As all of you know our world has changed dramatically and unexpectantly over the past 2 months.
What started off as a mysterious flu in China has changed into a pandemic, which as of today has caused more than 2.5 million infections and 172,000 deaths. All of you will I am sure know people with the infection and sadly some of us have friends and relatives who have died from Covid 19.
Our charity Go MAD in Tanzania is financially secure for the rest of this year, however we have had to reduce some of our activities in Tanzania for a number of reasons.
We have been able to continue to pay and employ our full time staff in Tanzania because of the generosity of you our supporters. They are looking after the projects that we can afford to run. These are as follows:
1. The Dairy goat project. Our Tanzanian staff continue to lead and assist the 100 or so local farmers in this scheme. The goats are continuing to breed and produce milk.
2. Tree planting. Working in partnership with local farmers, we have planted 5000 trees so far with another 1000 due to be planted this week. We have also joined with the Anglican church to plant 100,000 trees on their large farm in the hills. We have grown 10,000 seedlings from seed and started ploughing the land this week. The rains are good and all the trees are growing well.
3. Malaria testing and treatment in schools. This has stopped because all the schools are closed. However, to-day we agreed with the Medical Authorities in Mara region that we would send a special task force into the villages , with the correct PPE to test and treat people for malaria in remote villages which have no testing or treatment facilities. This will save many children’s lives.
4. Upgrading of goat sheds. Our carpenters, Samson, Phillipo and Samweli head off next week into the villages to install concrete posts onto the goat sheds that have had problems with some of the posts that have rotted or been eaten by termites.
5. Upgrading a clinic in a remote village.
Most rural Tanzanians walk to their health centers. These are normally 5 to 10 Kilometres away, sometimes further. As a result of this many women are unable to attend clinics for their third trimester examination and 45% give birth at home with the help of Traditional Birth Attendants, resulting in 360 maternal births per 100,000 births and the deaths of 4,000 infants per 100,000 new-born children. Our aim at Butuguri clinic is to upgrade it so that it can effectively serve the men, women and children of this ward
Tanzania is the 6th worst country for maternal and infant mortality. North Mara, the region we work in has the worst record for maternal and infant mortality in Tanzania.
We are seeking funding from Donors to finance this project.
Unfortunately, our 2 teams departing before Easter were not able to travel and as a result, projects that we wanted to start or enlarge have had to be delayed. We are hopeful that other teams due to depart later this year will be able to make it to Tanzania to make a difference.
Our fundraising income from volunteers and trip income to cover our overheads is significantly lower now so we have decided to join in with the nationwide 2.6 challenge that a lot of UK charities are getting involved in.
Please have a look at our Facebook page Go M.A.D in Tanzania or our Instagram page gomadtanzania to find out more and join us please in setting yourself a crazy challenge to Go MAD and Stay MAD. It would mean a huge amount to us if you could join in.
Thank you very much, Graham and Claire