's most in need, it highlights what is needed for everyone in that community, and slowly from the very bottom up, an impoverished community is lifting itself up, creating it's own positive development.

January 2012

CHILDREN’S VILLAGE For the past two months a 17-year old girl named Jasia has lived at the Children’s Village while she waits to berth her first child. At the beginning of January doctors here said Jasia was seven and a half months pregnant. Jasia is mentally disabled, and is HIV positive. Jasia’s older sister (Eliza, 20) is taking care of her now, as their parents have thrown both of them out of the family for having children out of marriage. This is a sad reality for girls in their situation as both of them have been taken advantage of by men in the village. On January 20th Jasia went into labour, and was ready to deliver. Children’s village manager, Jenny Peck and Eliza took Jasia to Mdabulo where they met Nurse Midwife Paulina Visulu, and the three of them delivered Jasia’s baby together! Jenny is the mother of two, and Eliza has one two year old, but this was the first birth for them to witness in person. Communications with Jasia during the labour was difficult, but after about an hour, Emily was born at 2.3 kilos, and has since been taken care of by Jasia and Eliza, with help from the mothers at the Children’s village. Eliza was so grateful for a healthy birth, and has been thanking God since Emily came into this world. Eliza is planning on building a house in Kidete village where she can live with Jasia and their children. We are happy for this family that they get some joyous news at the end of the otherwise difficult path they have lived. Toni is a 4-month-old boy from the village of Mlevelwa. He joined us as well this month, along with his 19-year-old mother. Mama Toni (Justina Mtende) is currently taking sewing lessons from our resident seamstress, and we hope this will be the catalyst for a full sewing class that could start this year! Mama Toni is sewing with her teacher every day, and eventually will start her own business, which will help her support her child. We’re glad her story will have a happy ending. The children at the children’s village continued their community service this month. It was sad to see the passing of Seti Mdalingwa this month. Seti was an HIV positive man who was suffering from debilitating cancerous sores. The home based care volunteers in the area cared for Seti in the last few months of his life. Hundreds of people came to Seti’s funeral, and many gave their appreciation and thanks to the NGO, and to the volunteers for caring for their community. Construction of House number one (the final orphans’ home) is going on really well. All of the exterior walls, and most of the interior walls are now complete! We are nearly ready for the ‘ring beam’ level, and after that, roofing will begin. We are hoping for construction to be complete by the end of April. After completion, all housing will be finished and a major accomplishment will be achieved! COMMUNITY OUTREACH Milk Formula The Milk Powder Program is going strongly and our example case, Shamira, is up to 3.86 kilos. This month 6 new babies joined the program, and we now have 37 families enrolled in the program. We received some good news regarding this program as well- funding has been found that will give some security to the program for the next few years! We are excited about this development, as we will get to see the impact of the program now without worry of becoming unable to continue due to lack of funds. Bibi’s Houses (Care Homes) The Bibi’s houses project has been a bit quiet recently, as construction has been complete for some time. Decisions on how the facility will be best used have taken quite a while to be realized. Everyone wants this to be a valued resource to the community. Three homes have been built on land donated by our very own Treda Pius (Mama Ivan) and the community will decide who will live in these houses. They will be selecting those most in need of shelter. This month, the NGO took its final steps in turning over this project to the community. A meeting was held at the Bibi’s house complex to discuss forming a committee that will manage this project for the village of Igoda. The Village Executive Officer (VEO), the Chairman of the village, a house guardian from the Children’s Village, Geoff Knight and Jenny Peck from the NGO, and members of two existing committees all attended the event- 15 people in all. The leaders from the orphaned and vulnerable children committee, as well as the committee for people living with HIV, brought local experience to the meeting, as each member has first hand experience in caring for those most in need. The attendees have formed a specific committee to decide how the Bibi’s house complex will be used, and each member has ideas of who can benefit from this service right away. It was decided that it may not necessarily just be the elderly who live in the complex, but the service may be extended to others who may need temporary emergency shelter. The committee is coincidentally made up of many people whom the NGO has helped get out of poverty, and now they are wanting to ‘pay it forward’ and help others who are in need of assistance. EDUCATION Igoda Community Hall The village itself used the Igoda Community Hall a number of times this month. First, the district representative in Parliament, Mendradi Kigola, came to address the village of Igoda and surrounding area, and promised to help the development of the community by donating pieces of iron roofing to primary schools in the area. Secondly, the two committees for people living with HIV/AIDS in Igoda village (total 62 people in the committees) met for three days at the Hall to receive education supplied by leaders from a private Hospital (Lugoda) on how to manage money as a registered group through savings and loans. The lauded Bibi and Babu chai events happened on the 2nd and 25th of the month, and the big event this month organized by Titus Nyunza and Treda Pius was a seminar on proper food and medication for those living with HIV. Two medical professionals from the area came to teach about proper foods, and adherence counseling to over 300 people who attended. This seminar further helped the community learn more about this disease, thus banishing stigma even further from our community. We are happy to see the community make use of this great resource!