Bishop Blessing Borehole
Tumaini is the Swahili word for Hope . It is a Guernsey-based charity which seeks to alleviate the terrible suffering of AIDS widows and orphans in Kagera, the North-West province of Tanzania. Figures are unreliable, but average life expectancy there is 43 years; HIV carriage is thought to be 28% with, perhaps, one in every three mothers delivering HIV-positive babies. A subsistence farmer earns in the region of $110 each year, and normally supports 6-8 family members. There may be 200,000 orphans in the region.
Tanzania is one of the 10 poorest countries in the world as measured by most poverty indices. Most of the wealth is concentrated around Dar es Salaam, the capital, in the South-East of the country. The province of Kagera is in the far North-West, bordering Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Lake Victoria, with Congo close by. It is furthest from the source of wealth, so is one of the poorest regions. Within this very poor area, AIDS widows and orphans are the poorest section of the community … the poorest of the poor.
Subsistence farming is a tough way to survive, especially with climate change and unpredictable rains. Education is the only way to get out of this hand-to-mouth existence. Primary schooling is free in Tanzania, but children cannot enrol unless they have school uniforms, books and pencils, which prices education out for a lot of subsistence farmers’ children and makes it impossible for sick widows’ children, or children in child-headed families.
Children are called AIDS orphans if one parent has died from AIDS. If one parent is affected, the other parent will almost certainly become ill as well. Tumaini tries to increase parents’ time with their children, by improving their health and life circumstances – the children just want to have their Mum or Dad with them for a bit longer . As Tumaini works with the family, the parent will also come to know that, after their death, their children will be supported. At the death of the parent we promote the children’s rights to their parents’ small-holding and support the family as a child-headed unit. For each AIDS orphan we support, we supply the child with school uniform, books and pencils for getting to school and everyone in the household gets 2 sets of clothes and a mosquito net (Malaria is the biggest childhood killer in Sub-Saharan Africa, while repeated episodes of malaria threatens the lives of immuno-compromised parents, such as those living with AIDS.)
20,000 orphans are now supported by the Tumaini Fund and receiving this help. We employ 7 local workers in Kagera to carry out the project, which is monitored by the Anglican Diocese. There are 70 local parish-workers, working in pairs – Kagera is about the size of Northern Ireland. We aim to find support for all the estimated 200,000 orphans.
Children Outside House
(This introduction to Tumaini is based on the Tumaini Guernsey website. Click here to find out more about Tumaini Guernsey.
