NEWS

OCTOBER 2003

Click on photo’s to enlarge

News Sunday 19th October 2003:
Graham and Elaine Earnshaw were asked to do a report with suggestions how Bethany might be improved (gained from their experience of Bethany during their visit in August). The report is now finished and the team are now studying it in depth. The report mentioned another Children’s home operating in Kenya founded by a man by the name of Jim Dawe. They have a web-site http://www.kanyawegichildren.com (be patient as it takes a while to download). Graham Pountain has spoken to Jim Dawe (who is now back in the UK) on Friday last week and they were able to share their experiences. This has been a great encouragement as most of their experiences were almost identical both good and bad. We hope to work more closely together in the future and there is a just a chance that Jim may visit Bethany on his next visit to Kenya in Oct/Nov.

Photograph taken by Brian Bancroft on his last visit in Sept/Oct 03 titled:
‘Moving shop-Tanzanian style’

Extracts form a very upbeat email received (Friday 17th Oct. ‘03) from the Tanz Team written by Daniel Bujiku
The Tanzanian team is very happy to tell you that every body at Bethany is doing great and everything is going very well at the moment.
Children: All the children are very well physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. 
Electricity: We have changed all the bulbs and the switch outside of the new building according to your instructions from your email of 10/10/2003. And Paul confirmed to me that he daily checks the battery charge and it always goes to equalise.
New building: We have already painted white (emulsion) inside of the new building and our plan is to paint “broken white” paint outside though we haven’t yet.
Att:Children, care workers, Paul and Onesmo have really worked very hard for the old kitchen and painting the new house! I personally have been very impressed by their hard working!
The old kitchen and storeroom: We have already worked on it such as knocking down the chimney, washing the walls and making a new window in it. Our further plan is to put new floor in the old kitchen and possibly a door from the old kitchen throughout the old dinning room. We have removed all the ceiling boards from the old storeroom because they used to keep a lot of bats’ faeces and make a very bad smell.
Clinic, water system, staff and money (budget) are all working very well at the moment

Elaine Earnshaw has written a short report of her first impressions of Bethany and her experiences during a two week visit in August this year.
Click here to see the report

News from Tanzania
Brian returns: On Saturday 4th October Brian Bancroft was back in the UK after a three week trip to Bethany. This is the first trip since the EMUAS group visited to build the new Kitchen and Dining room in August. Brian has been involved in helping with the finishing touches which included some of the plumbing work and you will see from the photos there is still a little tidying up of the electrical work to do.  The good news is that the new building is now in use and you will see some photos to prove it. The last room facing the lake is being used as a classroom. Click here for pictures. The only picture that we haven’t got is one of the storeroom which takes up part of the kitchen area. Hopefully work will soon start to alter the old kitchen and dining room to provide more living accommodation - more children.
Children: All seems well with the children. Standard seven children have finished their national exams and 5 of them will leave primary school in January. Many of the other children are doing their exams in the coming weeks.  Mwita and Rehema are finishing their first year at secondary school and Mwita has been tending to his shamba (fields/garden) at weekends when he is back at Bethany. Our 4 new boys are settling in. (click here to see photos).
Feleshi: Sadly Feleshi has now left Bethany and we want to take this opportunity to publicly thank him for the positive input he had at Bethany whilst he was a volunteer. We hope that he and his new wife will be able to start a ministry together when Loyesa finishes her studies at Nassa Theological College.
Bethany Team Tanz: Working hard with the ongoing development and in contact weekly with reports of progress. Presently there are four members, two of whom are volunteers. They are Onesmo, Daniel, Paulo and Jane. Now Feleshi has left the team will be discussing the way forward and suggesting ways to re-organise the work etc.
Bethany Team UK: Hilary Murphy who was our personnel person has now left to study at St. John’s Theological College, Nottingham. Hilary is still supporting the work of Bethany from a distance until God provides others to help in this area.
Future trips: Nothing planned so far once the November trip has come and gone. We are looking at another trip either before or over the Christmas period (please let us know if you are interested). Brian Bancroft is hoping to go sometime in January (interested?).
 

Special message regarding Corruption: The Tanzanian government is struggling with corruption which is rife throughout Tanzania and is a major stumbling block to the ongoing development of the country.  Sadly this ‘corruption’ filters down from the very highest levels down to the very lowest. Even people in the villages (and sadly even ‘Christians’ and church leaders) are sometimes happy to compromise what they know to be ‘right’ in order to make private gain. We at Bethany are not immune from this accepted cultural idea - most of the problems we have experienced are brought about by those who have worked along side us but have then put their own personal needs before that of the work we are doing and by so doing have compromised their relationship with God (as Christians) and their position with Bethany. One particular form of ‘corruption’ is practised on visitors to Bethany whereby the employee (or villager who is articulate enough in English) makes an emotional appeal in the hope that a gift will be forthcoming (e.g. food, school fees, new clothes, new roof, new house, etc etc.) This form of soliciting a gift has come in the past from those at Bethany who have a practised and effective speech prepared (which many professional actors would be envious of). A speech and a plea to the emotions that is hard to ignore (I have heard and been touched by many). However, I have never heard anyone make a plea for anyone else other than themselves or their family. However the successful recipients of the gifts are usually those who are in the least need and the best paid.  Sadly when the money or gifts have been given they don’t always end up being spent on the perceived need. Clothes that have been given for children (not Bethany children) end up being taken from the children by their parents and being sold on the nearest market to raise funds to buy ‘drink’. The latest ‘must have’ in Tanzania is a mobile phone. They are expensive to buy and very expensive to use but ownership of such a trinket is a high priority which is often viewed as more desirable than food, clothes or education.
Obviously as Bethany is a Christian organisation we hold to the very highest standards of truth, integrity, honesty, openness, transparency etc. and we find operating in the Tanzanian culture very difficult. That is not to say that we don’t have dishonesty and corruption in the UK only practised differently.
Many people (and christians) in the UK are reluctant to contribute financially to third world projects because of the stories they have heard of the misuse of money.
At Bethany we acknowledge the problem and are more and more committed to working to eradicate all forms of this insidious evil which stunts the development of the work and destroys (spiritually) those involved in it. New initiatives are currently being discussed and new policies will be implemented in consultation with our Tanzanian team and government officials.

Two interesting article are available on this topic, both written from the Tanzanian perspective
Click here for article 1 (which includes short write-ups on the skinning of children and the murdering of old ladies)
and click here for article 2
Also of interest is the email issued by Tim Broughton who started a work in Kenya. (click here to view)
Also of interest is an extract from Kanyawegi children’s home update for April 2003. Click here to view