NEWS FROM IGODA CHILDREN’S VILLAGE, MUFINDI

NEWS FROM IGODA CHILDREN’S VILLAGE, MUFINDI

Zulea is currently completing her Tourism and Hotel Management studies and is at Lazy Lagoon right now doing her ‘field’ experience for 3 months before seeking employment.

IGODA CLINIC WARD EXTENSION: The foundations are complete and the brickwork has been started, there was a delay due to a very wet season! This will provide the Igoda Clinic with more beds, and accommodation for a doctor and nurse to expand the facility to cover a wider area as the nearest hospital is quite  distance away. This is being sponsored by a very generous donor! Thank you so much.

Conservation news: Chris Fox and his team are located in some of Tanzania’s absolutely best untouched locations, and they have made it their mission to protect these lands. So far, they’ve managed to: remove 11,000 snares/traps used in illegal poaching activities; planted 30,000 locally with indigenous forest trees (as at end of 2019); facilitate ongoing ecological monitoring; help deploy anti-poaching units into the scarp forests of Mufindi. The Fox family has planted 3 million trees in the Southern Highlands and lowering the carbon emissions in this area

Huge congratulations to our Trustee, Simon Shercliff CMG OBE for being appointed Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Iran!
Welcomed Visitors:  Johannes, our Volunteer Accountant from Germany, also Jenny Peck from America, paid a short visit at the ICV much to the excitement of the staff and children!

23rdSeptember: We welcome Dr Alex and her family to the ICV. Her medical skills are very much valued not only at our ICV but in the surrounding villages where she will be visiting many outreach patients in need of this extra help. The family has already started activities in the social room with the children and catching up with them all. The family last December converted the old craft-room into a Social room where the children can go and relax, do activities, homework, read etc.

ICV: We believe our foster facility for babies who lose their mothers at childbirth is slowing down. Perhaps this is an indicator of the success of our new Igoda Clinic where many babies are being delivered in the maternity unit.  Also, we are taking steps to repatriate some of these young children to their villages where fathers left them with us as babies not being able to look after them. They are normally returned around 3 years of age. Francisco, now aged 2 yrs has been fostered with a family living at Chogo Village who have other children and settled in well. Tunaye, Fanuel, Monica and Evalina, all over 18 have now left the ICV as with Government policy which does not allow children over the age of 18 to remain. They are all enrolled in further education, or the Youth Project.

SAILING ALONE: Richard Kerswell, who lived in Tanganyika as a child, continuing his sail, alone, around the UK raising funds for the Igoda Children’s Village and Give the World a Shot. So far he has done 2,232.7 Nautical miles. To catch up with his latest progress please click on: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Pegasuses.places

The OITW 2021 Christmas Cards will be available soon. Each pack of 10 cards is £4.75 per pack + Postage.

Thank you for your continued support and donations also those who regularly donate by direct debit, they are very much appreciated, without your amazing help the ICV wouldn’t be there!  Asante Sana! 

Do get in touch if you need more information.

NEWS FROM MUFINDI TO JUNE 2021

April 4^th The children were given an Easter Hunt to search the playground for their treats. When they found them, they dropped the goodies into a basket and each of the children received an equal share with great excitement

April 22^nd What a lovely surprise! Foxes Community & Wildlife Conservation Trust has been announced as the 2021 cause winner with ourafrica.travel. Thank you so much! To see the full post on Instagram please click on this link: 

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CNt9wB2niFm/?fbclid=IwAR3IGk3G8bOalQ2FjFiprMMA6FiFwl_IPUUyuS_LtiMwcGu–5OMla-i6M8

April 29^th The new beans and maize planted earlier this season are looking really healthy, giving the children fresh vegetables with plenty to dry and put into stores for the following weeks after harvest! All this land is dug over by hand, there are very few tractors in this remote, rural area of the Southern Highlands of Tanzania! The Avocado season is in full swing in Mufindi. Kasory Kilwa and Kaini Kabonge shown here, are busy counting the first pick ready to bag them up for stores.

