Previous Projects
Glazing of classrooms
On the first visit to Lengijave, Louise visited with a friend. At this time it was thought that this would be a one off volunteering visit to satisfy a long held with to volunteer overseas. It quickly became apparent that assistance was needed and that Louise felt very much that she wanted to work towards giving the people here the basic needs in life. Louise and her friend had collected money from friends and family to help where we could and part of this money was used to glaze the windows of the school buildings. As the area is extremely dusty and often experience dust swirls we experienced these moving through the classrooms and the children immediately try to move away from the windows taking their bench desks with them. Six students moving at the same time with a desk around their legs is a disaster waiting to happen. We managed to glaze the whole school while we were there. It was important to the staff at the school that we could show people back home what they had used the money for.
teacher desks
With some of the remainder of the money mentioned above we were also able to buy two teacher desks to assist teachers in the staff room.
Repairing of Reception classroom door
The classroom door was hanging off the classroom frame and required a new doorframe and repair to the door. We had only taken £1000 with us so it was really effective use of the money at the school as we had not realised we would be able to do so much.
Electricity Installation
An electricity supply was taken through the village, across a gorge that splits the village and into part of Olbak school. This required 10 telegraph poles that were in short supply. We secured a contractor to do this work which went well but the final connection to the main grid took about a month as we had to wait for Tanesco (the main gonvernment provider) to come and complete the connection. We are now working to extend this supply to the dispensary, the rest of Olbak school, into Lengijave school and beyond.
Exploratory Borehole
A joint project with local Rotary clubs enabled us to carry out an exploratory borehole on the land donated by Mr Mosha to the villagers. This as carried out after a survey had been conducted and when Louise was visiting Tanzania last October. The water was checked for quality and sustainability, which was positive, the water having a little higher concentration of fluoride which is easily solved. We are now extending this project to a full pipeline, pumping from the land 15km away up to lengijave and feeding the villages along the route via gravity.
Electric milling machine
Money was very kindly donated for the purpose of buying the electric milling machine. This had been highlighted as a way for the school to buy in maize at a cheaper rate, mill it them-selves for student lunches but also to mill for farmers. This can be done for an income that will be spent on resources for the school. The school at present has no resources except for a few laptops taken out to the school by Louise that have been donated. We now also have four desktop computers that are being refurbished and a laptop and these will be sent out to the school. This offers a resource via the internet, teachers can store their lesson plans as there is a lack of paper and the school will eventually be able to have virtual lessons and connections with other schools, both local and further afield. The older students are being shown how to use computers to develop their skills.
ELECTRICITY TO THE DISPENSARY IN LENGIJAVE
This has now been achieved and because of this a laboratory has been built to ensure better provision locally both in terms of urgent medical assistance but also in access to better facilities.
This was imperative to enable vaccines and medications to be refrigerated when required. Previously they were stored on shelves or in a cupboard. Also lighting is required to provide better examination conditions and for certain treatments to be carried out. It may also be possible to extend medical provision in the area. As our water project is now progressing the community are planning to build a couple of wards for those who need medical care.