TINGA TINGA VILLAGE, WEST KILIMANJARO

We are proud to announce that we have now completed three vital school improvement projects! Desks, toilets and a chakula house for the school!

Schoolroom furniture was made about two years ago and is in regular use. The new school toilets, one set for girls and one set for boys were completed in October 2007.

Chakula House Project

Maureen Hilton visited Tanzania to set up a simple memorial in memory of her sister Kathleen, who died on the mountain. As stone monuments on the mountain are not allowed, Maureen asked to do something for Tinga Tinga school. Maureen saw the dilapidated kitchen and wanted to do something to help with the school dinners.

A chakula house (place for the children to eat as well as cook) was suggested, but with a school catchment area for 350 to 450 pupils, this would have been an expensive project. Instead we managed to persuade everyone concerned that the best way forward was to temporarily shelve this large scale project and replace the old "kitchen" - really a poorly constructed and filthy shed - with a proper kitchen, equipped with store cupboard, pots and pans and a safe place for the charcoal fires. The kitchen is essential as the school receives meal allowances from the World Food Programme and is able to give the children health-sustaining breakfasts and lunches.

Thanks to a major donation from our Dutch colleagues at the charity Rafiki Tanzania we have been able to complete this project in record time. Once again our local NGO for Tanzania - ACEDE - has worked incredibly hard and efficiently to deliver this project within budget and ahead of schedule.