Tuesday 16 December 2014

The children have moved in to the Muvuma Orphanage!


Asante Sana - Thank you! 
Twenty-one orphans have a loving home this Christmas!  A huge thank you to everyone who helped to make this happen!
The children moved in on the 14th, unfortunately there were camera problems but we will get it sorted and will post photos as soon as we can. A family of three siblings joined the original group of 18 children the day they moved in! As soon as we  raise the remaining $10,000 to finish the bathrooms, kitchen area and install interior doors and a ceiling, another thirty or so orphans can be rescued from the streets of Kahama. Do contact us if you would like to receive information on how to sponsor an orphan.

The numerous donated resources in the shipping container include a high compression brick machine designed and built by Lawrence Slind, Bill Lauritzen and Ron Ryde
Our 40’ shipping container is in Dar es Salaam and will soon be on its way to Kahama. One Person President and co-founder Brenda Lowe and Peter Smythe and Ron Ryde are departing on Jan 14th to begin our smallest ever One Person Volunteer Trip. Brenda and Peter will be recruiting local volunteers to help empty and distribute the container resources, and Ron will be setting up the brick machine and providing training to set up a brick-making business at the Muvuma Orphanage. As ever, everyone pays their own way on these trips! You can see pictures and stories from the trip on facebook and our blog.

For more information, to volunteer or to make a donation contact me , mail to The One Person Project, 10108 Julia Street, Summerland, B.C. V0H 1Z5  donate on-line or make a payment into our account at the Summerland Credit Union (Summerland, British Columbia).  

               Strengthen one person - strengthen the family - strengthen the community.

UPDATE: The brick machine is not at the orphanage, it is not practical to run a business out of there at the moment. We have loaned the machine to two young men and Ron provided hands-on training. 

Monday 24 November 2014

The Kids Check Out Their New Home!

www.theonepersonproject.org

Our amazing Agent, Emmanuel, took the 18 children and youth to see their new home! It isn't complete but we hope to have the children in there before Christmas. With your help we will continue to fund-raise and finish the orphanage in the new year, at which time the Muvuma ladies will bring 30 or more vulnerable children in to the family! 

The Muvuma Orphanage is a separate, locally-run NGO but we have added our support. It took 2 years for the Muvuma ladies to raise enough funds to build the first two-feet of the structure. The Muvuma Committee is in complete control of the orphanage and how it is run but we maintain control of the funds we donate. We send the funds to our agent, Emmanuel, who pays the materials and labour bills directly.  

We know how hard our small team here in Canada works to raise funds and awareness, and we greatly admire the dedication of the Muvuma ladies who continue to raise funds and care for the orphans on a daily basis.

For more information, to volunteer or to make a donation contact me , mail to The One Person Project, 10108 Julia Street, Summerland, B.C. V0H 1Z5  donate on-line or make a payment into our account at the Summerland Credit Union (Summerland, British Columbia).  

               Strengthen one person - strengthen the family - strengthen the community.



Wednesday 12 November 2014

Muvuma Orphanage Progress November 2014

www.theonepersonproject.org 

With the help of donations, and personal funds loaned to us to pay the builders - we are almost there! 

Our Agent, Emmanuel has worked hard to coordinate the building project alongside the Muvuma Orphanage Group,
who set the ball rolling in 2011


Thanks to you - we beat the rains and completed the septic tanks!


Four of the eight bathroom stalls are completed. Six stalls will contain the standard squat toilet, but there will be a pedestal-style toilet in both the girls' and the boys' bathrooms to assist children with disabilities.  

I am delighted to report that it looks as though we will be able to move the children in before Christmas as we had hoped; work will continue when we can raise more funds. Click the Muvuma link on the right to find out more about the orphanage and to see photos of the children.

For more information or to make a donation contact me , mail to The One Person Project, 10108 Julia Street, Summerland, B.C. V0H 1Z5  donate on-line or make a payment into our account at the Summerland Credit Union (Summerland, British Columbia).  

         Strengthen one person - strengthen the family - strengthen the community.





