Women of Kilimanjaro bags:
Uroki High School and Huduma project
described by Heidi Twilley
In 2006 ten professional men from the community
of Barnt Green, a small village south of
Birmingham, visited Uroki Secondary School, near
Moshi. They installed electrics, set up computers,
do carpentry, building work and painting. It was
amazing what they achieved in 2 weeks!
In 2007 I joined a small group of women from the
Barnt Green to visit Uswaa Lutheran church and
Uroki Secondary School. I had some Kiswahili skills
left after working at Mvumi Hospital, near Dodoma
from 1981 – 1985 and the group felt that I might be
a useful addition to their party. Uswaa is a beautiful
area towards Mount Kilimanjaro off the main road
towards Machame and rich in banana and coffee
plantations. Uroki Secondary school was built by
the Lutheran community of Uswaa and has around
300 students.
The women focused on encouraging the students
in English conversation. We also took educational
books, pictures, musical instruments, games and
footballs and gave them a variety of experiences
like recorder lessons, card making, new team
games and lessons on basic first aid.
We felt extremely privileged to spend 2 weeks
getting to know many of the students. We were
impressed by their high level of motivation to study
and their ambitions to becoming teachers, doctors,
nurses, engineers, lawyers, business experts and
ministers. We also met many students who were
orphaned by AIDS/HIV or other causes. For them
Uroki was more than just a school; it was also a
home and a safe place to stay. As many as 80
students were orphaned and/or sponsored to be
educated at Uroki. The students were disciplined
and there was a happy, positive and caring
atmosphere. However, we realised that these
young people were unlikely to achieve their
ambitions due to a lack of High Schools in
Tanzania. Uroki Secondary, like most secondary
schools in Tanzania, only went up to form 4, the
equivalent of our GCSE level.
In 2007 we raised over £ 20,000 for the building of
additional classrooms. Economic problems caused
building costs to rocket (cement prices trebled in
2007) which meant the building project which
included classrooms as well as dormitories could
not be completed as initially budgeted.
We explored other options for fundraising including
a sewing project of beautiful shoulder bags. The
bags we felt, were lightweight, had a huge capacity
for shopping/carrying, and were strong enough to
carry heavy items, designed to be suitable across
the shoulders and eco friendly.
We contacted
Traidcraft, Tearfund
and fair trading
organisations as
well as the Inland
Revenue for advice
and have come up
with a win/win/win
solution with the
following aims: a)
to fund the school building project b) encourage the
local economy and c) provide a good income for
local women supported by Huduma. This voluntary
group set up by Mama Bishop Kweka and women
from the Lutheran Diocese to support women and
families affected by HIV/AIDS.
The sewing project will be a joint project governed
by Uroki High School (now re-named) and
Huduma. Although it is only in its developmental
stage, we have been able to sell 65 bags so far.
Despite the global economic downturn there is a
demand for good quality bags that last, reduce use
of plastic, are versatile and beautifully designed.
We are delighted that the project has been
accepted by the Tanzania Development Trust. It
will promote the education of Tanzanian students,
support the local economy and provide an income
for the local women in Uroki and Uswaa. Joining
forces with TDT will enable us to import the bags in
larger numbers and return all the profit to Uroki
High School. If any of the BTS members would like
to get involved, please contact Heidi Twilley Tel.
0121-445-4396 or e-mail: Heidi.twilley@zen.co.uk.
