Thanks for visiting my JustGiving page.
I'm going to Tanzania in September 2010 - on Thursday, in fact - to work as a volunteer for a month with a UK aid agency, Futuresense Foundation. I chose this charity because it is helping at the ground level to build sustainability amongst the local population. The program I will be assisting aims to help locals to help themselves, which I believe is more valuable than just providing food or money.
I'll be living in a village called Usangi, which is a very remote place in the Pare Mountains, in the north-east of Tanzania. I'll be working with a grants program which provides start-up funds for widows to operate small businesses. The grant recipients are living with HIV/ AIDS and have limited job prospects - the grants aim to provide them with the means to sustain their families. With 40% of the adult population in parts of northern Tanzania being HIV positive, the potential impact on livelihoods, education and family life is catastrophic.
The average grant is around 50-60 UK Pounds (around $100 Aus, depending on the exchange rate), given in the form of stock or equipment. Tanzania's a very poor country - this is enough to get started with. The types of business grant recipients operate could be anything from selling food or drinks by the roadside, to breeding chickens, to making clothes or jewellery (check the photos!). To be eligible a grant recipient must have children in her care - but she may also be responsible for other family members as well.
You can read more about Futuresense on their website at http://www.futuresense.co.uk.
My job while in Tanzania will be to help evaluate how well the program is working, and to suggest improvements. So I'm keen to raise funds to provide more grant monies for the project. Please help if you can. Every grant will help a Tanzanian family to survive. And every supported business will give me something more to evaluate while I'm there (heaven forbid I should get bored).
Please note that because Futuresense is a UK based organisation, the donations are shown in UK POUNDS.
Futuresense is not a registered charity in Australia, so they are unable to issue a receipt for Australian taxation purposes. However, through volunteering with the grants program I will be able to give you feedback on how your contribution is actually used in Tanzania.
Thank you so very much for any donation you're able to make!
Shelley
