Recent posts on the Latest News page of our website show the efforts being made to promote the social, emotional and educational wellbeing of children at Mayega Children’s Centre. This is the creative and inspiring work, but the compound at Mayega is large and the climatic conditions harsh. Periodically, we have to check the state of the buildings, and surroundings, and undertake upgrading and maintenance work.
We employ local fundis (tradesmen), who are keen to do good work as they know that they will be engaged again. We have a contracting system as standard practice. It requires estimates to be submitted, contracts signed with payments not concluded until work is complete and to a good standard.
Recent activity has included repairs to the fence and to damp walls in the dormitory building. Windows have been repaired and damaged mosquito screens replaced. Walls have been tiled around the shower rooms and sinks.
However, our real improvement is a couple of picnic benches to go under ‘the big tree’! These will allow the children space for study, playing games, chilling and for meetings. We provided drawings for the fundi, who followed them faithfully and has done a super job.

Busega Scotland promotes the welfare of vulnerable women and families through women’s groups. They are collaborations with the women and other local organisations. Our aim is always sustainability and independence, and the four groups we have worked with so far are all now self-managing. 130 women been supported.
The centrepiece of each group is a vicoba (village community bank) that allow women members to take interest bearing loans, to grow their small businesses, and for the vicoba to grow its capital (that is owned by the group).
The real experts are the women themselves (and Julieth Godwin, our Assistant Project Leader, who supports the groups). We are planning three new groups in 2020, and so arranged a seminar in Mwanza, inviting group members from the town of Igombe and village of Chole to attend. The women described their successes and challenges and ideas for improvement. A Community Development Officer advised on the help available from the Tanzanian government.
The event was a great success, and ended will a lovely meal in a local café. We are grateful to a Dar es Salaam based charity, called The Goat Race, for sponsoring the event and Julieth is producing a conference report, that will be available on our website in due course,

Jenny Wallen has just returned to the UK , after a month assisting with reading development at Mayega Primary School and Children’s Centre.

They must have thought I was mad; we’re going to teach reading with books with no words (the beginning of the Oxford Reading Tree), we are going to read the pictures …….but everyone was far too polite to say so.

Read Jenny’s article in full here.

https://busegascotland.co.uk/volunteers/

Graduations in Tanzania are such joyous occasions. There are the obligatory speeches, and these include student representatives publicly thanking teachers for their help and support. The graduates sing and dance to entertain the crowd and then comes the celebratory meal, enjoyed by all.
Ex Mayega students have graduated recently at Kalwande (Leukondia – Diploma in Motor Vehicle Mechanics) and Nyakato (Happiness – Certificate in Tailoring and Design and Tabu and Magreth – Certificates in Domestic Electrical Installation). Busega Scotland staff attended both ceremonies, as they really are ‘family’ to the young people.
At Nyakato, the audience was asked to say something in support of the college and students. When nobody came forward, our Julieth stepped into the breach. Impromptu public speaking is no problem for our Assistant Project Leader.

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The Big Busega Parties project had modest aims! To celebrate 5 years of Busega Scotland working in Tanzania, involving every continent and the children at Mayega Children’s Centre. Without a hint of smugness, all achieved!
The country count:
Europe – Scotland, England, Wales, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and Italy, Africa – Senegal and Tanzania, North America – Canada and USA, South America – Brazil, Asia – Malaysia and India, Australasia – New Zealand and Antarctica – on a cruise ship!
Scroll back through our News Pages to read the individual stories.
The Mayega children worked hard with Busega Scotland volunteer, Jenny Wallen, to prepare a world map showing the location of every party. What a novel form of geography lesson. A second display showed the history of Mayega Children’s Centre. We work hard with children dislocated from their families to promote a sense of belonging. We are sure that this is happening, as bonds are very strong.

This was a big event . Mayega Children’s Centre has never seen anything like this. Tarpaulins protecting against the sun, the decorations, the photo displays, the choir from the African Inland Church, the team of cooks, the children, staff and guests. We never counted but about eighty-five to ninety people attended.

