In this section of the website we aim to keep the Friends of the The Mango Tree and others with an interest in our progress abreast of the latest developments.

** However, we are in the process of upgrading our website with the very kind pro bono help from MMT Digital. While we go through that process, the best way to get the latest news on what we are up to is to read the reports you can download from the home page. Or of course, please feel free to contact us with any questions you have. Thank you for your patience! **

Tracking the development of The Mango Tree

Fundraising activities

News and Developments During 2006

October 2006

Orphans Supported Approaching 7,500:
Total orphans supported by the programme in Kyela is now nearly 7,500. 6,549 are registered in Tanzania. The Kenyan programme has also already registered 900 orphans for support since its inception.

October - Another Busy Month of Business As Usual
The following data give you some idea of the extent of the fantastic support the Kyela team provided during just one month:

- Number of orphans visited in villages: 1,193
- Number of orphans treated for illnesses: 213
- Number of villages getting services from TMT: 51
- The current number of village volunteers: 121
- The number of Primary schools visited: 56

Fundraising
Many thanks to GTZ for the 3.5 million Tanzanian Shillings we received for a Project to assist the widows in Ipande ward. … and our thanks and gratitude to The Persula Foundation who confirmed that they are making a grant of £5,100 to fund healthcare support in Tanzania.

September 2006

Tanzanian Update:

- The Mango Tree's nurses and other supporting staff were busy in the villages attending children and also spent a week working in Kambasegela ward carrying out registration processes.
- Fifteen girls were sent to Mwakaleli Vocational Training Course for a special course on tailoring.
- Two new staff were recruited Ngwiliulupi Mwakafuje (nurse for Kyela office) and Ulisaya Green (Education Assistant - primary schools) who finished Form V1 under TMT support.
- Andilile and his team donated a further consignment of books and desks to secondary schools.

Kenyan Update:

The Kenyan programme has made outstanding progress in a small space of time. Registration of orphans began in earnest by Consolata and Peter in one part of one of the four divisions of the Rachuonyo District in which the programme operates. During the registration process the Kenyan team were overwhelmed by the number of orphans and the plight of their guardians who in most cases are grandmothers and ailing widows.

The team in Kenya is now five people:
- Director: Consolata Achieng' Norbert
- Administrator/Treasurer: Peter Kunyada
- A nurse: Juliet Ayango
- A social/field worker: Lilian Ogola
- Office assistant: Chalres Orwa

July / August 2006

Roll Out of The Mango Tree Model in Kenya

The Mango Tree programme in Kyela is a model that is proven to work. It has been adjusted and evolved since 2002 into a model that provides support cost-effectively, efficiently and with community involvement and buy-in. Importantly this model is now ready to be replicated in other areas of similarly high need as Kyela.

We have identified an appropriate area for the second programme and we have progressed plans to roll out another Mango Tree programme centred at Kosele in Rachuonyo District of Nyanza Province. This is near Kendu Bay, fifty miles south of Kisumu. Thus far a small amount of funding has been provided to put the foundations of a programme in place while complete funding is secured.

1. Extent of the need in Rachuonyo District, Nyanza Province, western Kenya

We think of Kenya as being more developed than other parts of East Africa. It has a higher GDP. It is more sophisticated. It has higher standards of education than its neighbouring countries. All these things are true, but most of this development and sophistication is accounted for by the central region of Kenya - the area around 100 miles diameter from Nairobi.

It is a very different story in western Kenya where the new programme is located. The area around Lake Victoria is riddled with HIV/Aids. This has been spread by the lake fishermen to the women on the shore, who buy the fish and resell in the local markets. Young men are sent down from the areas around to these markets to buy the fish - and return with more than just fish. In a nutshell - that is the problem.

The rate of infection amongst the adult population is now above 30%. Some more key statistics reveal the extent of the HIV/AIDS crisis in this area of Kenya:
- HIV prevalence amongst pregnant women at the hospital in Homa Bay is 35% ( National Average is 10%).
- Life expectancy for males has dropped from 48 ten years ago to 37.
- Poverty prevalence is 71% are living on less than $1 per day. ~
- Under five mortality rate is 252 / 1000.
- We estimate that we will be initially supporting about 2,000 orphans in this area, but we would expect this figure to grow to 4,000 over the following 12 months..

2. Key management are now in place

The Programme Director role is critical to the project and we have been aware of the need to find a suitably able individual for this role in the second Mango Tree project.

We have now found the perfect candidate. Consolata Norberts is a remarkable woman. She is aged 31 and was a nun for about six years, but she left her order about four years ago, because they wanted her to leave her work with street children and orphans in Nairobi in order to teach. She believes that her calling is to work with orphans (whilst she is a committed Roman Catholic, she understands why TMT cannot have any religious or denominational affiliations).

Consolata graduated from university last summer with a First- the only First awarded on her course. During her degree she undertook some of her research for her dissertation at The Mango Tree in Tanzania during July 2004. She has continued to work as an advisor to a number of small NGOs and has developed a fine reputation for her dedication to orphaned children. Apart from her work in Nairobi, she started to support orphans in her home area, although she has no money. She has used her contacts with some Europeans in and around Nairobi to raise the funding to support children at various boarding schools in western Kenya. She has also encouraged her family to support the orphans in the immediate area around her mother's house, where her mother and her friends feed 29 orphans at her home each day.

