Trips to Tanzania - from friends to football tournaments!
It is 2012, and a small group of us has accepted an invitation from Rev Isaac Mgego, the Director of Berega Hospital, to visit him in Tanzania. It was an invitation which we accepted, somewhat to his surprise, as he wanted us to see for ourselves the challenges he faces delivering care for patients at his hospital and rural health centre. Sitting huddled in the back of an ageing Land Cruiser, we bounce for several hours along the dangerous and muddy roads that lead from the port of Dar es Salaam to inland Tanzania. I don’t think any of us realise at this stage the impact this visit will have on us, and the rich experiences that lie ahead. We don’t know that this will be the first of many visits to a beautiful country we will come to love and where we will develop deep friendships - nor that one day we would host the exciting final of a massive Tanzanian football tournament! Why a football tournament, you might ask.......
It is during our stay at Berega Hospital that Isaac tells us about support he receives for the hospital from another small UK charity, and takes us on a journey ‘off road’ to the small rural health centre that he is responsible for in Tunguli village. Here most local people are dependent on subsistence farming to feed themselves, so are at the mercy of climate change. Life is hard. They also rely on the small health centre at the heart of their community to care for them and we see straight away that the facilities are run down with equipment that is old and very sparse. Patients lie on worn-out, unhygienic foam mattresses in unlit wards, the sterilising unit in the operating theatre is a pan of boiling water over a three-stone fire, and essential medicines are in desperately short supply in the dispensary. We are here to see for ourselves - and what we see is humbling. In this clinic, every day, babies come into the world, mothers are nursed and health battles are fought, yet it is clearly a struggle to maintain and resource it. This is a community where medicines cost money that most people don’t have but, despite that, it is still a highly valued resource locally. It is Isaac who ensures there is care available for people, even when they have no money to pay, but the cost of doing that shows in the dilapidated state of the building and the lack of resources.
During our early visits to Tunguli we work closely with a retired Consultant Obstetrician who has a vision for a project supporting the women of Tunguli. That vision begins with the formation of several ‘Tushikamane’ groups (‘Tushikamane’ is a Swahili word meaning ‘stronger together’) and a programme of maternal health education and support is linked to the health centre. The first job is to ask the women what they feel is their greatest need, and they tell us that a reliable and safe water supply for their families is at the top of the list. The only hand pump in the village is not working and stands unused, while women resort to scooping water from puddles shared with livestock, or lift buckets from dangerously deep water holes. These are the only options available to them but they know that they bring disease and are not safe.
Our research eventually leads us to a Tanzanian NGO, ‘Sanitation and Water Action’ (SAWA) based in Dar es Salaam, whose inspirational staff offer us a practical solution - installing easily-maintained rope pumps that can be located close to the community. We begin a partnership with them that leads to an enduring relationship based on trust and friendship. We are in awe of their commitment and their expertise - we are blessed to have found them. Thanks to a great deal of hard work, 11 easy-maintenance rope pumps wells are gradually dug and installed close to homes in and around the village. No longer do women need to fear for their safety when alone seeking out water sources, a danger that is particularly frightening after dark.
We know there are priorities at the clinic, too. Replacement mattresses, solar lighting on the wards, medication, and security fencing are at the top of the list, as well as rebuilding of the existing toilet facilities. The laboratory is renovated and a dedicated water tank provided using rainwater collection.
The ‘tractor project’ of 2015 needs a mention, too, as the community takes delivery of a container full of supplies, and at its heart are a fully refurbished Massey Ferguson tractor, a tractor shed, trailer and plough - a story in itself. Suffice it to say that, as I write, the Tunguli village leaders are leasing the tractor out to local farmers, with the income raised funding maintenance of those precious rope pump wells. The tractor has a vital role to play in both food security and making the wells sustainable. In the container there are also a number of sewing machines, so sewing training courses begin at the Health Centre - a popular opportunity received with enthusiasm by both men and women locally.
Sadly, the following year St Elizabeth’s church, at the heart of Tunguli village, is destroyed in a devastating rainstorm. Members of the congregation weep as the building is washed away but together they decide that they want to re-build it. Generous financial support from churches in the UK and donations of materials and labour from local people have made that possible. Progress is ongoing and the new building is a monument to the effort and commitment of local people.
In the meantime, the ‘Tushikamane’ women’s groups thrive, and they remain a key focus for us. We know that maternal health education can save lives, so make a decision to fund a midwife who will visit groups regularly, travelling out by motorbike from the health centre. Some groups are in remote hamlets, but women gradually start making the long walk to the health centre for check- ups, babies are brought for vaccination and women tell us how much they value the support. It is a special day in 2016 when the sturdy, ‘all terrain’ motorbike ambulance is delivered to the Health Centre. Capable of handling treacherous mud roads in the rainy seasons, mothers and their babies can now be safely transported on the 45-minute journey to nearby Berega Hospital for emergency treatment when it is needed. No longer do they need to risk their own and their babies’ lives travelling as pillion passengers on the back of motorbikes.