May 9^th The ICV received gifts from the Iyayi Church of maize, soap, religious books, plates, soap and money to the tune of Tsh.69,000/- (£21.28). This was given by the congregation, giving what they could, which is very much appreciated. They held prayers and their choir sang at the Vocational Training Centre together with lunch including all the ICV children and workers. Zilipa, the ICV Manager, said it was a day enjoyed by everyone.

May 21^st Zilipa has visited Gloria again at her grandmother’s home in Ikaning’ombe to see her progress now she has left the Igoda Children Village. Gloria has settled very well, is happy and healthy. Such good news seeing her difficult start in life. #babygloriamufindi

May 30^th Ella, one of our Finnish Volunteers, arrived in Mufindi bringing with her lots of knitted items from Finland, she also collected the packages from the Mafinga post office sent from the UK. The smaller children wearing some of the cardies and jumpers from friends in the UK and the others showing the lovely Finnish knitted garments. Thank you to all the great knitters!

June 2^nd We are delighted to have received a grant from Johnson Controls of Cork for Solar equipment, this will make a significant difference to the ICV. The Solar system will make FCWC self reliant in its operation, able to protect itself from regular power cuts and surges, and at the same time minimize the administrative burden of electricity bills while also meeting it’s environmental objectives for using renewable energy.

June 25th  We received some books kindly donated by some visitors who were passing through, much to the delight of the staff and children. Many thanks! 

Your support, donations and those who regularly donate by Direct Debit is very much appreciated.

thank you

This support keeps The Igoda children’s village going

If you would like any further information, please

contact Marion Gough: +44(0)7759 219 708. email: marion@wildorphans.org

https://orphansinthewild.org/gift-vouchers/ https://www.facebook.com/OrphansInTheWild/ https:/www.goldengiving.com/charity/orphansinthewild https://www.instagram.com/orphansinthewild/

Foxes NGO Profile

NGO_Profile 2020

NEWS FROM MUFINDI TO MARCH 2021

MUFINDI NEWS 

8th March 2021 International Women’s Day: Over the week, we had the pleasure, on Media, to introduce and thank all the Office Staff, House Guardians, Cook, Nurse and Gardeners at the Igoda Children’s Village who work so hard looking after the Igoda Children’s  Village and caring for the children so well:  Here are Zilipa, ICV  Manager; Fausta, Accountant; Uzia, Social Welfare Officer and Nurse Sijali.  We were reluctant to leave the men out, so they were thanked and introduced at the end of the week. To see all the staff  please click on this link and scroll to see them all.  /https://www.facebook.com/OrphansInTheWild/photos/pcb.1843231852501515/1843228259168541/

In January two volunteers visited the ICV and gave all the little children an activity treat with rides on the horses from Fox Farm.

18th February 2021: The ICV had the privilege of  visit from David Concar, the UK’s High Commissioner to Tanzania. He was shown around the ICV by FCWC’s co-founder, Geoff Fox MBE, where he met some the children. He said he enjoyed his visit and  would come again.

3rd February 2021: We received a grant from The Royal Overseas League for all the ICV primary aged school children to be educated, including all costs, at the Madisi Primary School in Mufindi.  This has given us a great boost with the difficulties the Corona virus has created. Our sincere appreciation to ROSL.

January 2021: FCWC launched YAM supported in partnership by the Helsinki Deaconess Foundation Institute in Finland: The disabled often lead invisible lives in Tanzania (and are less likely to attend school or more likely to drop out at a younger age) while young people in Tanzania face an unreliable income once they leave school due to having to rely on informal income generation (with inadequate employment opportunities – 10% of 15-35 yr olds are unemployed and 75% of young people are dependent on seasonal agriculture.

FCWC led the way in tackling the HIV epidemic over the last 15 years but recognise that it has left behind many traumatised vulnerable young children who continue to need our help.