The chairman of The Mango Tree, Willie Fulton, has known Consolata for about four years and has had nothing but admiration and respect for her intelligence, trustworthiness, diligence and dedication. On top of all these qualities she crucially commands enormous respect from all who deal with her and is undoubtedly in possession of the requisite gravitas to lead and direct an orphan support programme requiring the buy-in of whole communities and their leaders.

Consolata will be supported in her role as Programme Director by her husband Peter. Peter worked in Uganda for five years. He is a trained car mechanic as well as having his degree in social science. Consolata and Peter possess excellent professional skills for working with children. Consolata is a trained counsellor, and they both have degrees in this area.

3. Necessary infrastructure to support an effective project roll-out is in place

Kosele has some of the fundamental infrastructure in place to enable a programme to function and for the economic benefits of the programme to multiply and gain momentum:
- Communications are adequate - mobile phones work throughout the area and internet access is available
- A new road is currently being built between Homa Bay and Kisumu
- There are good schools in the area
- Despite very poor conditions, an agriculturalist who we asked to visit the location, has advised us that it will be possible to grow food in the area with the correct advice and techniques

Conclusion

We are confident that the success achieved by The Mango Tree in Kyela, Tanzania supporting 6,500 orphans justifies a broader roll out of the programme to support more children orphaned by HIV/Aids. The funding we are currently looking to raise for the Kenyan programme will be a critical foundation from which to grow the Kenyan programme.

May 2006

So much has happened at The Mango Tree since our last update in November that it is difficult to know where to begin! We thought, therefore, that we should share a much fuller update than usual this month, taken directly from Willie and Gail's progress report after their trip to Kyela in March, to share with you the myriad different accomplishments that Andilile and his team have achieved in the last six months.

Gail and Willie Fulton visited the programme during February and March. The following are excerpts from their report on some fantastic progress in each of the key areas of support provided.

EDUCATION

Primary Schools
The primary school uniform season went smoothly. Much of the distribution took place before Andilile set off on his fundraising visit to UK and US, but some took place afterwards. The team have developed an efficient routine for the making and distributing of the uniforms.

Secondary Schools
We now have over 500 children in secondary school. This is before the second intake in March and before children in some schools have been registered with us. At Matema Beach, for instance, we were told that they had several orphans in Form 1, but these have yet to be registered by The Mango Tree. We wait to see the final numbers for this season's intake. The Government is now turning its attention to expanding secondary education. They plan to have a secondary school in every ward in the country. In Kyela, we are seeing three new schools being built and several more being planned. This will put an enormous strain on the teaching resources. It does raise a concern over where the teachers will come from?

Secondary School Textbooks
The decision we took last year to give textbooks to the secondary schools has proved to be a GREAT success. The children are very appreciative of this help. Andilile intends to continue with this programme . This makes great sense. We arrived on the same day as the container of books and computers. The container was emptied rapidly and enthusiastically by our staff , assisted by several Form IV and Form VI leavers, who have been working at TMT. It was just wonderful to see the reaction to these books and computers. Andilile had the boxes sorted by subject in no time and had over 20 computers checked over and working well. All we need now is more schools with electricity, so that their students can benefit from them. We are able to give some of the science books to students who were struggling at schools without science teachers. The container in which these books arrived has now been placed on the site of the new library. It will be built into the library, as the computer store.

Secondary School Girls
Some of the significant impediments to secondary school girls being able to fully pursue their education will not go away. Many girls are still expected to conduct a significant number of household chores before and after school making studying very difficult with inevitable consequences on their levels of attainment. We must just keep plugging away at this issue. The advice of Camfed to change attitudes towards educating girls MUST be the right approach. We have 300 torches on their way to Tanzania now that will make sure the girls have light by which to study in the evenings. I raised this issue at the meeting of Village Volunteers. I said to them that they must impress upon their local communities that girls in secondary school must be given appropriate support. If they are supported properly, they could be able to provide financial support to their families in the future, so they should be treated in the same way as the boys.

Support for Secondary Schools
We visited Itope, Ntaba, Matema Beach, Kyela Day, Ikolo and Ipande Secondary schools during this visit. Both Matema Beach and Ntaba have very entrepreneurial headmasters. The chap at Ntaba showed us the concrete base of building and said " This is going to be our library, we need to raise X from outsiders and Y from our parents - and we will do it". I believe him! We saw the desks that we have given to both Ntaba and Matema Beach. These have been very well received. We should do more of this when we can, provided the local community respond in a similar way. Both schools had matched the desks from local fund-raising.

Secondary School Exam results.
Just before we arrived, the O-level results for last October's exams were announced. We were very pleased that Maneno Yuseph and Daniel Kinani, both students at Itope Secondary School achieved Division 1 results. This was an extraordinary achievement, considering the school that they are at. They were the only pupils to achieve Div 1 at the school.

Vocational Training
We visited the VTC at Matema Beach, where we have started sending students. The first intake has settled in well. I am sure that we need to keep vocational training under review. Andilile says that there is not a long list of young people waiting vocational training, but this is SUCH a valuable asset for any young person, who does not make it to secondary school.

