Dear Supporters
A big thank you on behalf of the individuals and groups we help to all those who have supported us in so many ways over the years.
Friends of Lindi continues to operate in its own small way and Sue and Steve Scorer visited in November/December 2024. I am happy to say that this was an uplifting visit after 2 years running the charity remotely from the UK. We are now seeing the impact of our help on young people in Lindi.
Aquinas students
This was a big year for 9 sponsored students who sat the first important National Exam at the end of Form Two in secondary school. We met the girls (and boy) in Mtwara and took them for a beach lunch and had a chance to catch up with all their news. We met most of these young people when they were 4 or 5 Yrs old and living near our house when we were working for VSO for 3 years. (2014-2017). From very disadvantaged families they have been competing with middle class students in their private school. Amazingly they all achieved a Division One pass! Aquinas school data compared to the Government schools they would have attended shows how they have benefitted from escaping their fate if they had followed state education. A big thank you from them to our sponsors for their contribution.
At the end of our visit we met some of the children in Dar es Salaam and took them to their first ever cinema visit to see Moana 2 in 3D. A well deserved treat for their hard work and dedication to do well.
Other news is that one family are moving to Arusha which means they have to change schools. Debora (Form 4) and Buyegi (Form 2) have started at Magnificat Secondary School in Moshi.
The school year runs January to December in Tanzania.
Street Libraries
All six libraries continue to operate although one in Ruvu will now be located in the local primary school. We bought 240 more books in Nairobi and had them transported down to Lindi. It was good to be able to see the librarians again and distribute the books and allowances to the local Mamas who receive the children in their homes. One woman is a teaching assistant and wanted to transport the books to local schools. We bought her a bicycle to facilitate this. There is very little culture of reading for pleasure in Tanzania but there is a great appetite to read colourful interesting books in Kiswahili for the younger children. They learn to read but never practice reading for pleasure. It was school holiday time when we visited so there were less children than usual.
Washable sanitary pads for girls and women
After a long wait we were able to implement our new project to introduce low cost washable pads to girls and women in Lindi. Girls unable to afford pads often miss school for a week each month. This can lead to them dropping out of school altogether. We teamed up with EdUKaid in Mtwara, about 100 km south of Lindi close to the border with Mozambique. We identified two tailors in Lindi willing to travel with us and learn how to make washable pads with a trainer tailor in the EdUKaid centre in Mikandani. They travelled down with Mr. Ramson and we spent the day with them as they quickly learned the techniques required. The plan is for these ladies to return to Lindi and make pads for sale at a much lower price. They took the spare materials as a starter kit. Ongoing plans are for them to go into schools and train teachers and girls how to make the pads for themselves. We will be providing the two Lindi tailors with an additional sewing machine so that another tailor can join them. The Trustees look forward to seeing the progress of this new project.
Stop press on the Matt Green community basketball court
Two years ago Friends of Lindi facilitated the refurbishment of the community basketball court in Lindi. This was possible with donations from friends of our dear friend Matt Green who passed away in 2022. We were so happy to find the court still very much in use with teams travelling away to games and the ability to host games in Lindi. We met the coaches and a group of young people training one evening. They have quite a few girls signed up and run after school sessions for primary school boys and girls. This continues to have an impact on the lives of young people in Lindi.
Individuals
Mariam and her sister Swalha continue to show amazing resilience against the odds. Mariam is 19 and cares for her younger sister who is 12 and still at school. We helped train Mariam to be a makeup artist and she still does this for neighbours at weekends and when there is a local wedding or special ceremony. She now has a cleaning job at a bank too. We made a 50% contribution towards a freezer so that she can sell cold drinks from her home. In addition her and Swalha roast and sell sweet corn at the bus station in the evenings! Mariam has great plans and has learned to save for her ambitions. It was refreshing to see her and Swalha doing so well. We support Swalha with school needs such as uniform and exercise books and pay for a meal each day at school.
Shafi and Arafa
Arafa has now completed her training as an air conditioning and refrigeration technician. The next challenge is to find employment.
However there is always hope and this has been demonstrated by Shafi, another student of Aircon and Refrigeration we helped in the past. After 2 years without regular work he now has work and we met him in a very positive frame of mind. He is confident and making plans for the future.
Manzi
Manzi is now back from Denmark and will complete his final year of Vet Science studies at Morogoro University. He is full of ideas and we met him in his home village of Chikonji in November. With money saved in Denmark he has bought 9 hectares of land and plans to use the agricultural skills and practices he learned to plant cash crops with an increased yield. He is a big success story for Friends of Lindi. He was so happy that we received a prized gift – a live chicken!!
Mama Hidaya
This is the mother of one of our sponsored girls, Hidaya. She lost her husband last year and has been struggling to earn an income to finance the education of Hidaya’s brother as well as living costs for herself. She proposed a business plan involving fish drying and sales. We decided on a grant for initial capital and in return she undertook to pay for Hidaya’s additional needs at school other than fees, which are paid by a sponsor.
Khairat
Khairat was one of our neighbours in Lindi. We had lost touch until I heard that she had passed her Advanced level exams and was planning to go to university in Dodoma. But she was not going to start due to the usual financial hurdles facing poorer students. Friends of Lindi decided to help with these costs and she is now in Dodoma and has started her course in Town Planning at the Institute of Rural Development Planning. I visited in December and was able to hand over a laptop donated by a kind daughter in law!
Beds and school equipment in Nyangao
Venance is a former Tanzanian VSO colleague who now meets with the trustees on our meetings. He helps many people in his community and advises us on all things Tanzanian. He first identified Matteo (the tall boy to my right) as a deserving and able student who lives only with his brother. We have helped Matteo with school equipment and contributions to enable him to study at school for exams. He is doing very well and we hope we have another “Manzi” on our books. The other family are neighbours of Venance in Nyangao, which is about one hour from Lindi town. The father died in 2024 leaving a family of four children with no income – and no beds or mattresses to sleep on! We have helped with beds, solar lamps for evening study and school uniforms and needs. The two children we help are Ridheone, 12 and his sister Leila 10. Venance reports that the whole spirit of the family has been lifted by a relatively small contribution of funds.
Once again a big thank you to our supporters and we look forward to following the progress of our projects and the success of our individuals in their fight to make a living and look after their families.
Steve Scorer
January 2025