LUHIMBA UPDATE SEPT/OCT 2015

I left home on 6th September to spend a month in Tanzania. On the bus to Songea I met Saskia and Connie, two English university students who were on their way to support a project in Malawi. They stayed in Songea for a few days and came to Luhimba with me, joining in village activities before moving on to Malawi.

I spent the following couple of weeks in the village seeing how current projects had progressed since my last visit in February.

Tim’s Market Tim’s market is a farmers’ market being built in memory of the late Tim Redman, formerly of Worlebury in Weston, who sadly passed away in September 2014. The market is near the Brenda Redman Room, built in memory of Tim’s late wife. This is a village hall, opened in Sept 2014, and now in constant use for meetings and village functions. Both buildings have been funded by the Redman family and generous donations by Weston Lions, of which Tim had been a long-standing member. Work started on the market in April this year, after the rainy season, and was up to roof level when I was in the village in September. I have since heard from Avelina, the village Executive Officer, that the roof is on and the building is nearing completion. It consists of 6 lock-up units plus a guest and utility room, which groups of farmers can rent from the village council to sell their produce to passing trade on the main road. Schools

Our three primary schools are doing well with excellent results in this year’s 13+ exams. We will be sponsoring at least 30 students from these schools to attend Nguluma secondary school when the new school year starts in January. Ngembambili Primary School has a dynamic new head, Mr Peter Luswetula. I was pleased to present the school with a new football kit, a gift from Cheadle and Gatley Junior Football Club in Manchester, and we agreed to provide the school with 30 new desks and repair two water wells.

I was asked to be guest of honour at Luhimba Primary School’s graduation day in September, where the standard 7 leavers are presented with their certificates. It was a happy festive occasion with lots of singing and dancing by children, parents and half the village, and a speech in Swahili by me (to the amusement of everyone). Nguluma Secondary School is thriving under the excellent leadership of headteacher Peter Matembo. There are now 30 staff and a lot of work has been done to improve the facilities. They have equipped two science labs from their own resources and we replaced a set of solar batteries for the ring well, plus a new inverter for the solar power system. When the project started in 1984 there was one run-down primary school to serve the whole area. Thanks to the generosity of our loyal sponsors and donors over 2000 students now receive a high standard of education in three excellent primary and one secondary school. We have also recently started sponsoring three more students to attend colleges of further education. We are grateful to local primary schools around Weston and in Carmarthenshire for their support. We have received generous donations from Wrington Primary School, Worlebury St Paul’s and Ashcombe Primary School during the past year. Also, the fundraising activities of the children of Wilnecote School and Dosthill Primary School in Tamworth, Staffordshire have enabled several students to attend Nguluma School in Luhimba.

The support we receive from my home village near Carmarthen is wonderful. I was born and grew up in Llandyfaelog and own the house where I was born. I am a member of Llandyfaelog Community Council and back in June this year the council put on a fundraising evening for Luhimba. The event was held in the village hall and organised by Shan Rees and her team. The hall was packed, with a slide presentation and entertainment by my band Bulldog. We raised almost £1600 that evening which is being spent on paying for a student to attend teacher training college in Songea for 3 years with enough left over to cover the first year’s fees for another student to attend nursing college. Two primary schools in neighbouring Welsh villages, Mynyddygarreg and Llannon, sponsor Luhimba children at secondary school. I am very fortunate to be able to split my time between Llandyfaelog, Luhimba and Weston at the moment – the best of three worlds!! I must also mention Mark Gower who lives near my home in Wales. Mark is an accountant and first visited Luhimba with me in 2012. Since then he has been back to Luhimba 5 times and helps run the project. His accounting skills are invaluable and he leads the dancing with gusto when villagers come to my house every evening! Health Although we have an excellent dispensary in the village, some of the poorer villagers find it to pay for medication for common ailments like malaria, blood pressure and diabetes. An insurance scheme has been set up where for just over a £3 annual premium a family of up to 6 people can receive treatment for a year. With the proceeds of a quiz arranged by Daphne Fowler (BBC Eggheads) and fundraising by Year 4 children at Ashcombe Primary School in Weston we have helped around 600 people with their

medical expenses. The children from Ashcombe School also raised sufficient funds to buy sandals for 50 children from poor families.

Leah and Mariam. Leah is 17 and Mariam is 2. Both suffer from cerebral palsy. Neither was able to sit up or communicate properly. Last year we arranged for Mariam to attend a specialist clinic in Nearby Songea 3 times a week and already she is much more alert and can sit up. Thanks to some local sponsors in the Weston area we had Leah assessed in Sept

by the same specialist and she is now also receiving treatment 3 times a week. We have also arranged for both girls to have nutritious diets and daily milk delivered to their homes. I am looking forward to seeing how they will have improved when I go back in February. The Angela Carey Dispensary, which we built in 1998 has been serving the village so well for 17 years, and is going from strength to strength under the leadership of the village doctor George Pallangyo. It now has 2 doctors, 5 nurses and a midwife. It is soon to be upgraded to Health Centre status and they will be able to carry out minor operations.

Siku is a disabled lady who lives in a simple hut. She had polio as a child and cannot walk or stand, but always has a cheerful happy smile on her face. Last year we noticed the grass roof of her hut was collapsing so we arranged for a new corrugated iron sheet roof be installed to replace the old grass roof. This was done when I was in the village, and

instantly made a vast improvement to her living conditions. Beekeeping Following the training a group of Luhimba farmers received back in May, thanks to a generous donation by John and Marianne Lewis, the beekeeping project has got off to a good start. I saw 5 hives around the village and had my first taste of Luhimba honey! I left sufficient payment for the village carpenter to make 5 or 6 more hives, so the project can expand over the coming months. Village Structure I thought you’d like to know a bit about how the village is structured in terms of leadership etc. Luhimba is run by the village council, similar to our parish or community council. The council is made up of elected members with an elected chairperson (or mwenyekiti) who serves a 5 year term, and can stand as many times as they want. The current chairman is Hassan Lahi. Then there is the committee, secretary, treasurer etc. The council is responsible for how the village is run and is accountable to the District Council, which currently has its offices in Songea (a town about 20 miles from Luhimba). Each rural village has a Village Executive Officer, who is a government employed person who lives in the village for a fixed term and reports to the District Council on all village activities. This is an important role as it is the only way the District knows what is going on in these remote villages. The VEO attends all village council meetings and is totally involved in village life. Luhimba executive

officer is Avelina Mkanula and she is my link with the village. She speaks English fluently and communicates regularly by phone or email (using an internet café in Songea). So I am kept right up-to-date with everything that is going on. This is a far cry from the old days before mobile phones and emails, when we had to rely on hand written letters which took weeks to arrive, if at all! Avelina is very efficient and competent and is very much involved in all the planning meetings we have when I am in the village. So once again thank you for your support. Without that none of this would be possible. I have put a gallery of my latest pictures of Luhimba on our website and on our Facebook Luhimba page (details below). A DATE FOR YOUR DIARY:

WESTON ROTARY CLUB CHARITY FAYRE SATURDAY 28TH NOV 2015 WINTER GARDENS W-S-M

10am – 3.30pm Free entry

Paul Temple 07786651458 luhimba@aol.com www.luhimbaproject.org.uk www.facebook.com/luhimba

Luhimba Village Council

The Luhimba Project is a registered UK charity (no 1084849)