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March 2009 Trip (Over 500 Photos)
March best pics (19pics), Video update March (1 video 9mins), Karen’s (72 pics),
Dave’s (94 pics), Power & Water (22pics), Calf (5pics), New Girls (2pics),
Letters (54pics), Older Girls (3pics), Older Boys (12pics), Children in standards (9pics),
Sophia, Minza and Fatuma (6 pics), Building work Video (1 video), John Brindle’s (44pics),
Views (22pics), Bethany staff (2pics), Sunrise-set (16pics), Just children (21pics),
Choir practice (100pics), Food (19pics), Chores (18pics), Learning (13pics),
John Brindle’s report
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February 2009 Trip Eddie and Heather’s (43pics)
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NEW NEW NEW VIDEO CLIPS now on GOOGLE PICASA
Video Clips (via google picasa web album limited number)
Video clips (via Youtube - all )
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Latest news from Paul and Rebecca Pountain - Friday 15th May 2009
Paul and Rebecca returned safely from their three week trip where they helped with the education etc. A report will follow shortly. Click here for photos and Video from the trip.
Also new video clip from Dave and Vicky Shaw title ‘ Games the children play’
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Latest news from Dave and Vicky Shaw - Monday 27th April 2009
The rains have come in Tanzania and at Bethany we have started planting tomatoes and onions which seem to be growing well. The children take turns in watering and weeding the plants. Easter Sunday was a special day at Bethany and we celebrated by having a special meal together. Preparations began very early in the morning and the children were split into teams and given various jobs to do. We had a Sunday service and there was a general celebratory feeling all day. Everyone was very excited at the return of Mwita from work in Mwanza and he encouraged the children to work hard and study using every opportunity to prepare them for life outside Bethany.
The standard 7 pupils are busy at school preparing for their exams in September and the choir are busy learning the English songs. Fatuma, Sophia and Minza the prospective Accrington and Rossendale students are continuing to study English and Computers at Bethany and are making good progress.
March Trip: John Brindle and Graham Pountain returned safely from Bethany on 29th March 2009. John completed assessments on the suitability of the three prospective students (Minza, Sophia and Fatuma) for a course of study at Accrington and Rossendale College as well as spending some time repairing, improving and making new carpentry items at Bethany. John also inspired our resident joiner and the care-workers that they could finish the ‘pouring’ of the lintels (ring beam) and complete the last few courses of block work on the new dining room and kitchen making it ready for the roof (more below). Graham and John also spent a day traveling around the various training establishments our older children are attending (more below). John Brindle’s report
February Trip: Edward, Heather, Alex and Rebekah Jeffery.
Eddie & Heather Jeffery and their 2 children visited Bethany in February to encourage the Team and help where needed. It was fantastic to see the work that Karen was doing with the younger children and to see a working classroom with resources being used and easily accessible. The way forward for education was discussed and a number of avenues explored, but due to the nature of Bethany (Children arriving in many cases with little or no primary education) and staff limitations it was decided that the children would continue at the village school supplemented with extra lessons at Bethany. Vicky and Dave are in the process of finalising a time to teach each week at the village school.Visits were also made to the Young people from Bethany who are either working or training in Mwanza and it was encouraging to see them maturing and, on the whole, working hard. Click here for pics
Adventure Playground !!!!!!!! - GREAT NEWS
We have been contacted by Lisa Statt (one of our faithful USA supporters) who introduced us to Katie Kornfield with whom we discussed the possibility of a grant to build an adventure Playground. Katie represents the Rock Foundation an organisation whose mission is:
‘to educate, empower and motivate children worldwide through health education and physical fitness.’’ Click here for the Rock foundation web site. We have to submit a plan of what we think would be best and a price for the work before final approval but hope this will be done in the next couple of weeks or so.
Ongoing Global Financial Crisis some GOOD NEWS:
As reported in our last update the exchange rate has affected our monthly expenditure and was showing little signs of improving in the short term. We have also discovered that our Tanzanian Bank which has served us well in the past has recently been giving us a very poor exchange rate and along with other NGO’s we have changed banks to obtain a much better exchange rate. The last exchange rate received was 1,975Tsh per £1 whereas previously it was less than
1,700Tsh to the £. Even so this is a long way from the highs of over 2,500Tsh per £1 received some months before.