Saturday 11 October 2014

Muvuma Flash Appeal

www.theonepersonproject.org 

We held a flash appeal to raise funds to get the septic fields dug out before the rainy season starts - we received $3,000 in one week! We still need to double that amount to get the building ready to the stage where the children can move in - we will complete the rest of the building when we can. 


The pit is dug and lined with rocks


The rocks are delivered and have to be broken by hand


The first of the two septic pits

To learn more about the Muvuma Orphanage or our other programs scroll through the blog - or click on a label on the right. Check us out on facebook for the latest news and pictures.

You can donate on line www.theonepersonproject.org or at the Summerland Credit Union or mail to The One Person Project 10108 Julia Street, Summerland, V0H 1Z5 

Asante Sana!
Thank you!



Thursday 2 October 2014

The Community of Kahama calls it a Miracle



Thank you for helping us to build the new Muvuma Orphanage

People gather daily to watch the amazing progress - which wouldn't have been possible without our supporters. But we urgently need to dig the septic pits and install the tanks before the rainy season hits in mid-October. If we don’t the children can’t move in!




There's still a lot of work to do - but by raising $6,000 now the work can be completed to the stage where the 18 children can move in before they have to leave the current  4-room rental at the end of October. When complete, the 12 bedroom, 7,000 sq. ft.orphanage will be a safe haven for 50 or more children.



The fact that the orphanage protects children with albinism adds extra urgency to the building being completed swiftly.  People with albinism have little or no pigment to their skin and a small number of witch doctors exploit the old superstition that the limbs of albinistic people contain magical properties, which results in adults and children with albinism being persecuted, dismembered or killed.




To learn more about the Muvuma Orphanage or our other programs scroll through the blog - or click on a label on the right. Check us out on facebook for the latest news and pictures.

You can donate on line www.theonepersonproject.org or at the Summerland Credit Union or mail to The One Person Project 10108 Julia Street, Summerland, V0H 1Z5 

Asante Sana!
Thank you!




Wednesday 24 September 2014

Muvuma Orphanage Update

www.theonepersonproject.org

THANKS TO YOUR DONATIONS:

The electrical work is underway



The  internal and exterior walls are being plastered


And the window grates have been installed! 


Read the previous  Muvuma Orphanage blogs for more information

We need another $20,000 to finish the building but are have to raise $10,000 immediately to get the building finished to a stage where the children can move in before the rainy season starts!  Firstly, we need to raise $5,000 to dig out the septic fields and install septic tanks and half of the planned toilets and sinks. Next the external doors and bathroom doors - just the minimum to make the house safe for the children to move in; $1,000. A final $4,000 will make the home habitable and provide beds and essentials for the 18 children.


We are thrilled at the progress being made, and know that with your help the building will be ready to provide a safe home for the children. CLICK HERE to make a donation towards the costs of finishing the orphanage.

A third of our forty-foot shipping container is dedicated to resources for the orphanage; it will arrive in Kahama early next year to coincide with our February Volunteer trip. 

Contact us if you would like to:
Donate towards finishing the orphanage.
Sponsor the orphanage or an orphan.
Volunteer in Kahama, or in the Okanagan, B.C.

You can also make a donation towards any of our programs by mailing a cheque to 
The One person Project, 10108 Julia Street, Summerland, British Columbia, V0H 1Z5, Canada. Donating on-line or making a donation at the Summerland & District Credit Union.



   Strengthen one person - strengthen the family - strengthen the community.




Wednesday 10 September 2014

Why we send books written in English

A fraction of the books we have shipped to the Teacher
Resource Centre in Kahama. 
Although there are around 125 languages spoken in Tanzania, the country officially operates under a bilingual system. While Kiswahili is the language of instruction in primary school, students are required to read and write in English to complete their secondary school education. English is the dominant global language of communication, business, diplomacy, entertainment and the internet, and understandably, the Tanzanian Government wants to level the playing field.

