Mwanza is a large city, the second largest in Tanzania. It’s full of contrasts and has fascinating rock formations and a location on Lake Victoria that is incredibly beautiful. It’s the home of our second workshop as well and this photo shows our local crew, John, Viviana and Saidi who have worked hard for us for years refurbishing tools. We found that we couldn’t keep up with demand for tools from our Wales workshop and this operation now accepts unrefurbished tools from us, cleans and repairs them and then distributes them to the artisans along with the tools we refurbish here in Wales. Our charity pays their wages and we consider the success of this workshop one of our best efforts.

As skilled as they are there are some machines however which are beyond our ability to manage.

Before we get into that, though, we should introduce Florah Magabe. Among her many accomplishments she set up the St. Francis primary school, a training centre for young mothers and we are pleased to be able to provide help to them this year in two ways. We will be providing sewing machines for her classrooms and we’ve made an arrangement with the Dar Es Salaam Institute of Technology, Mwanza, to take in a group of Florah’s young women to train in leather craft. The DIT has agreed to accept an industrial leather sewing machine as payment for this. It’s win/win/win as you’ll see.

The Institute has international funding to renovate an old leatherworks factory and will operate it as a training centre as well as a production factory to help fund itself. It has equipment for processing the hides through to stitching the belts. We have, over time, collected several industrial machines which we could not find proper homes for. When our trustees reached out to them to see if they could use the machines they happily said yes. The machines are beyond our ability to repair but not for them. It’s all an opportunity for them and so we found a way to rescue these machines and fund training for some young women. Win for them, win for us and win for Florah’s students.

An interesting request came to us from the director of this institute recently. They are looking for someone who is skilled in leatherwork to teach, on a voluntary basis and for at least a year, at their new training centre. Secure, private housing provided and a living expenses stipend as well. They have indicated they can assist with immigration and visas. If you’re interested in this, or know someone who might be, use our contact us form and we’ll try to get you more information.

Our next post will focus on Florah Magabe and some of the work she is involved in.