Residents
Tanzanian Uhuru Torch to visit Bethany (proposed date 1st June)
The Tanzanian Torch stands for ‘to shine in the country and across the borders, to bring hope where there is despair, love where there is enmity and respect where there is hatred”
This will be the second time the famous Uhuru Torch will pay us a visit. It is a great honour and we will use the occasion to impress upon our guests the need for governments help to obtain residents permits etc.
Residents Permits - further delays.
Nyangeta’s leg - repaired.
Social Welfare; primary education - secondary education - vocational training - long and short term volunteers - study in the UK. etc.
A few years ago very few children passed to go to secondary school ( perhaps 5% ) and those who did achieve a pass after 4 years of secondary school stood a better chance of getting the few jobs that were then available. Now however it appears that nearer 50% of children leaving primary school pass to go to the newly built government secondary schools. Sadly there is a great shortage of teachers and our local secondary school which has over 500 students has only 6 teachers (March 2009). This means that our children who attend sometimes have only two lessons per day out of the six time-tabled. Also, sadly the job situation has not improved so few of the children leaving secondary school can find jobs. In many ways this is still very good news for the children with parents (or other family) being raised in the surrounding villagers. The vast majority will continue living at home working on their parent’s shambas (fields) well into adult life or until they marry and find a home and a plot of land they can grow their own crops to support themselves (and any children they produce). However, this is not the situation at Bethany as we are a children’s home and registered to look after children up to the age of 18 years. (please note that primary education finishes at the age of 13-14years or later if they start school after the age of 7 years). We believe that we need our children to become self sufficient as soon as possible and therefore look to vocational training wherever possible as well as secondary education where appropriate. We do have children at secondary school, a number of children on vocational training schemes, some children doing ‘on the job training’, some older children studying a vocational course for ‘teaching assistants’ here in the UK. We assess each child’s ability and offer whatever training is available to prepare them for a job and life back in the community. One common problem is the request from training establishments and prospective employers that the children should have a good grasp of English since much of the training is done in English and the jobs available are for English speakers. The need for UK volunteers to visit long or short term to help our children in their learning of the English language has never been greater.
Dave and Vicky Shaw returned to Bethany Tanzania on the 17th February and are continuing to work hard supplementing the ‘education’ our primary and secondary children are receiving especially English. Dave and Vicky are also helping at the local government primary school (one day per week). Click here for Dave’s photos (94pics)
Jemma Turner returned to England at the end of February having helped with various aspects of the work. Jemma hopes to help with the choir trip later this year.
Karen Ross is still ‘making a difference’ primarily looking after the pre-school children on site. Click here for Karen’s photos (72pics),
Students in England: China, Emma and Jesca are doing well, they are about to start work at their second placements. Emma and Jesca are also taking GCSE English and Maths as well as the two year diploma course in ‘Childcare and Education’ and are finding the English a ‘challenge’! They still find life in England difficult (especially the weather) and are home sick from time to time although they are happier now the temperature is slowly rising. They enjoy visiting various schools and churches representing Bethany to talk about their former lives before Bethany, whilst at Bethany and beyond. They usually sing a couple of songs and demonstrate how water is carried (on their heads). If you are interested in such a short presentation please email me. Click here for recent pics
Inappropriate Behaviour:
We are pleased to tell you that we have not received any reports of inappropriate behaviour since our last update.
Older Children (leavers):
Angelina Cosmos is still working part time for both Forever Angels. Unfortunately Angelina lost her job working for an English couple due to various unresolved issues. Angelina visited us on our last trip and we talked to her about her attitude and behaviour which led to her losing the job. Unfortunately Angelina finds it difficult to accept that she was in any way responsible and is finding it difficult to see any problems in the way she sometimes behaves.
Rehema Kasimu and Eva Joseph are still doing well at Isamilo International School where they teach English curriculum in English using English methods. Once again we visited them and they came to see everyone at Bethany. Click here to see the latest photo
Mwita and Labanai are doing well.
Frank: Nothing heard from Frank since he left Mr. Bryson’s employment and has returned to family members who are providing him with 4 years of secondary education and to help run a ‘family’ business.
Immakulatha: No news
Mwanaidi, Neema and Hollo: All appear to be doing well and are still at Forever Angels.
Sophia, Fatuma and Minza: all doing well and making progress with their English, Child Care and IT studies in preparation for their study if accepted at Accrington and Rossendale College..
Other standard 7 Leavers:
Boys: Bujimbu Zacharia still at the local secondary school.