Staff
Our new Education Officer, Grace, has settled in very well. Both Gail and I were very impressed with her. She seems very involved with the children and gets on with the work.

HEALTHCARE

Nutrition Centre
While we were there, there were two children in the Nutrition Centre. We also visited Wilson, who stayed there about eighteen months ago. He seemed well and seemed pleased to see us again.

HIV/Aids awareness
We had a useful meeting with Grace's husband, who is the doctor in charge of HIV/ Aids in Kyela District. He says that there is no restriction on the number of case that can be treated with ARVs. The Government has decided that they will give ARVs to anyone who needs them. He was very helpful in suggesting ways in which we could approach the testing of our Volunteers and the surviving parents of our orphans. Andilile had a meeting with him later and agreed that we should become a work-based testing site. We will aim to progress this as soon as possible.

Club Feet
We had a very satisfying time with Alexander, the young boy, who featured on our last Christmas card. We met him in Dar, where he was back at the hospital having his shoes and splints checked. We also saw him at his home, with his grandmother and some other relatives. He has a grin as wide as his face, as he was able to run about. We had brought him a small football, as he had told me last summer that he would never be able to run or to play football, but he was delighted to show us that he had been wrong. It was just wonderful to see how his life has been totally transformed by this simple operation. When we were in Dar, we saw two or three other children from TMT who were waiting for treatment. Gail also spoke to the village volunteers about the importance of spotting babies with this condition, as it can be very simply corrected by our nurses, by simply strapping the feet of the babies when they are VERY young.

Fistula
Last July, we were asked by a donor if there were any women in Kyela suffering from fistula. Andilile sent a woman to Dar for treatment in October. This woman has returned home and has been praising TMT ever since. The result of this is that five more women have come forward with fistula. We met them in Dar, as they were awaiting their operations. While this is not directly the work of TMT, it is not costing us anything. We are simply acting as agents for a charity in Dar dealing with this issue, but in so doing, we are transforming the lives of these women who have been ostracized due to this condition.

WELFARE

Bednets.
We distributed bednets to all families who were guardians to any orphans of ten years old or younger last year. The primary schools reported a very favourable improvement in attendance rates at school, resulting from this. Andilile is very keen that we now continue to give nets to families in the two new wards, to ALL families with orphans and also to all our secondary school children. (We visited the homes of several orphans in the area around Matema Beach, which is not in our catchment area. None of them had nets.) We would strongly support this.

Youth Clubs
We were entertained by some groups from the youth clubs on two or three occasions during our stay. There was one group of Rap artists, who are particularly good. We were very keen that Andilile tried to get these three to visit Mkonbozi in Moshi, who put on regular shows to a public audience, just to see if these kids could go further. All their material was written by them selves. They were both funny and also very sad. They definitely had talent! Irrigation scheme Being the rainy season, we were not able to see for ourselves what is happening with the

Irrigation Scheme.
We will make this a priority the next time we visit. Gail and I took a selection of vegetable seeds, in the hope that a model garden will be established - one part irrigated and manured and the other left without irrigation or manure. Having seen the marvelous results at so many projects in Malawi, Gail and I realize how important it is to train people in simple improvements to their farming methods. We are VERY keen to see some progress in this area in Kyela, but we have to have local support for this to get off the ground. We really do feel that we need to employ an agriculturalist at TMT.

VILLAGE VOLUNTEERS

As a result of the expansion into the two new wards, many more volunteers have been recruited. Andilile is pleased with their enthusiasm. We met some of them on visits to their wards. At the Village Volunteer meeting the additional support that we agreed at the trustees meeting (give them 3-year old bikes, help with uniforms and fees for a child, mobiles in each ward) was very well received.

STAFFING

Andilile is very pleased with all the staff. Andilile will now recruit a Field Manager, a new Education Assistant and a Librarian.

UPPINGHAM VISIT

I am sure that Andilile will organize a worthwhile visit for the team from Uppingham in July. He will arrange to have the bicycles ready. He has a project in mind at Ikolo Secondary School so, as previously, their visit will be of enormous

News and Developments During 2005

November

The Mango Tree distributed text and reference books worth over £4,000 to nine secondary schools. The District Commissioner of Kyela presented the books to the Heads of each school.

Twenty seven primary schools were visited during the month to check on the state of health and school attendance of registered orphans. In terms of school attendance the findings were very encouraging. Our Education Coordinator also took the opportunity to gather teachers' views of the effectiveness of the support provided to orphans attending their schools. Again, it seems the support is proving invaluable and perceived to be in exactly the right areas. One area particularly highlighted for further consideration is possibly provision of shoes to the orphans who often travel long distances by foot to school each day.

Six children with club feet went for corrective operations in Dar. 609 orphans were visited in their villages.

Current breakdown of orphans supported is as follows:

Orphans supported in primary schools 3504

Orphans supported in secondary schools 397

Orphans not attending schools 515

Orphans eligible for further Education (help) 593

Orphans Eligible for loans 24

Orphans attending VTC 38

Total Orphans Supported 5,071

October

The programme expanded into an adjacent ward, Kajunjumele, leading to the registration of a further 423 children. This takes the number of orphans registered with The Mango Tree to 5,071. Out heartfelt thanks and congratulations go to the team in Kyela who have done a wonderful job of expanding the programme so successfully into areas where support is badly needed.

