We are sad to have to report that John Rimmer died on January 31st 2009. We send our
thoughts to Judy and the rest of the family. John first visited Uru North in 1992, needing no encouragement to join Judy and others in researching the tourism project that was established at Machare in 1993; John created the “House Book” which many of you will remember.
He enjoyed the countryside and wild life in the area but was not satisfied to view and photograph Mount Kilimanjaro from afar. In 1997 he took on a slightly larger challenge than scaling his beloved Lake District Mountains and climbed the 5,891.8 metre Kilimanjaro peak. Read the rest of this entry »
John Rimmer
April 28th, 2009Update on Fund Raising for the Goat Project
April 28th, 2009
Help success breed success
Following the launch of the ‘Goat project’ in November 2008, we have once again been delighted with the response from our members. With their help, the total we had raised towards our goal by March was £3,347.86. We also know that there are significant fund still in the pipeline. Initially our goal was £8,200, but following the recent decline in the pound we have calculated it to be more in the region of £9.500. However, a group of the Executive Committee members are working very hard towards achieving this goal by the end of the year. Read the rest of this entry »
The Mother and Child Health (MCH) Project - April 09
April 28th, 2009The MCH Project is supported by the Big Lottery Fund (BLF) and is operated by UNCODET in partnership with BTT and Skillshare International (SKI) and was due to finish on 30th June this year.
Whilst the project has been outstandingly successful, unavoidable staff changes resulted in programme delays which threatened the planned exit strategy. BLF, exceptionally, overturned their normal “use it or lose it” philosophy and approved an application to allow us to use the under spent funds to extend the project to the end of December. (An earlier application for a new BLF supported project had been unsuccessful.) Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome to the Brampton Tanzania Trust web site
April 10th, 2009
BTT raises funds in response to specific requests for help with small-scale projects from Tanzanians who live in the four villages that make up Uru North on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro.
All of these projects are identified, planned, costed and supported with volunteer labour and their own expertise by the villagers themselves.
We hope that you find the site useful and enjoy looking round to:
* find out about us
* keep up to date with progress on projects
* enjoy the photos
* shop with Amazon through this site and we get a donation
Goat Project to Help Orphans
March 2nd, 2009Evarist told us of a new proposal to be put forward by UNCODET to the Stephen Lewis Foundation, a Canadian organisation who fund community-based initiatives in Africa. As with many such organisations they ask for some other sources of funding to be acquired so we have been asked to give our support. The project is titled ‘Economic empowerment of marginalised and disadvantaged rural women and People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Uru North’ and the proposal includes the two villages of Uru South bordering on Uru North as well as the four villages of Uru North – Mrawi, Ongoma, Msuni and Njari. The overall aim of the project is to improve the livelihoods, health and economic status of: a) Households headed by women, with a particular focus on those looking after orphans as well as their own families, andb) People living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) who have tested voluntarily and opted to go public in Uru.
[225 orphan children are under the care of 75 women-headed households and 325 PLWHA]
A Toggenburg Goat
The intention is to improve the food, financial security and nutritional status of the target groups by introducing the farming of Toggenburg goats. Specific training in animal husbandry and entrepreneurial skills would be available, as would access to financial resources for starting up and expanding a small livestock business to increase the household income and provide the means of sustainable food production. Toggenburg goats are well suited to a mountain environment, reproducing twice a year and usually giving birth to two siblings at a time. The milk is highly nutritious and up to 4 litres a day can be produced, giving sufficient for both domestic use and sale. Toggenburg goats sold for milking, breeding and meat make between USD 80 and 125 per month, much more than the local goats. Milk/goat producers’ co-operatives would be established to unite and expand the collective efforts of the target groups. A few Toggenburg goats are already kept and have bred successfully in the Uru North area.
This is a wonderful way to work towards the weakest in the community being able help themselves and so improving their health, self confidence and future prospects. Having discussed this project the committee are very keen to support it as far as we can. We hope you will feel the same and consider ways to do this. We have been asked to find 28% of the project needs which would be about £8,000 but whatever we raise will help the ideas in the project move forward.
News of Projects November 2008
March 2nd, 2009
Sayin farewell: Brian Wind, Evarist Momburi, Judy Rimmer and Marie Taylor
At the last committee meeting we had two very special visitors: Evarist Momburi, who is the Project Officer of the UNCODET committee (the Uru half of BTT), and Marie Taylor, the teacher coordinating the link between Sweyne Park and Kisarika schools. It was great to have their direct input and to hear how things are progressing.