Our regular monitoring visits ensure that we can inspect the rope-pump wells with the SAWA team, and we hear from the community of the massive difference they have made. At the same time another partnership begins, when we ‘discover’ Welloce Mhina, a young farmer living with his family in Tunguli and a key member of St Elizabeth’s Church.. He comes forward in response to our appeal for a volunteer partner in the village, and has become ‘our eyes and ears’ in Tunguli. He is a key member of our team, has very good English, communicates regularly with us, and has been an invaluable source of local knowledge and support. We certainly could not manage without him now!
In 2020 the devastation of Covid puts a stop to everything and SAWA once again act quickly on our behalf. They travel out to Tunguli and the surrounding hamlets, using loud hailers to spread advice with messages on keeping safe from disease. They also deliver protective equipment to ensure that staff at the hospital and health centre have access to PPE, at the same time remaining very aware of the need to approach the situation with caution and sensitivity. Travelling out to isolated rural communities from the city of Dar es Salaam can be a risk for people in itself, possibly exposing them to, rather than protecting them from, the dangers of Covid.
And so we move on to October 2024 and our most recent monitoring visit. We arrive at our first stop exhausted, 26 hours after leaving the UK, but we can at least relax when we reach the hotel in Morogoro, before we travel on for the final part of our journey. We always fund all our own personal expenses on these trips, of course, but we do have at the forefront of our minds the enormous debt of gratitude we have to those who have supported us with funding over so many years. We are there on behalf of our supporters and are meticulous in our monitoring of how their donated money is used. When we return home we are occasionally asked whether we have had a good holiday! I think all of us would agree that it is an exhausting, ‘working’ trip, as we have projects to monitor and many meetings to hold, but it is enormously fulfilling and we wouldn’t miss it for anything. Ask us what we do there - we are more than happy to tell you!
And so to the football tournament. ‘What has a football tournament got to do with maternal health?’ You may well ask. It was SAWA who first suggested football to us as a vehicle for getting across messages on hygiene and disease prevention to the widest audience possible. We were, I must admit, somewhat sceptical ourselves. ‘It works’, they told us ‘We have done it elsewhere and it really works.’ They were so right!
And so it is that on a warm afternoon in October, we sit on a platform on the edge of ‘the pitch’ - for ‘pitch’ think rough field rather than Old Trafford! A vehicle with flags flying drives slowly across the middle of the pitch bringing a local government official from the District office, the honoured guest, to join us on the platform, and the teams of finalists are warming up both themselves and the crowd. The pink kit worn by one of the teams is a clue that this year, for the first time in 4 years of the tournament, there are both men’s and women’s teams taking part, with separate finals for each. Quite some progress. In order to take part, every single player has to meet certain requirements in terms of hygiene, either in their own home or by regularly helping to clean the village water points, and keeping them animal-free. The SAWA team diligently carry out inspections to ensure compliance with the rules, and anyone who has not completed what was asked of them is eliminated from the competition. In a country where water is in short supply and education on disease prevention is minimal, these are critical and life-saving messages. Such is the motivation to take part that the team drop-out rate is very low.
The tournament kicks off and it is awe-inspiring to see the crowd that gathers to watch and support. Breaks in play are punctuated with loud speaker messages about hygiene and disease prevention. Hundreds of people, many of them young men and women, are hearing life-saving messages through the universally loved language of a football match. It is not, of course, just about the messages. There are trophies and prizes. The teams have trained hard, are desperate to be the champions, and the atmosphere is electric. Such is the balance of skill that three out of four matches go to penalties - the crowd goes wild! People come in vast numbers from villages and hamlets scattered around, so around 2000 people share a fantastic moment with an underlying life-saving message. Prizes are distributed, teams celebrate and partying is heard long into the night. How right SAWA are and what power they harness through this tournament, as they reach so many young people with their vital messages.
Little did we know when we made that first journey in 2012 that we had a much bigger journey ahead of us - one on which we would come learn so much about Tanzania, its beautiful country and its culture. We have had the privilege of gaining many dear friends and have continued to be humbled every step of the way. We are welcomed by Isaac and the people of Tunguli with great love and generosity, as people share what little they have and welcome us into their lives.
And now we begin 2025. We are excited to be at the start of a microfinance project, offering financial education and a savings and loan scheme to communities, through the support of a Tanzanian partner who has expertise and a long history of running such schemes successfully in many rural communities. We can’t wait to get started!
It has been a long journey since 2013 but, my word, what a humbling and fulfilling one it is proving to be. We wish you, our supporters, could join us on our trips to Tanzania to share our experiences and see how many lives have been changed by the work you have supported. We could not have done any of it without you and we thank each and every one of you from the bottom of our hearts.
Tricia Mortimer
Trustee
Mission Morogoro