There are problems with this bilingual system – the difficulties that children face switching from Kiswahili to English at Secondary school for example, especially in rural areas like Kahama where the teachers and children do not hear English spoken or have access to English books. We are taking steps to ease the transition. Just by visiting the area each year and conversing with officials and families in English we are making a difference.  In 2012 we ran a week-long English workshop for teachers and will do so again in 2015 or 2016.

We will be sending our current shipping container this year and one more in 2016; the Teacher Resource Centres will then have a wide selection of library and text books.


For more information, to volunteer or to make a donation contact me , mail to The One Person Project, 10108 Julia Street, Summerland, B.C. V0H 1Z5  donate on-line or make a payment into our account at the Summerland Credit Union (Summerland, British Columbia).  

               Strengthen one person - strengthen the family - strengthen the community.

Saturday 2 August 2014

Why we ship donations from here: What we buy there

www.theonepersonproject.org

We chose to support Kahama because poverty is wide-spread and acute and there is little outside help. There is no tourist trade.  Apart from the occasional European gold miners who drop in to the banks or bars we are usually the only mzungus (white people) that the townspeople see. Out in the villages - we are the only ones! By bolstering the twin pillars of health and education our goal is to ensure a stronger local economy, a healthier population and a generation with hope in their lives.


Sending Donated Items. We have shipped 4 forty-foot sea containers to East Africa. The first went to Muhanga, Rwanda and the others to our sponsor community in Kahama, Tanzania. We did our homework before we began to collect donations; we visited the community and asked questions; we read widely and learned about the mistakes and successes of other attempts to help in African countries. In the end basic math made the decision for us. By raising $20,000 to purchase and ship a container we can provide $200,000 - $300,000 of project aid. (Project aid is a partnership whereby the villagers participate in the process with the ultimate goal of self-sustainability.) 

This is by no means an easy route. We are a small volunteer Board & Committee that dedicates hundreds of man-hours to collecting and sorting donations and then countless hours fundraising to ship them!  We are so thankful to the volunteers who stand beside us in a parking lot to sort and pack in the heights of summer and depths of a Canadian winter. And of course we would have nothing to send if it weren't for the generosity of our own community and organizations across BC.



A box of pencil crayons costs around US$8.00 a soccer ball around US$50 in Tanzania – imagine the cost of purchasing just one hospital bed there and having it delivered hundreds of miles to middle-of-nowhere Kahama! Our priority has been to ship medical and educational resources to strengthen the community and provide a solid foundation on which it can build. Using that $20,000 to purchase resources in Tanzania would have had very little impact compared to:

Medical. The Kahama  District Hospital (the only hospital for a population of one million people) receives wards-full of hospital beds, mattresses and linens, operating tables, OR drapes, gowns, gloves and booties, examination tables, birth kits, microscopes, blood pressure cuffs and much more.

Technology. As in the West, health workers in African countries depend on communication tools like cell phones or the Internet to refer patients to specialist facilities, to place orders for drugs and equipment, and to share medical knowledge.  We deliver donated computers and equipment to the hospital and the primary Teacher Resource Centre.

Education. The Teacher Resource Centres and schools receive thousands of text and library books (for the township and 240 villages) and invaluable teacher and classroom resources. 



Empowering Women. We deliver sewing machines and supplies to set up sewing co-operatives and provide income-making skills. Where we differ from many organizations is that we take self-funded trips to Kahama to distribute the items and monitor progress. We can see first-hand whether the resources are making a positive difference, we can see what works and what doesn’t and change our operations accordingly. Another major advantage is that for the rest of the year we have daily contact with Emmanuel, our Agent in Kahama. As well as shipping we have set up a number of programs in Kahama and have built an orphanage. At this point we intend to ship one final container to Kahama in 2016.  

Clothing. Indiscriminately sending clothing to impoverished areas can cause problems as the garments often end up flooding the black-market and depriving local garment-makers and sellers of their income. We do not ship a lot of clothing but when we do we have a major advantage over many organizations as we regularly visit the region and can see the results of our donations and make changes if they are causing problems. The families and orphanages that receive the donated clothing and shoes would not be buying clothes from the local markets, they would simply go without. 