Emmanuel Charles, John Juma, Joseph Pius, Kulwa Mussa, Labazu Daniel, Daniel Juma, Ramadani Thobias are all doing various VETA vocational training courses.
Peter Chezela, is now working at Fortes Garage and has recently been promoted.
Tabaji Chezela, Doing well on his computer training course.
Kwekwe ( Moses) Shibandiko: doing two short computer courses in Mwanza with Tabaji and Rwechungura.
Evarist Shaban: No news since he left Bethany and living with an uncle who is reported to be providing secondary education for him.
Girls: Mpelwa Juma is now at the local secondary school:
Pendo Malale Jesca Juma and Sumai Makoye are now receiving training at Forever Angels
Ghati (Pendo) Wambura is now training for a full time job at Hillfront hotel. See pics
Rwechungura: is still sharing a room (in Mwanza) with Tabaji and Kwekwe now half way through his computer course
Ghati Daudi is now at Forever Angels
Secondary school children:
Boys: Phabian Juma, Hamza Issa, Nyamarige Mussa, Bujimbu Zacharia and Elijah Benard are all working hard at secondary school.
Girls: Rehema Joseph is doing well together with Mpelwa Juma.
Bore-holes:
No further developments
New Children: Two new children
Children: All doing well.
Choir: Still enjoying practicing hard and looking forward to visiting England again this year if funds permit.
Building work progress: Three major projects. To firstly double the size of the dining room - Kitchen, build a new boys dormitory and a half way house for the older boys.
New boys dormitory: No Progress. As you may already know we have the drawings for the new boys dorm. It will hold a maximum of 148 boys which will double our accommodation capability from 130/140 to over double that number. The plans show two toilet blocks and one shower block, 7 dormitories and 2 smaller rooms for older boys/ storage. David our Treasurer has estimated the cost to be about £80,000 which we haven’t got so we will build as funds allow. Click here to see the plans (Click here for pics of our present boys dorm).
Dining room and Kitchen: Demolition is now complete and the building work has started. Building work was stopped for a time due to the financial crisis and the exchange rate fall. However, in March it was decided to release money for the next stage - enough money to complete the roof so that at least the children had somewhere to eat incase it rains. A temporary dining room will still be used until the roof is complete..
Temporary - New as of March 2009
Half Way House: We believe it would be beneficial to provide accommodation for our older boys away from the Bethany site for various reasons.
Children’s health: No problems at present.
Children’s behaviour: No problems at present now that some of the older boys have left.
Monthly Supporters / Enquirers Meetings: The dates for the next 5 meetings which are all on Sundays at 2pm are: 3rd May, 7th June, 5th July 2009. They are held at Christ Church Hall, Christ Church Street, Roughlee Road, Christ Church Square, Accrington Lancashire. BB5 2LU. Everyone welcome. (click here for details)
Pen pals group web site: This group continues to write to our children with letters of encouragement. We are always hopeful that some pen pals will one day become sponsors. Our visiting teams help write letters for the children. Click on the headings to see the photos:
Letters received,
Future Trips: See details on our home / index page.
Please email if you are at all interested
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Sponsorship - Finance: As ever - finance is an ongoing concern. For those still considering sponsoring or co-sponsoring please see our list of names for sponsorship. Click here
To learn more about sponsorship we have produced a 4 page Question and Answer sheet (click here).
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Money boxes: As you can see our total collected from the money boxes is over £10,326.29 as of 29/10/2008. Cathy Riley is still looking after the new money boxes, both issuing them, banking the proceeds and issuing receipts. If you want one email Bex and she will pass on your request to Cathy.
Satellite Internet: No further news. Still too expensive
Possible bore hole: See above
Mains Power: No news - still waiting but they say our job is next!!!!!!!!!!!
UK team changes: Please visit the home page for a link to details of our UK team members.
Tanzania team changes: Please visit the home page for details.
OTHER NEWS
And Finally: Thank you so much for being interested enough in our work to be reading this. Even more if by your donation you have made this work possible.
N.B. (Please note that this web site is accessible world wide and so we are very careful to only publish the bare facts as truthfully as possible. There are often circumstances upon which decisions have been made which we feel unable to publish. Please contact us directly if you need to know more)
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Interesting article about WorldOrphans.org
“The application was approved, and World Orphans wired the pastor $8,500. In the months that followed, the organization sent another $60,000 to fund seven additional homes. But the doctorate, it turned out, came from a diploma mill, and the references were phony. The grantee pocketed the money and disappeared.”
Click here for the full article
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