September

It is with great sadness that we report the death of our programme director Andilile's daughter Edith. Our deepest sympathies go to Andilile, his wife Tusanye and their family.

August

We were delighted to learn that the Elton John AIDS Foundation has awarded The Mango Tree a grant from their international grants fund for £6,000. These funds will be invaluable to the continued work of the programme, and we extend our enormous gratitude to all those at EJAF (and in particular Steve Crawford) for their support.

July

Another very busy and productive month for the programme.

The team were busy throughout the month distributing stationery to all primary and secondary schools covered by the programme.

Medical treatment of orphans continues as part of the programme's safety net of welfare support. During the month 142 orphans received treatment for a range of conditions including malaria, worms and bilharzia. The majority of treatments were administered in the orphans' villages (68), a further 41 orphans had to go to hospital for treatment and the remainder received treatment at the programme's Nutrition Centre.

3,550 orphans received health checks by our nurses during the month.

Volunteer training took place covering a range of topics including the role the volunteer, counselling skills and HIV/AIDS awareness.

May

Star Student

A-level results have just been announced in Tanzania, and Venance Mwaikambo, our very first orphan A-level candidate has passed his exams with flying colours.

As well as being a star student, Venance has also been a very useful asset to The Mango Tree over the last few months. TMT is considering ways to send him to university where he hopes to read for a dgree in social sciences. Andilile is sending him to Dar and Iringa, to visit the universities in order to decide which course he would like to study. Without the support of TMT Venance would now be a subsistance farmer. His step-mother is going through the final stages of HIV/AIDS. At least she will die knowing that his future is secure.

Registering orphans in additional wards

The team have been registering orphans in Bujonde, the first of the two new wards. They have registered 496 orphans in the four villages, so we are on target for an additional 1300 orphans in these new geographies.

Supporting Kyela's schools

Programmes to provide electricity to a few of Kyela's most under-equipped secondary schools being considered. For a relatively small cost The Mango Tree has identified opportunities to attach school the electricity supply thereby enabling the students to continue studies in the evening without reliance on scarce supplies of kerosene.

Discussions are underway with the local government representatives to set up matching schemes to produce school desks and chairs. The trustees of TMT were shocked to discover that in many of the Kyela schools there are insufficient desks and chairs for the students meaning a proportion of each class often has to stand or sit on the floor during class. Under such initiatives The Mango Tree would pledge to provide a set number of school desks and chairs which would be matched by a commitment by local government to provide at least an equivalent number of desks and chairs. The Mango Tree orphans who have completed carpentry vocational training would produce the desks thereby helping them to build a self-sufficient livelihood.

Vocational training places for 40 students have been booked for 2006.

April

Another busy month for the team in Kyela. School textbooks were being distributed to local schools. Many thanks to Uppingham and Maidstone Grammar for their hard work and generosity gathering usused textbooks to be shipped out to Kyela. There books really are very much needed by the local schools who often manage on a handful of books for staff and all pupils. Our thanks also go to British Airways (and Pam Watkins in particular) for their generous cargo rates and all round fantasic assistance in London and Dar that enabled us to get a quarter of a tonne of books to Dar by air.

Further thanks to British Airways for their kind award of four free flights for The Mango Tree team to or from Dar. These will be invaluable in helping us to get Andilile over to the UK for important meetings and fundraising.

Mosquito nets also now being distributed by TMT staff.

March

A difficult month for the programme. Bereavements in staff families sadly left the programme short of some team members.

February

In February, four of the UK trustees, Bob, James, Willie and Gail, visited Kyela together. So before the updates on each part of the programme, we thought we'd share with you a few impressions from Bob and James:

Industrious levels of activity

The first thing that strikes you on arrival at the new centre is the sheer amount of activity that goes on every day. On our first morning there, we took in the scene. On the left, there was a clinic for orphans suffering from bilharzia, and a line of children, guardians and other locals waiting to see Andilile in his office. On the right, we watched some of the malnourished, abandoned or ill children we were looking after in the Nutrition Centre playing with one of the mamas. All around us were our yellow-shirted volunteers - on the grass outside, in the rondavel or under the shade of the mango trees - all catching up on news of the orphans in each others' villages. This programme, it is clear, has taken on a tremendous momentum of its own.

The extraordinary work of our programme director.

In the midst of all of this, Andilile somehow has to achieve miracles. Not only does he have to develop and implement strategy, bring order to each area of the programme's work, and manage eight members of staff and 72 volunteers. He also has to make incredibly tough decisions about who to help every single day. The queues of people at his door (both day and night, as we witnessed whilst enjoying dinner at his house one evening) are a mix of those we have decided to help, those we would love to help if we had the funds, and those who are very unlikely ever to fall inside the scope of our support. And yet all of them have serious needs that are heartbreaking to turn away. So it is with particular thanks that we recognise the hardest of jobs that Andilile has to do, and one in which he continues to show a remarkable ability.

Respect across the whole community.

