April 2017 Pastor’s House

The Tanzanian members of our leadership team are Project Leader Gadlord Deuli and his Assistant Julieth Godwin. To help review and plan work on a weekly basis there is a ​management team meeting. Once the practical business has been agreed there is an ‘issues’ slot, when a variety of different problems and situations are discussed. One recurring theme of these discussions is ‘Pastor’s House’. Pastor Deuli has great skills in bringing people together and says quite unequivocally that to succeed in our work we all have to be working to the same goals or be ‘building the same house’. This led to a short se​ssion​ recently when a ‘helicopter view’ was taken of how ​staff​ should interact together, and the disciplines ​that​ must be​ develop​ed​ , to build our house successfully. One of the most fascinating parts of the discussion was how cultural norms impact on the nature of communication. It is a generally accepted part of European communication that women have the same ‘permission’ to challenge male colleagues as their male counterparts do. In Tanzanian culture this is not the same and so building our house through open communication and being critical friends is a challenge.

To her great credit  Julieth has taken this on and while it may only be in the confines of Busega Scotland that this ‘permission’ exists, she gives as good as she gets in robust discussions! Taking this approach into

​Busega Scotland​ projects is a challenge for her but one that she is up for. As Julieth​ says, with a commendable strength, ‘I am learning all the time!’.

30.3.17 New Children settling in well

Salome, Michael, Gideon, Dotto, Kulwa and Emmanuel are feeling at home at Mayega.

They enjoyed wrapping themselves  in their new comfort blankets knitted by Lorna Logan of Gordon Chapel.  They have all started school at Mayega and are mixing freely with the other children and joining in with activities. They are already looking stronger and fitter thanks to regular meals and tender loving care from the Mayega Children’s Centre Staff.

We now have 11 girls and 8 boys at the orphanage. Another young boy has already been identified to join them and we expect him to be brought to the centre next week. We are working closely with the Social Services Department of Busega District to identify the children most in need of care. All the children have lost their biological parents and have been living with elderly relatives or neighbours in desperate poverty where food has been in short supply.

Over the next few months we will increase the number of children to 24.


27.3.17 STRIKING PARTNERSHIP!

 

Busega Scotland is delighted to announce a partnership with the prominent Mwanza-based safari company, Shrike Safaris. This is our first such arrangement with a Tanzanian company, and will result in donations made to the benefit of Mayega Children’s Centre.

John and Christine and family travelled to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater with Shrike Safaris last year and had a wonderful time. Since then discussions have taken place with Mark James, the founder and CEO of Shrike, who has been wonderfully enthusiastic and encouraging about the partnership.

The company is about to launch a new website and Busega Scotland will have its own dedicated page. Mark hopes that this will encourage his clients to support Mayega themselves. It also provides further worldwide exposure of the work of Busega Scotland.

It is the hope of our charity to host further volunteers in Tanzania. We think the combination of work with us and a trip to the Serengeti, is an unbeatable combination for our adventurous supporters. John and Christine would certainly recommend Shrike to fulfil the second part of the dream.

Finally, many thanks go to Mark and his team for their generous support of Mayega.

 

14.3.17 Avoid the bag tax.

Busega Scotland stalwart Ruth McIntosh has launched a ‘Bags for Busega’ project. Ruth has got together a group of skilled friends, who can turn cloth brought back from Africa into very attractive shopping bags. Ruth said that a Busega bag can be folded up and carried around in  a handbag, which is very convenient.
John and Christine brought the first cloth back from Mwanza and this has been added to by other supporters, who have visited Africa and even Tanzania itself. Their kindness is motivated by a wish to give something back to Africa.
The first Busega bag sale will be held later this month at a pop-up Traidcraft shop, hosted by Bellie Parish Church, High Street, Fochabers, Moray. Friday 31st March, 10.30 to 12.00 and 14.00 to 16.00.
Please attend the sale if you can. The bags are beautiful, unique and proceeds will support the children at Mayega Children’s Centre.
Many thanks to Ruth and her team.