Evarist gave us the following update on the projects:
The memorial plaque for Kate Spiller, who was head of Sweyne Park School, is now in place in Kisarika school. As Evarist said, “UNCODET will treasure Kate’s love and contribution for the growth of the school, and the link between the two schools.”
(i) The construction of the Nurses’ House at the Rononi Dispensary has started but unusually heavy rains and the subsequent state of the roads have caused problems and delays. UNCODET hope for completion by the end of October.
ii) The construction of the Head’s House at Kisarika was in its last stages. A supplementary budget had been agreed and further money sent in July. Its completion would mean that Mr. Macha, the Head teacher, could move in and the Deputy Head could move back into the original house.
(iii) The Government has provided some money which can be used for any fittings and furniture still required for the labs at Kisarika.
(iv) UNCODET was still awaiting delivery of the equipment for the Mrawi Dispensary and the provision of staff. UNCODET Members were in discussion with Moshi District Council about this serious delay.
The BTT committee have allotted the rest of our current funds to:
Mrawi primary school for the construction of a dining hall annex with small kitchen. This is planned to start in Jan 2009; when complete, all primary schools in Uru North will be able to provide covered accommodation for pupils to eat their vital midday meal.
New Project Proposals that we wish to support
(i) Msiriwa Secondary - Construction of one more Classroom to accommodate the new intake. The cost will be shared between Moshi District Council, the Community and BTT. The request for our share would be about £4,080 depending on the exchange rate. It was hoped to start this by mid July 2008 to try and meet the deadline for student selection in mid December 2008, but unfortunately we do not have the funds yet.
(ii) Kisarika Secondary - Construction of two Classrooms for Form 5 & 6.
Courses would start in 2009, if classrooms were finished in time, offering local opportunities for A-level for those who complete O-level studies successfully. We would like to support this and our share would be about £7843. We were delighted that Marie Taylor could promise that Sweyne Park, Kisarika’s link school, would fund raise for this project.
William Howard School Tanzanian Link Visit July 2008
March 2nd, 2009
The Mural: created by William Howard and Uru Secondary students
This year marked the 20th Anniversary of the link between Uru Secondary and William Howard school and to commemorate this the students jointly chose to do three projects: research and make a documentary of the local tree economy; plan and prepare a commemorative mural and research and plant a small orchard using locally sourced trees. The students were also determined to shop as locally as possible (much of our provisions were purchased from the little stalls and markets of Uru North), visit all the BTT projects they had heard so much about and learn as much as they could about issues, life and the economy of the local community. Read the rest of this entry »
The Mother and Child Health (MCH) Project - What Next?
March 2nd, 2009In the May 2008 newsletter we reported that a new project was being submitted to the Big Lottery Fund (BLF) for support. This was an excellent proposal which would have spread the benefits of the Uru North MCH work into the 6 villages of Uru South, as well as giving greater support to particular groups within the Uru North community. However, the bid did not succeed so alongside the programme of activities for the final year of the MCH project (it ends in July 2009) an exit strategy is being developed so that successful outcomes can be embedded as normal practice within the day to day funding of the Health Service. Talks are being held with the District Medical Officer about the contribution of certain practices introduced through the project. Read the rest of this entry »
Photo album now online
January 19th, 2009
A photo album has now been added, incorporating the gallery from the previous version of the BTT web site.
We look forward to adding to it over the course of 2009.
News of recent projects
April 30th, 2008Progress on current projects
- Kisarika Headteacher’s house is nearly complete with only a few finishing touches, like hanging doors, needed.
- The Mrawi Dispensary is complete and only needs the last few bits of equipment to be fully functional.
- Foundations have been built for the Mrawi Primary School kitchen and dining hall and we have been able to send out the final funds for its completion.
- We have also been able to send out some initial funds for the classroom accommodation at Kisarika to house the form 5 centre. This will provide the first post ‘GCSE’ education in the area.
- We have received encouraging responses to our work to raise money for the Goat Project described in the last newsletter; I think everyone realises how crucial this is and this is where we are now focussing our efforts.
- The only bad news is that the rate of exchange has changed a great deal recently so our pounds do not go so far in Tanzania at the moment.
Projects funded in 2008
Nurses House at Njari Dispensary - Full amount of money requested was sent and received Jan/Feb 2008 and 2 possible sites have been levelled in readiness. Tsh 12,243,619.5/- (Approximately £5502) The photograph shows one of the two possible sites identified at the dispensary.