It is heart-warming (and again a tribute to Andilile and his team) quite how recognised and respected the programme has become in the district of Kyela. Wherever you go, by car, bike or on foot, it is not just the relentless cries of 'mzungu' (white man) and associated giggles that greet us now. More and more, people of all ages recognise our T-shirts and shout out 'ah, Mango Tree', 'good morning Mango Tree' (regardless of time of day or night!) and 'thank you, Mango Tree'. On one visit to a primary school, whilst one of our nurses conducted medical check ups with our orphans, we went around the rest of the school with the deputy headmaster. Each time he introduced us as 'here to help', it invited all sorts of requests from the kids. But when we explained, through his translation, that we only had a small amount of money and that we had decided to focus on helping the orphans, every class without exception started to applaud. One after the other, however young, the kids started thanking us for helping their less fortunate classmates. It is very clear that we are not only helping the right people in Kyela, but that the whole community has become very grateful for our doing so.

December

December is one of the busiest months for the programme's staff and volunteers. School uniforms and stationery were being packed and distributed to the primary schools.

Pupils are also registered for the coming year during December leading to a full workload for the hard-working team in Kyela.

This hard work was made more difficult by the rains which made access to some villages much harder.

A wonderful carol concert was held in Dar by the British High Commissioner. Proceeds of the concert are to help with purchasing nets for primary school age children.

Four water pumps were distributed to two of the villages covered by the programme.

November

The cholera outbreak that occurred in October thankfully ceased to be a problem as the government took action to address the problem.

The programme still encounters difficulties with power cuts and telecommunications issues but the team remained busy as ever with hard work of packing school uniforms to be distributed in December.

Bicycles were given to volunteers to enable them to travel between the villages and the Nutrition Centre, and six water pumps were given to three of the villages covered by the programme.

October

October was characterised by a series of problems which made progress significantly harder than usual for Andilile and his team in Kyela:

  • An outbreak of cholera has made water supplies from the Kiwira River unusable and has meant clean water has had to be collected by car from town
  • Frequent and prolonged power cuts have further hampered efforts
  • A period of dry and windy conditions led to problems with dust storms that were improved only by the arrival of significant downpours making life equally difficult for wholly different reasons !

On a more positive note significant progress was still made in the face of these challenges:

  • Andilile and his team visited a number of boarding schools to find day places for orphans currently with guardians who are struggling to provide the appropriate level of support.
  • 45 orphans eligible for vocational training have submitted applications to The Mango Tree. Appropriate programmes are still being researched, and a a Moravian vocational training course has been visited that could provide places for 15 students.
  • Visits and medical treatments for orphans, volunteers and guardians continued as usual:
    • 184 patients were provided with treatment in the month.
    • 524 orphans were visited in their villages by our nurses.
  • Jackie Fahy completed a year as the programme adminstrator based in Kyela and returned to the UK. Many thanks for all her hard work and contribution to the programme over the past 12 months.
  • A visit to Kyela from Grassroots of the UK saw a donation of £700 to The Mango Tree. Many thanks for their support.

September

Here are some of the key developments during the month:

  • Andilile and small party of orphans, volunteers and guardians went to the Social Action Trust Fund (SATF) grant awards in Mbeya. The Mango Tree received a cheque for 10,000,000 Tanzanian Shillings (over £5,000). The SATF is a USAID-supported project that provides medium-term loans to businesses and utilizes its operating profits to make education grants for AIDS orphans.
  • Primary school health visits were a major part of activities this month. Health staff visited 36 of the primary schools covered by the programme. 1,976 of the registered orphans were visited during the month (nearly 50% of total registered) and 475 were provided with medical treatment
  • Ella Keirby a volunteer from the UK left the programme. Many thanks from everyone at The Mango Tree for all her help.
  • The Nutrition Centre is operational following its official opening by the British High Commissioner in August.
  • Training of village volunteers continues: 57 of the 62 TMT volunteers met on 30th September. Areas covered included criteria for choosing vocational training course orphans and discussion of new volunteer training to take place in November and Health training due to take place in October.
  • Maria Ituka, daughter of Doris Ituka, Isaki Volunteer died 10/9/04 3 yrs old. Staff and volunteers from TMT attended the funeral.

August 2004

Opening of the Mango Tree Centre: Willie Fulton's Account from the Recent Opening Ceremony in Kyela

We had a really memorable day on Saturday 14th August for the opening of The Mango Tree Centre. This was opened by the British High Commissioner to Tanzania, Dr Andrew Pocock and his wife, Julie, who were delightful and very enthusiastic about our work. They were very good with the Village Volunteers and with the four children we are presently looking after at the Centre.

They arrived at 10.00am sharp. They were introduced to the staff and the Village Volunteers and then we took them for a tour of the site. Andrew was then presented with a pair of scissors by a secondary school orphan and he cut the tape for the offices and health clinic. They toured the building, before proceeding to the Nutrition Centre. There, they met a crowd of primary school orphans and he was presented with the same pair of scissors to cut the tape. He then unveiled the plaque and shield, commemorating the $65k donation from Uppingham School, which has paid for all our buildings, furniture and equipment, before touring this building . In the children's bedroom, Gail has painted a giraffe and a tree on one wall, so we asked Julie to measure the height of our present four orphans against the "tree".

