Touring the Projects – by Bill Wray
January 15, 2014
Wednesday was project tour day. We loaded up the 2 jeeps and headed out with Cynoc and Joseph to visit the projects.
The first stop was the Mrereni water catchment project were the Rotary District 7070 funded a water tank that collects rain water for the garden and to provide drinking water for the students at the Mrereni Secondary School. The tank is now connected to municipal drinking water as well so that it can be filled during the dry season. The garden was being planted by a local Rotarian when we arrived.
We then travelled across country, a road we had not used in the past, to the Nganjoni health clinic. We had a tour of the equipment that arrived in December. The clinic looked to be in good shape. Roger, Stephan and Judy will represent District 7070 at the official opening of the clinic next week.
We continued our journey across roads previously unseen to the Uparo health clinic to view the equipment we sent to them in June. Kate and Maria have not had much time in at this clinic, so we found a large portion of the shipment in storage. The nurses will return on Thursday to assist in unpacking and organizing the clinic.
We then proceeded up the Kirua road which is currently under construction; when complete it will lead to the new entrance gate to the Kilimanjaro National Park. The road is being prepped for paving and is in good shape. This project is being funded by the United States government.
The main group made a visit to the Kirua public health clinic while Roger and I visited the Kirua Catholic health clinic as some issues had been brought to our attention by the nursing team. Repairs to the roof had been completed by the parish as promised but the ceilings in several rooms had not been repaired as requested and the clinic was not very clean. The parish has been given a 3 week timeline to comply with the requests; the local Rotarians plan to relocate the equipment to other local clinics if the requests are not met.
After lunch, the 2014 sweat equity team assisted the Kilema Primary teachers with the handing out of new school uniforms to the students. This project was funded by the fundraising efforts of Meaghan Pickering, who came to Tanzania with last year’s group. Upon her return in 2013, Meaghan approached her elementary school principal about raising funds at her school (she was in grade 8) and then conducted two fundraising events in the summer. She was able to raise $5,900.00. The children were very excited to receive their uniforms. The funding of this project is ongoing, (any support is appreciated). The first phase of the project supplied the poorest students at Kilema Primary. Called “Clothe Kilema”, will ultimately be a $15,000 USD project. Kilema Primary has 362 students; we supplied uniforms for 141 students in phase 1.
Habari za jioni? Hamjambo?
We have loved reading all the Blogs! Thanks for all the great information and pictures. Great work everyone.
Weather is about -10C tonight with wind chill….and it is snowing.
Asante sana!
Sue and Dave
Way to go Meaghan!
The uniforms are beautiful and I know that the students will appreciate them!