News & Events

£35 a year to provide a young disadvantaged child with resources to help them attend school. Why not give the gift of care? Why not donate as a gift, in the name of a friend or family member. We will send them an email, letting them know that you have made a donation on their behalf.

This project has been borne out of a need to support children who don’t have the resources and uniform to attend their school setting in the Nzega District.  There are several young people from disadvantaged homes where the students themselves, or their parents have disabilities and struggle to find the money to support their children.  
 

Mambali’s increasing population put great pressure on the clinic’s maternity provision. A separate maternity unit was desperately needed.

Fortunately two very generous FUM members provided the £15,000 for building a 4-bed unit. They were supported by the village committee and the District Medical Officer. Once again Mr Gomegwa supervised the building work and the unit opened in September 2024.

In response to a special request at the beginning of the year, the College has produced 40 desks funded by FUM for Kiloleni Secondary School.

The SEND classroom was opened by the District Commissioner Mama Naitapwaki Lemeya and they had a bit of a party!

Here we see people enjoying the party and a new tribute sign to celebrate the opening of the building.

Our fundraising walks aim to raise £10,000 to build a much needed maternity unit, similar to that opened at Kiloleni earlier this year.

As well as general outpatient services the clinic provides a good range of maternity services, also Immunisation and Child Health care. HIV programmes include Testing and Counselling and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission. It is planned that in the near future the clinic will be able to offer laboratory services.

The official government staff roll for this clinic is 15 so the current two nurses and one attendant are kept very busy. They also receive support from a number of local volunteers for outreach work.
There are some bicycles but insufficient for the outreach work. These are often stolen en route to communities so staff saved for a motorbike.

Within the single building are rooms for consultations and treatment with smaller rooms for pharmacy, HIV counselling, vaccinations and maternal deliveries.

There is mains electricity though no solar backup. Water comes from a rainwater harvesting tank and an unreliable borehole supply whose salty water damages equipment.

Two boreholes were drilled successfully by FUM nearly 3km from Kiloleni village.

One has a hand pump fitted to supply villagers living in the area and a cattle trough.

The other is used to provide water to the clinic and new maternity unit via a buried pipeline using a solar powered pump. This was completed in autumn 2023.

We hope that the borehole supply will be sufficient to make it available also at the two schools and possibly an outlet in the centre of the village.

Here the village clinic had only one maternity bed for the 8000 population it serves and the water supply is poor.
An anonymous donor generously provided the £10,000 needed for a 4-bed maternity unit extension, now completed.
FUM fundraising in 2022 was for a better water supply. A hydrological survey and test drilling found good water 2.8 km from the clinic and from autumn 2023 a solar powered pumping scheme takes this to the clinic.

Mr Mwadua welcomed our Project Officer to the College during his visit to Tabora Region in August.  He had the opportunity to show him the new and refurbished buildings and introduce him to students.

Unfortunately, due to the very poor rains, the vegetable production scheme which the College has introduced had very poor harvests.  It is hoped that the rains will be much better in the coming season to allow this venture to flourish.

In March Mr Gulmay informed us that the College had been successful in its application to the Tanzania Forest Fund for a bee keeping project, to involve upgrading the FDC forest and improving the livelihood of the local community.

The highlight of this year was the visit by FUM’s Project Officer in August.  He stayed in Devon House for three nights which gave him some time to meet students as well as to be the first FUM officer to meet Mr Gulmay since his appointment.  It gave the opportunity to see the new buildings and refurbished facilities built in recent years.

Early in the year Mr Joseph reported that Sikonge had been selected to offer a six-month course to be funded by the Office of the Prime Minister.  This would be non-residential, students attending in the afternoons, using the same facilities as the full-time students.

On the first day of the Project Officer’s visit to Tabora Region in August, he visited Sikonge.  Once again, this was the first time that an FUM officer had had the opportunity to meet the Principal.  He enjoyed seeing the new and refurbished buildings, and was impressed by the well laid-out campus, with plenty of trees planted.  The trees include cashew nuts which, in time, can be harvested to give the College some useful income.