So we are delighted to announce a new partnership between the Helsinki Deaconess Foundation Institute (HDI) in Finland and FCWC in Tanzania enabling us to launch YAM (Youth Agency Mufindi Project) at the start of 2021 with MFA funding committed for 4 (possibly 5) years. The YAM project is designed to help disabled children solve life issues enabling them to lead dignified lives and also to help vulnerable young people to take control of their lives through improved motivation, skills and opportunities. FCWC will implement this pilot project in our neighbouring 16 villages, conducting outreach, needs assessments, rehabilitation, carer training, psychosocial support, Agricultural and Forestry training, entrepreneurship training, and wherever possible also help address gender equalities. Our hope is that once the project is shown to be successful in addressing these needs it is likely to be replicated in other parts of the district, region and country and we will be working closely with local government wherever possible advocating equal development and opportunity for vulnerable children and young people.

To achieve this, we have already established a Youth Project team and are in the process of establishing and strengthening Village Child Protection Committees, VCPCs, helping us to identify and deliver this project support and training and help solve the problems faced by disabled children and vulnerable young people.

We are working with the University of Iringa UoI and TAPCAP (Tanzanian Association for Professional Counsellors and Psychotherapists) to help FCWC by providing expertise in assessing needs, psychosocial support and the training of trainers while at the same time INUKA (Southern Highlands Rehab Centre) will be assisting us with addressing the rehabilitation needs of the Disabled.

The rains in January started with a vengeance making the roads in Mufindi and surrounding areas a quagmire.  Getting the children to their schools makes this exceedingly difficult, sometimes impossible! One of the main dirt roads is being tarmacked so this year the roads have not been graded as normal, hence the problem. Mufindi is in a very rural, remote area of the Southern Highlands of Tanzania!

ONCE AGAIN WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HELP AND SUPPORT 

In Memory of Naused Nyaganilwa – FCWCT Trustee

NEWS FROM MUFINDI OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2020

Shoes for Schools: In the previous newsletter we reported that £1,943.36 had been raised. We are delighted to let you know that the shoes arrived on 19^th December creating great excitement to all the children at the ICV. Any funds left over will go towards clothing.

During October, due to the Covid pandemic, our incoming funds reduced significantly. so we held an emergency fundraising campaign on all media sites, alongside the previous newsletter appeal £4368.50 has been raised also a few regular monthly direct debits have started. Once again this is hugely appreciated!

Dr Alex, our medical volunteer, her family and Ella, another volunteer, arrived from Finland early October. They brought with them hand knitted cardigans made by Dr Leena Pasanen, socks, clothes and many other items including footballs much to the delight of Hezron and and all the children. Ella worked hard helping the house mamas playing and making crafts with the children. Dr Alex started her medical rounds checking on the health and status of the children and then progressed on to visit many patients in the rural, remote outreach villages. She did this with the help of the Home Base Volunteer Team, who had previously assessed who most needed medical support. We shall miss them all as they return to Finland for Christmas. Thank you for everything you have done. 

Social Room: To give the older children more space to do their homework and provide somewhere to relax, a Social Room has been made using the old sewing room that had been unoccupied for a while. This was funded by an individual Triathlon challenge completed in the UK during lockdown, Alex Family and Geoff Fox. An old sofa was repaired and recovered. The large old table was sanded and varnished also an old bookshelf was rejuvenated and painted with a variety of different and colourful flags. Curtains were made. Rugs, tables, chairs, a radio/CD player and a refurbished TV were bought. Having already achieved so much Dr Alex and her family still found time to the help the older children from the Children’s Village set to cleaning, mending, sanding, painting and getting the room ready to open just before they were due to leave for Finland. To see all the activity involved please click on the link:

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=2151228301676712&set=pcb.2151290508337158

Thank you for all help and your support.

https://www.facebook.com/OrphansInTheWild/ https://www.instagram.com/orphansinthewild/

5 Unique, Hand-painted, Embroidered African Animal Portraits – Auction

5 Unique, hand-painted and free-motion embroidered African animal portraits, individually framed in a 15.7cms embroidery hoop.

https://www.peoplesfundraising.com/auction/Embroidered-African-Animal-Portraits-OITW

NEWS FROM MUFINDI JULY – OCTOBER 2020

NEWS FROM MUFINDI JULY-OCTOBER 2020

Like many charities “Orphans in the Wild” is suffering a marked downturn in donations. Donations by safari guests have dried up as the safaris were closed due to Covid 19 and remain so. We especially thank those who are currently supporting us through Direct Debits, and who have recently donated. All donations have a direct impact on the children and young people we are supporting in the Children’s Village.