Buying locally. When we can, we do purchase resources and supplies in Kahama. Our strategy of strengthening the whole community through sending medical, educational and entrepreneurial resources will translate into locals buying local, a win-win situation! At present most families are not in the position to help the economy – they live day to day surviving on the ‘crops’ they can grow in the patches of earth outside their huts. The ripple-effect purchases we do make in the Kahama region include:

Bicycles Purchasing locally helps the economy end ensures access to the correct parts and tools.
Bikes for the HIV/AIDS Association: This will enable workers to reach more people in their outlying communities and provide them with support and palliative care.
Bikes for families: Recipients spend less time walking (to fetch water or take a sick relative to a clinic for example) and can dedicate time to growing food and caring for their families. Students can get back from school in time to read in the daylight!
Bikes for small business opportunities: delivering water or fertilizer for example.

Desks, tables, chairs, bookshelves.  We commission local carpenters to build the desks, seats and shelving that we have donated to the Amani Children’s Care and Treatment Clinic (HIV/AIDS) the principal Teacher Resource Centre and the newly built Muvuma Orphanage (updated Dec. '14) We have also delivered hand tools, electrical tools and a generator to a wood-working group in the remote village, Llomelo. 



Livestock. Meat Goats can be bred and used as a source of food and income.Milk goats provide health benefits to families. A healthy dairy goat can yield up to 200 litres of milk a year, plus the family can use and sell the goat manure.
Poultry provides maximum production for minimum costs compared to most livestock. The chickens will address basic nutritional needs as well as generate income for the women in poultry cooperatives - meat, eggs and manure.

Clothing and food. On our visits we do also buy clothing for children from the local market stalls. When we are not in Kahama, Emmanuel makes local food and clothing purchases on our behalf. 


For more information, to volunteer or to make a donation contact me , mail to The One Person Project, 10108 Julia Street, Summerland, B.C. V0H 1Z5  donate on-line or make a payment into our account at the Summerland Credit Union (Summerland, British Columbia).  


               Strengthen one person - strengthen the family - strengthen the community.

Friday 1 August 2014

Great Progess on the Muvuma Building!

www.theonepersonproject.org

Thanks to donations and fundraising events here in the Okanagan (BC) we were able to send funds for a roof for the new Muvuma Orphanage in Kahama.



Twenty children and youth currently live in this rented 4-room house, which will not be available for much longer. The Kahama District Council donated land for a new orphanage, which will house up to 50 children. The small group of local women, who donate their time and limited funds to running the orphan-group, raised enough funds to start the building, a difficult task in a rural area struggling with the effects of extreme poverty. Check out the previous Muvuma blogs (click on the Muvuma link on the right or scroll through the blog) to see how the orphanage will be transforming lives.
It took two years of hard work for the building to get the first five levels of bricks around the 7,000sq ft base; a great testament to the Muvuma ladies' determination and dedication. The 2011 One Person Volunteer team visited the orphanage and Nancy C. donated $1,000, which provided the top 4,000 bricks and soon translated into an exciting surge of progress.













And now - thanks to our supporters - the roof is up!

One Person Kahama Representative, Emmanuel, with the security guards who are monitoring the precious building supplies.

We are thrilled at the progress being made, and know that with your help the building will be ready to provide a safe home for the children by Christmas. Please do contact me if you are able to make a donation towards the costs of finishing the orphanage: floor, internal walls, doors, windows, plumbing, electrical and so on.

A third of our forty-foot shipping container is dedicated to resources for the orphanage; it will arrive in Kahama early next year to coincide with our February Volunteer trip. 

Contact us if you would like to:
Donate towards finishing the orphanage.
Sponsor the orphanage or an orphan.
Volunteer in Kahama, or in the Okanagan, B.C.

You can also make a donation towards any of our programs by mailing a cheque to The One person Project, 10108 Julia Street, Summerland, British Columbia, V0H 1Z5, Canada. Donating on-line or making a donation at the Summerland & District Credit Union.