After touring the building , we proceeded to a VIP enclosure outside, where we were treated to some dancing and singing by various groups. The first was a group of our orphans who had written and sang a song about being an orphan and about the help that they had received from TMT. Most of these children were visibly crying while they were singing - and by the end, so were all members of the audience! It was quite extraordinary. A TV crew were filming this, so we hope to be able to get a copy of the recording.

We then had speeches from Andilile, me and Andrew Pocock - and then the local MP stood up and asked The Mango Tree to extend our activities from five wards to fifteen!

We then departed for lunch at our hotel and in the afternoon, we gave the Pococks bicycles and took them into a village to see for themselves the conditions of the orphans, widows and grandmothers.

Photos of the event will be posted to the website on Willie and Gail's return in early September.

Latest figures from Andilile show that The Mango Tree programme is still growing strongly and has now registered 4,050 orphans.

May

  • A total of 2897 orphans are being supported by The Mango Tree in the 29 villages within our area
  • Now supporting 2186 primary school children with uniforms and stationery
  • We are now helping 119 secondary school children with fees, uniforms, books and stationery
  • Some of our "graduates" from our first vocational training courses are now in employment in tailoring and carpentry
  • We have recruited an Education Officer to manage the needs of all our school children and to liaise with their schools to identify ways in which we can help to improve the quality of teaching
  • Our two nurses are now fully operational in all 29 villages.
  • The Nutrition Centre and Office buildings should be ready for occupation in July

March
At the beginning of March, the District Commissioner of Kyela organised a sponsored walk on behalf of The Mango Tree. Over four hundred took part in this walk, which included many school children and orphans. The walk has raised over $4000 to date, which is an amazing figure, when you realise that the average income per capita in Tanzania is just $280 per annum.

Andilile took a very well earned holiday during the month, but , unfortunately, he spent most of this time in bed with malaria.

We have now increased the secondary school programme to 124 students and the overall number of orphans registered has grown to 2902.

Uppingham Expedition Presentation
On Saturday 13th March, the members of the Uppingham School expedition to Tanzania invited their parents and some staff to an evening presentation to learn more about this trip. Willie and Gail were also able to attend.

The evening began with a slide presentation by several members of the party, which was followed by an African meal, finishing up with a video, shot entirely by the boys and girls on the trip. They visited several game parks and climbed Kilimanjaro, but it was obvious that their visit to The Mango Tree affected these young travellers the most. We continue to be grateful for their work in digging the foundations for the Nutrition Centre, which is now nearing completion.

February
At last the car was returned to us on 11th February, much to our relief! Jestina and Janet started to visit the villages on their own, so our capacity to treat of the orphans has now doubled.

We registered four more secondary school students, which brings our total to 100.

The Office and Dispensary now has its roof on and the internal work on the dispensary is now nearing completion. Daudi and Doris, the two malnourished orphans who we are looking after until the Nutrition Centre is ready have made great progress. Doris, who is three has gained some weight and is now able to stand unaided.

January
Willie and Gail spent a week in Kyela at the beginning of the month. They were helping with the distribution of primary school uniforms to three schools and had a meeting with the secondary school students - we have now registered 96 for the new academic year.

We had an excellent meeting with the Village Volunteers where we discussed the need for providing the orphans with more emotional support. We realise that we have been providing them with some material support and healthcare, but not actually listening to their problems and worries.

The building work made great progress during the month. The Nutrition Centre is now being plastered on the inside and the Office and Dispensary now have the roof trusses in place.

We did not have the car for the entire month, which had a very adverse impact on our ability to fulfill our commitments. Our computers were still suffering from the viruses we picked up in the autumn.

News and Developments During 2003

December
The major project this month has been the distribution of the school uniforms to the primary school children. We have over 2100 to distribute before the start of the new academic year in January.

The roofing of the Nutrition Centre has continued during the month, so the building is now water-tight.

We had a major disaster with our one and only vehicle. It was involved in a road accident, which has resulted in it being off the road for the past two weeks. Luckily, no one was hurt in the accident, but the vehicle came off the road and rolled twice, whilst avoiding a lorry which came around a corner on the wrong side of the road. This caused considerable damage to the roof and all the windows were broken. It is now being repaired in Mbeya. We hope it will be back in operation by the second week of January.

November
During the month we recruited a second nurse to assist Jestina. We welcome Janet Ntanga, who has already started and is now very much part of the team.

During the month, Jestina visited 390 orphans in their homes and treated 43 for various ailments ( malaria, worms, bronchitis, chicken pox etc)

We have now finished the brickwork on the Nutrition Centre and we hope to complete the roof before the worst of the rainy season is upon us.

All 23 graduates of our vocational training course have found apprenticeships with local tailors or carpenters.

On 26th & 27th November we held a training seminar for our Village Volunteers. This was attended by 51 of the Volunteers. The topics covered included the the role and responsibilities of a Village Volunteer, trust and confidentiality, team work, HIV/AIDS awareness and safe sex. We also asked the volunteers for feedback as to what else we should be providing to the orphans or their host families. The volunteers said that they thought that we should consider providing bednets, in order to reduce the number of cases of malaria.