We had visitors from the village, school and district council. The returning ‘graduates’, who had left Mayega over the last few years, created the most excitement. How delighted the children were to see them.
The Mayega children are extremely talented. Not only with their singing and dancing but they also enthralled the crowd with two very funny plays. The one about a drunken father and dysfunctional family was particularly poignant.

The party was about the children and to emphasise this the top table was occupied by the children’s committee.

Quite a departure in Tanzania but nobody minded, and the event was great fun from beginning to end. The celebration meal topped it all off – how do the cooks manage to produce such superb food with the bare minimum of facilities!?We hope Busega Scotland makes it to ten years, as we can then all gather again!

The Busega Parties Project has achieved the impossible – at least one party on each continent, yes, on each continent! How fantastic it will be to share this with the Mayega children on Saturday. We have a wall map to show where each party has happened and the children are preparing this, and a photo display, with our volunteer Jenny Wallen.
South America completed the set of continents, with a fun event at a vulnerable children’s project in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, the country’s third biggest city. The children are from two favelas, and the project received an award for being one of the best NGOs in the state of Minas Gerais. The print on the wall translates as ‘ (from) Pedra Viva Institute Brazil, (sending) a hug for the project in Busega Tanzania, Big Parties’.
Nilce (the project leader) said, ‘we really did have a party! We did a study about Tanzania. Where it is, population, previous name, date of independence, first election etc. It was great because we learned something. After the research and discussion we had a snack. The children were very excited!’
All of Busega Scotland share the excitement!

We previously received a good wishes message from Bangalore, with the promise of some pictures (see 7.11.19 – Good wishes from all parts!). Today the photos arrived, with the added bonus of a video. Enjoy!

‘For my 50-mile walk I called a halt at 40 miles, at midnight. The last two miles were very icy which slowed us up and there was a risk of falling. My friends, Colin and Mairi , would have stayed until I completed the 50 but they both had an early start at work and would have had practically no sleep if they’d had to stay with me until 4am.
So I decided to be sensible for once. And to be honest I was very tired and I realised it no longer matters to me if I complete the 50. I don’t think anyone will mind that I only did 40. I was struggling after 33 miles and it was only thanks to Colin and Mairi reviving me and taking my heavy rucksack off me that I was able to continue.
Plenty of well-meaning friends are advising me to reduce the distance anyway and to do the walk earlier in the year when the weather is better and there is more daylight. And thanks everyone that sponsored and encouraged me!’
It is still possible to make a Busega Scotland donation for Peter’s efforts at
https://www.totalgiving.co.uk/mypage/peterh2019busegascotland
Peter, you are a Busega Scotland hero!

Busega Scotland trustee and volunteer, Jenny Wallen, has arrived in Mayega to support English teaching in the primary school and children’s centre. A very experienced teacher, Jenny is working alongside staff and pupils to implement the reading schemes provide by one of her former schools, Lhanbryde Primary. The Mayega school has set up a library to house the books and the children are as keen as mustard to use the new facility. Good luck to Jenny in her endeavours.

The District Executive Director at Busega District Council, Anderson Kabuku, said that three of the top ten primary schools in Tanzania, in the latest Standard 7 examinations, were in his district. There are 169 districts in the country. Mayega’s performance has also improved. From 59th in the district in 2018 to 8th best this year. Nationally, the school’s improvement is from 6541 to 871. Congratulations to Ernest Damiano, head teacher, and the Mayega staff.

New Zealand family Carrie, Kathy, JT, Astrid, Kai, Toby and Nick send their best wishes to Mayega on their 5th birthday. ‘Some of us live here in Christchurch, New Zealand. We hope you all have a great day next week!! Sent with best wishes from us all’.
We also received good wishes from Ian Campbell in Jacksonville, Florida. Ian and colleagues are in America on a work assignment.

A photo is awaited, but a message was received from Bangalore in India. Our new friend, Antonia, said, ‘we party for children in Busega, we talked about Tanzania and had special food’.
Continent update – only South America remains to join in and we are confident that this will happen before the Mayega finale on the 16th.