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.
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.
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.
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.
We 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.
John and Christine met the Ladies Together group at Lossiemouth Baptist Church and spoke about the work of Busega Scotland. Our talk was enthusiastically received. Also, it was good to meet again an important figure in our children’s education. Claire Stewart, who introduced us to the group, was a teacher at Milne’s High School and taught Ellen, Hannah and Graeme. It was difficult not to refer to Claire as Mrs Stewart! Old habits die hard.The group made a magnificent donation of £100, that will be used to best effect in Tanzania. Many, many thanks to the Lossie ladies.
In the early days of our existence we received expert help in developing our first ‘shaking hands’ logo. This has served us well but we have been interested in alternatives and approached Moray College UHI – University of the Highlands and Islands. We prepared a ‘brief’ for Higher National Diploma (HND) students in Interactive Media, explaining our charitable purposes, services and ethos, before throwing down the gauntlet to the students to come up with new designs. We had a short leet of three; they were brilliant and we can use all of them for different purposes but there had to be a winner (voted on by trustees and our volunteers to Tanzania).
John and Christine enjoyed their visit to Speyside Quilters. The members were very kind in their appreciation of the talk they received and asked some interesting and searching questions. It was good that Christine had been able to show photographs of the Mayega Centre, to illustrate how the children have made impressive use of craft items previously donated by the quilters. The ladies then exhibited their own craftwork, in a ‘show and tell’ session. Ruth McIntosh, a longstanding supporter of Busega Scotland, had brought along a quilt she’d made for her granddaughter. A beautiful piece of work. Ruth then asked if her colleagues would join in a project to make and sell Busega shopping bags, from cloth brought back from Tanzania. She had plenty of volunteers! Wonderful! But this is not all. Members donated literally bags full of craft items, that will be taken to Mayega, to further enrich the lives of the children. The quilters also made a donation of £50 to Busega Scotland funds. Can you believe it, such a generous, enjoyable and impressive evening!