October
Great progress has been made on the building of the Nutrition Centre. The brickwork is now up to the lintels, so we hope to have the roof on by the end of November.

The first four-month courses in tailoring and carpentry were completed during the month, which resulted in a graduation ceremony for the successful trainees at the end of the month. They are now going to undertake some work experience with local tailors and carpenters. The trainee tailors will be helping to make the primary school uniforms for the next school year starting in January.

We also presented 26 bicycles to the new Village Volunteers, which means that every village is now in "bicycle contact" with the programme office in Kyela.

September
This has been a frustrating month for the building work on the Nutrition Centre, as we have had to wait for the foundations to settle. It is usually recommended to wait for some weeks for the foundations to dry out completely. The weather has not been good for brick making.

During the month Andilile visited the UK, where he attended a trustees' meeting and visited several potential donors. He also visited Uppingham School, where he addressed the whole school on the developments in Kyela. He then continued to the USA to see his son, but also made contact with some interested potential donors. The cost of this trip was not borne by The Mango Tree.

The Trustees have appointed two new trustees, James Vintin and our treasurer, Paddy Moser.

Jackie Fahy, a project manager, has joined Andilile for the next twelve months. Initially, Jackie will be involved in helping to manage to building work. Jackie's main area of interest is in AIDS awareness training.

Jestina continued to increase her workload by expanding her visits to all the new villages, where she treated many orphans.

August
Andilile and his team forged ahead with the registration of the orphans in the three new wards of Ikolo, Ngana and Busale. Having gained much experience in registering orphans in the first two wards before Christmas, this process was much quicker. The team managed to complete to registration of the orphans in the sixteen new villages to be joining the programme. The result of this is that we now have 2810 orphans registered in the first 29 villages in the programme.

The training course for the Village Volunteers, who now number 47, took place during August, with two helpers from the Malawi Children's Village. we are most grateful to Faith Sibale and her colleague for all their help with this course.

The building of the Nutrition Centre is progressing very well. The foundations are now complete, so the builders will now be working above ground level!

The secondary school programme has grown considerably during the month. We are now supporting 35 young people, who would not be able to continue with their education without our support.

We finished the month receiving our first major donation from a Tanzanian NGO. The Social Action Trust Fund has donated T.shs 10,000,000 ( approx £ 6,700 ) towards school uniforms and fees for orphans for the new school year starting in January. This is wonderful news!

July
The highlight of this month was the visit to the programme of a party of fourteen from Uppingham School, which included twelve pupils and two members of staff. They spent a day clearing the site for the new Nutrition Centre and the following day they dug the foundations. They them spent two days visiting our villages, playing games with the children and visiting the orphans and their carers in their homes. We are most grateful to the Uppinghamians for all their hard work and support.

During the month, we have taken on the responsibility of supporting six more orphans at secondary schools in the area. Each one has been recommended to us as being worthy of support. We believe that this is likely to be an area of growth for the programme in the coming months.

Andilile and his team have made a start in registering orphans in three new wards, Ikolo, Ngana and Busale. Their initial findings are that the conditions of some of the orphans in these wards are very poor. We hope to complete the registration process as quickly as possible.

The building work continues, although it has been hampered by some un-seasonal rain.

June
During Willie and Gail's visit we decided on the land we wanted as the site for the Nutrition Centre, offices and dispensary. We settled on an excellent piece of land, close to the Kiwira river, and which is close to the town of Kyela and is convenient for the hospital.

We also decided to extend the programme into three more wards over the coming months. This will add another sixteen villages to the present eleven.

Andilile selected the first 32 students to attend the vocational training courses. He chose young people, both of whose parents have died and who are too old to attend primary school. They will be undertaking four-month courses in tailoring, carpentry and masonry. At the monthly meeting of the village volunteers, Gail presented them with their tee-shirts.

May
Andilile, with his wife ,Tusanye, and our health officer, Jestina, visited the Malawi Children's Village at Mangochi, in southern Malawi for a week. This proved to be a most worthwhile visit and Mr Sibale, the Director of MCV will pay a return visit to us in August.

We purchased bicycles for some of the village volunteers, so that now, each village has a bicycle for at least one volunteer. These have been very well received.

We are at an advanced stage of finalising the registration of the Tanzanian trust.

In the UK, we have been most encouraged by the response for our appeal for funds, both from friends and relations and from the endeavours of the pupils of Uppingham School.

April
The rainy season has abated somewhat this month, which has allowed Andilile access to some more villages, where he has been able to register many more orphans.

We are now supporting five secondary school children, who have been recommended to us by their head teachers. We have also selected the first thirty students for vocational training courses in tailoring, mechanics and masonry. These courses will start in July.

Nick Smith has returned to the UK, having set up and completed a splendid database of all the orphans.

Secondhand clothes have been distributed to all orphans in the eleven villages who have not yet received any benefits.

March
Andilile identified some suitable land for sale and negotiated an acceptable price.

He completed the distribution of uniforms to this year's students.( In Tanzania, the academic year runs from January to December). He continued with the distribution of the school uniforms. To date, 692 children have received their uniforms

In the UK, the trustees prepare to launch their fundraising campaign.

