Bertha is in need of urgent medical care. Thank you if you are able to make a donation.

I first met Bertha in April 2000 when she came to the UK on a visit to schools in Devon, Cornwall and Kent. She had been selected by the charity called ‘The Friends of Urambo & Mwanhala’ - which encourages school links between the UK and Tanzania - because she was a Biology teacher in Urambo at that time. Her trip was sponsored by the Cranbrook School Tanzania Project.

It was impossible not to make friends with Bertha the instant you met her. She was warm, friendly and smiley and her laugh was (and still is!) infectious. She was so interested in the children in the schools she visited and they too loved her immediately. Only those who spent longer with her learnt that privately she was still grieving for her two small children who had died not long before she flew to the UK.

On her return, Bertha continued to support the work of FUM in Tanzania and she and her husband (who was the District Medical Officer) were wonderful hosts to the English medical students who visited Urambo for their electives. Bertha herself was extremely generous with her time, mentoring biology students in Urambo Secondary School, where she was a teacher.

However only a year later, we heard that her husband David had died suddenly of cerebral malaria, leaving Bertha (who had already lost her own parents) all alone in Urambo. Seeking to start a new life, Bertha moved first to Morogoro and thence to Dar es Salaam, where she began teaching at the ABC Capital School. There she met her fiancé, Paul, and was at last beginning to find happiness again.

Very sadly, Bertha recently developed a serious skin infection, which she has allowed me to show in the photo at the top. Unfortunately, her inability to work at the moment means that she has, quite literally, run out of money and can no longer access the medical help she so desperately needs. If you can, please give a little to help us to help her do this.

Thank you!