Strengthen one person - strengthen the family - strengthen the community.





Friday 20 June 2014

Emmanuel, our wonderful Agent in Kahama, Tanzania

www.theonepersonproject.org 
One Person volunteer, Dr.Glen Burgoyne (middle) wearing a gift from Joseph  (left)
and Emmanuel 
Joseph and Emmanuel are amazing, hardworking men who live in Kahama, Tanzania.  Both have made every effort to help us on our visits to Kahama, acting as drivers, translators and tour guides! We value their friendship greatly. (You can read more about Joseph in my Nov. 15th 2013 blog.) 

Earlier this year we asked Emmanuel if he would be our representative in Kahama, and thankfully - he agreed! Thanks to technology and our annual visits, we were already in regular contact with the officials and coordinators of the programs we are supporting or have set up, but having Emmanuel on the ground has allowed us to act and react much more swiftly: his local knowledge and insights are invaluable.

Emmanuel graduated from the University of Dar es Salaam with a bachelor degree in political science and public administration. He currently owns and runs a day care in Kahama, runs training sessions for the Barrick Gold mining company and teaches written and spoken English to children. We are extremely fortunate to have him on our team.   



















Emmanuel and me in 2012. We all got lovely red kangas this time!

For more information or to make a donation contact me , mail to The One Person Project, 10108 Julia Street, Summerland, B.C. V0H 1Z5 or donate on-line   

Strengthen one person - strengthen the family - strengthen the community.



Tuesday 10 June 2014

Why is it important to support sports in schools?

www.theonepersonproject.org 


Here at One Person we agree with article 31 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that play and sports are a child’s right.  We believe in the concept of sport for development – that sport is not just an end in itself, but also an effective tool to help improve the lives of children, families and communities.

Participating in sports allows young men to have a sense of pride and something to strive towards and for girls it additionally allows them to have status and opportunities they do not usually receive. Even the presence of one soccer ball can increase school attendance, which is doubly important as most schools have HIV Prevention Programs.


Some schools do allow girls to take part in soccer but in Tanzania the girls primarily play netball, and One Person ensures that half of the uniforms are given to netball teams.


And of course - everyone is entitled to some fun!

For more information, to volunteer or to make a donation contact me , mail to The One Person Project, 10108 Julia Street, Summerland, B.C. V0H 1Z5  donate on-line or make a payment into our account at the Summerland Credit Union (Summerland, British Columbia).  

               Strengthen one person - strengthen the family - strengthen the community.

Monday 2 June 2014

Susan and Morgan in Kahama, Tanzania

Susan George at the current Muvuma Orphanage
www.theonepersonproject.org 
We regularly take teams of volunteers to Kahama but Susan and her granddaughter Morgan couldn't wait for the next planned trip, so travelled to East Africa on their own to visit our friends in Rwanda and Tanzania. 

Susan has had a long-term plan to help out in an orphanage so was delighted to be able to spend time with the Muvuma children and the dedicated local women who donate their time to supporting them. The current small building houses 20 children and youth, click the Muvuma link on the right to learn more about the children and the new building, which will be home to 50 at-risk orphans. 


Muvuma shelters street-kids and children with albinism. We will be shipping a forty-foot sea container to Kahama at the end of the year, which amongst other essential supplies, is crammed full of educational resources, medical equipment and items to help furnish and finish the new building.


Morgan enjoying a few minutes of downtime
Soccer balls are always greatly appreciated!

Susan and Morgan visited with a number of families and assisted in our other programs too! We greatly appreciate all our volunteers; whether you help in BC or on the ground in E.Africa you are truly making a difference in the lives of vulnerable women and children.


Contact us if you would like to:
Donate towards finishing the orphanage.
Sponsor the orphanage or an orphan.
Volunteer in Kahama, or in the Okanagan, B.C.
You can also make a donation towards any of our programs by mailing a cheque to The One person Project, 10108 Julia Street, Summerland, British Columbia, V0H 1Z5, Canada. Donating on-line or making a donation at the Summerland & District Credit Union.