Excerpts from Shirati Infrastructure Annual Report 2015

The Shirati Infrastructure Mission’s
Help the Children of Tanzania Fund
Since 2006 the “Help the Children of Tanzania Fund” has been an on-going fundraising endeavour born out of
the Shirati Infrastructure Missions. The fund is used to improve education for children and young adults,
improve living conditions and to provide some healthcare for poor and disadvantaged families.
This past year has been incredibly busy and productive for the Shirati Infrastructure Mission and the
Help the Children of Tanzania Fund…
Improving Education
One project was building another outdoor
kitchen, this time at Bukura Secondary School
for a feeding program. This kitchen was partly
sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Pembroke.
We also made some improvements to 3 of the
other kitchens. We now have 5 school kitchens
feeding porridge or other food mid-morning to
over 2,000 students who would otherwise have
no breakfast or lunch. The principals tell me the
attendance is up and grades have improved
since the students now have some food.
School and boarding school fees for 4 School of
Nursing students, school fees for 15 Secondary
School students, 5 elementary students
including some boarding school fees for a
disabled boy were paid, and school supplies
were bought.
35 school uniforms and some school supplies were bought for children who were home from school because
their families, often grandmothers couldn’t afford to buy them.
Taken from the Shirati Infrastructure Mission, FALL 2015 Report
Improving living conditions
With local teams, we visited around 20 villages and
supported around 170 clients including their families.
We gave them the following items donated by Sew on
Fire and others; 700 blankets, 300 sheets, 350
health/school men and women's packs, and 40 woven
plastic mats. They also received bags of dried
vegetable soup from the 3.5 tons of food donated by
Ontario Gleaners. The remaining backpacks were
distributed to the Diocese and Hospital outreach
teams and volunteer community workers whom I
accompanied on the trips to assess the needs and
care for the clients. The fund covered the cost of the
gas and the driver for all these visits. Generally I buy
clothes, food and mattresses locally but because of
the shipment this year, we had lots of supplies to give out.
Client’s thatched roofs were repaired or replaced, iron roofing sheets were put on some mud brick houses,
windows, doors and floors were installed, and the walls of a hut were cemented, all completed before the rainy
season started.
Taken from the Shirati Infrastructure Mission, FALL 2015 Report
The clients were very grateful for all these gifts and it was a humbling experience to see such poverty and to
make a small difference in the quality of their lives.
Providing healthcare
Medical care was provided
to clients, surgeries
(including a number of tubal
ligations for women with
huge families they couldn't
support) medicine, hospital
stays and transport were all
paid for by the fund.
Donations were made to the
hospital poor fund for
patients who need surgery
but who are unable to pay.
Money was given to the
Hospital Palliative care team
to buy drugs for their clients.
Money was also given to the
hospital to repair and
replace some additional
water pipes so all of the
patients at the hospital would have access to water from the new tank.
We very much appreciate the prayers and generous support of so many friends at Calvin United Church as well
as the support of family and friends outside of our church. The support through the Help the Children of
Tanzania Fund allows us to go well beyond the funds available through the CACHA Shirati Infrastructure
Mission and meet critical personal needs while we are there.
IT HAS MADE A POSITIVE DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF SO MANY PEOPLE.
Taken from the Shirati Infrastructure Mission, FALL 2015 Report