9.3.17 Momentous Day

Two signatures brought Knockando Woolmill Trust and Busega Scotland together in a ground breaking partnership. The story began several months ago. Busega Scotland trustee, Colin Sanders, introduced John and Christine to the work of the mill. After several meetings at Knockando, the concept of a ‘Mayega shuka’ emerged. A shuka is a traditional fabric, worn as a garment in East Africa, and it has a striking resemblance to Scottish plaid. Templates were taken to Mayega Children’s Centre and coloured in by the children, using colours typical of the local environment and the Tanzanian national flag. From these stunning patterns, designers at Knockando have created a Mayega version, from which the unique woollen shukas will be woven.

The partnership signatories, Emma Nicholson, Marketing and Merchandising Manager at Knockando, and Mike McClafferty, Secretary, Busega Scotland, gave the green light to production. We hope a sample of the cloth will travel with John and Christine to Mayega later this month, to show the children what they have helped to achieve. Our shukas will then go on sale in the summer, with profits used to benefit the children’s centre. The project is truly remarkable.

19.2.17 Kabula Starts Work Placement

Out of the classroom and into the workplace. In February Kabula , one of Buseaga Scotland’s students, started her three month work placement as a secretary with Mwanza City Council. For the next three months she will be working in the headquarters of the Ministry of Education offices in Mwanza. Kabula is delighted as the office is well equipped with computers and all necessary materials. Sadly this is not the case in many offices.

As her secretarial course is nearing its end she has been busy preparing her CV with the help of Julieth, Assistant project leader and volunteer Arnold Barrow.

Finding a job will not be easy and recruitment practices in Tanzania make it difficult for young people with no family behind them to get work. CV’s are not usually expected during recruitment however we hope having one will make her stand out from the crowd. There is a high unemployment rate among young people in Tanzania. We hope the training she has undergone and the confidence she has developed will help her find work. Her teachers have praised her for her pleasant personality and hard working nature.  We  wish her well for a successful placement and in her search for employment.

18.2.17 Dream becomes a ‘nightmare’?

As with all teams attending a Busega Scotland quiz night, the Dream Team arrived with (maybe) high hopes of success. Unfortunately, any optimism quickly became ‘despair’, when the results were read out and they had become booby prize winners. But, as ever, it was all taken in good heart.

 

On the winner’s rostrum were Elgin Steelers, who scored an unheard of 10 out of 10 in the Africa round. There was also a ‘rags to riches’ story for Mike Fox, who had been the first person eliminated in the Heads and Tails competition at our previous quiz night.
This time he won the blue ribbon prize – a testament to hours of hard study, we think!
The great news for Busega Scotland is that the event raised £600 for the Moving-on Project – absolutely superb. The message from the quizzers – it was a great night and we should do it more often.

12.2.17 Comfort Blankets

Four new children have been admitted to Mayega Children’s Centre. This has increased the number from twelve to sixteen. The children were understandably nervous and a bit bewildered at first. Arnold and Valerie Barrow have seen them since and feel they are settling in well.

John and Christine will be visiting Mayega in March and are looking forward to also saying ‘hello’.

 

Thanks to the skill and industry of Lorna Logan, of Gordon Chapel in Fochabers, the children will receive a special gift of a very colourful blanket. We hope that this will help give the message ‘you are welcome and valued’, although by then we are sure these sentiments will have been provided in abundance by the ‘Mayega family’.

 

 

Many thanks to Lorna for her very kind gifts.

8.2.17 Malesa is recovering well.

RecoveringWe are happy to tell you that Malesa, one of the Mayega boys, is recovering well following surgery to remove a large fatty lump from his head. He is currently in Mwanza where the surgery took place and he hopes to be able to travel back home in a few days time. Mayega is about 85 miles from Mwanza. He was supported by Matron, as well as  Valerie and Arnold at the hospital. Malesa has lived with this problem for many years and requested help to have it removed in December.

Busega Scotland and Malesa thanks everyone who has helped to make the arrangements for the surgery and pay the hospital bill.