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/save-the-mufindi-childrens-village?fbclid=IwAR0Ldp5faOWi9xhGPvIpJ8naSFRFLkKIGWqD4c__fpllBB6u3sa2a4nWJKw

The Vocational Training Centre, although under the FCWCT umbrella, is independently run allowing our own ICV students to train free of charge. One group, the Student Car Mechanics, have recently had an exciting and rare opportunity. Peter Fox along with his experienced mechanics, fabricators and builders, were converting Land Rovers chassis cabs into vehicles for safari game drives. The process was to convert these bullet proof snatch 2A 110’s (wheelbase) vehicles into longer 130 chassis cabs. What better experience could they get! It was a huge job  benefiting the students. Not many student mechanics get the opportunity to totally strip, stretch the chassis, respray, reinstate the parts, replace the engine, test, add a canopy and seats on all these vehicles! Peter Fox was hands on with his expert mechanics making sure all students were taught correctly and did the job to a high standard. 

25^th August – The Regional and District Commissioners came to officially open the Igoda Clinic, complete with a Maternity Suite, which will serve the surrounding area! This clinic has been generously sponsored together with all the equipment for the maternity unit. It is going to make such a difference to nearby villages. Thank you! Official Opening of the Igoda Clinic:  https://www.facebook.com/OrphansInTheWild/videos/2768477363382368

8^th September – A young 16 year old school girl, Aviva, spent a little time at the Igoda Children’s Village last year and was so taken with it she has set up her own charity to support them – https://www.future4children.org/! She organised a fundraise earlier this year to buy 70 new sweaters for all the primary school children (they are required to have two sets, one in blue and one maroon). We are delighted to report that these have now been purchased! Thank you to Aviva and her school friends for their support.

11th September – The latest news on Gloria! Her Grandmother had successfully applied to take her home and she will be reunited with her brother again. The Ikaning’ombe Child Protection Committee had approved and signed the legal documents necessary to make this move. It was a day of mixed feelings when Gloria left, sad to lose her from her extended family at the ICV but happy for her to be going home. Grandmother is building a new house. 

You may remember #babygloriamufindi came to the Igoda Children’s Village in February 2017 as her mother was mentally unable to look after her. She has had quite a difficult young life; Gloria was unable to feed due to a cleft lip and palate, and also she had an absorption problem and could not gain weight. In august 2019, she gained the weight needed and had her surgical repair. Since then she has come on in leaps and bounds. The Health Officer and our present Volunteer Doctor, Dr Alex, has recently visited the family and reported that Gloria has settled in very well and is actually calling Grandmother, Mama!

Three new Beehives:- Kashinde, our ICV handyman and volunteer’s translator, has hollowed out logs to make some extra beehives, not only to provide the CV with honey but for sale too. After hollowing out, the two sides are put back together with small holes, smeared with beeswax to encourage bees to make  them their new homes. The have been placed in the bush around the different houses. 

We are delighted to let you know that the ‘Shoes for Schools’ fundraise has raised £1,943.36. The Primary School Children are required to have two pairs of shoes and The Secondary School Children one pair. Any funds left over will go towards their uniforms. Thank you!

OITW Christmas cards are ready for sale. They come in packs of ten, five of each design for £4.75 per pack + additional Postage. 100% of the profit goes to the Igoda Children’s Village.

 Cost of UK Postage:

IGODA CHILDREN’S VILLAGE NEEDS YOUR HELP

Please share and support our Igoda Children’ Village.

The children need you. “These are the silent victims of Covid 19 and they desperately need our support.”

ww.crowdfunder.co.uk/save-the-mufindi-childrens-village?fbclid=IwAR2LUipTTviAJoB_UO6feQgkxuqbHy_kmMsmCu9qtY109clx5aAZPjUE1cE

Thank you for your support, please contact us if you would like some more information