February
Bob visited Kyela and helped with the distribution of the uniforms. Nick Smith, a young man from the Wirral, also came out to help Andilile set up a database of the registered orphans and Jestina Simkoko joined as the programme as the Health Officer.

During the month, we finally received our charity registration in the UK. In Tanzania, Nick established e-mail links with the outside world, which considerably improved the communications between the trustees.

The distribution of the uniforms to the orphans continued, with some being handed over by the District Commissioner. The trustees agreed to pay the secondary school fees for three orphans, who had passed their secondary school entrance exams .

News and Developments During 2002

December
By Christmas, Andilile had completed the survey of the first two wards of the district, which comprised of eleven villages. He had registered 1,150 orphans, of which a third had lost both parents, but that number was increasing almost daily.

The trustees decided, on advice from Andilile, that they should provide the orphans eligible to attend primary school with uniforms, to ensure their attendance. Andilile sourced the material and commissioned the tailoring of the uniforms.

Andilile started to receive recommendations for the posts of Village Volunteers from the chairmen of some of the villages.

September
Andilile moved to Kyela, rented a house and started to undertake a survey of the orphans in two wards( Katumba Songwe and Ngonga), which were selected for their poverty and high incidence of HIV. He was initially helped by Augustino Mgaya, a retired social worker, who used to work with Gail at the Muhimbili Hospital in Dar.

August
Willie went out to visit Kyela with Andilile in order to help the trustees make the final decision about the location of the site. The economy of Kyela is based upon the growing of rice. Whilst this does not produce much wealth, it does provide a stable economy and one in which the orphans can expect to be able to support themselves in the future.

Willie and Andilile were strongly encouraged by all the local officials, who showed genuine concern for the plight of the orphans in the district. During their visit they met many orphans, each with a very sad story of deprivation and suffering. They met a sixteen year old girl, who had brought up her four younger brothers since the age of eleven on her own.

June
Andilile spent three weeks visiting three potential sites in southern Tanzania. We had identified that there is a greater need for support for orphans in the south, as there are already many NGO's( non-governmental organisations) working in the north with orphans. Andilile concluded that Kyela District, which borders onto Malawi, is an area, where there is a desperate need for help, as 20% of the population is HIV+. Andilile was born in the neighbouring district, so he speaks the local languages.

March
Andilile, William and Gail drove from Usa River, Andilile's then home in northern Tanzania, to Mangochi in southern Malawi in order to visit The Malawi Children's Village. Bob had visited MCV in February and had been impressed with the dedication Mr Sibale and his team and the highly cost-effective assistance that they are giving to over 3000 orphans in 37 villages in Mangochi. On the return trip, they decided to establish a similar programme in southern Tanzania.

The Mango Tree is looking to raise funds from a variety of sources, particularly from individual contributors who would like to join our Friends of The Mango Tree scheme. For more details on how you can help, please visit the How to Donate page.

We would like to thank those whose contributions have already helped to get the project off the ground. This page summarises our fundraising efforts to date.

The initial funds for the project were provided by the trustees' charitable trusts. This enabled us to purchase the motor vehicle, undertake the survey and purchase the first batch of school uniforms.

In November, Bob Dowson was invited to make a presentation to a group of young people from the City of London, called The Funding Network. As a result of this presentation, we were given funds totalling £8,746 by the members of The Funding Network.

Fantastic efforts have been made by Uppingham School

Following his visit to MCV in 2002, Bob was also invited to give a presentation to the pupils of Uppingham School in Rutland. The School subsequently adopted The Mango Tree as their charity and each of the fourteen boarding houses were asked to raise funds for us.

The activities chosen by the houses to help raise funds have been many and varied. One house chose to build a tree house in the garden and man it with a boy or staff member for 24 hours a day for a month. They chose to do this in November!

Another house held a 24 hour five-a-side football match, which raised over £3k. Another housemaster gave his boys a tube of Smarties at the end of the Christmas term, and asked the boys to return with it full of £ coins.

Uppingham continue to raise funds for us and these have been earmarked for the building of the Nutrition Centre. This support from the pupils of Uppingham has given the trustees great confidence to proceed with the buying of land and planning the building.

Now that we are up and running, the trustees plan to raise the funds to cover the ongoing operating expenditure from friends and family, by asking for regular annual donations of the order of £100. For capital projects, such as buildings or motor vehicles, we plan to apply to trusts and other charities interested in supporting work in our field.

Fundraising Activities from Other Friends of The Mango Tree

Madgie Vintin made a fantastic effort to raise funds setting up a stall at her local village fair in Caton, Lancashire. Her stall was by all accounts, infinitely better than the all the others and her efforts and contribution will provide several hundred orphans with the uniforms they so badly need in order to attend school. Big thanks to Madgie (Mum) from all at The Mango Tree.

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 


Proud owners of new uniforms

Orphans staying at the Nutrition Centre (Feb 05)

Bob is reminded how quadratic equations work Mateba Secondary School (Feb-05)

Carpentry cooperative set up following vocational training (Feb 05)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fundraising Activities at Uppingham


The Tree House


Five-a-side Football Marathon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
  The Mango Tree is a charity registered in the United Kingdom. Registered charity no: 1095767