A promotional video about Tanzania  

We hope that some kind person can translate Kiswahili for us! The video documents the first Graduation Day at Kalwande Church Service and Training Centre near Mwanza, Tanzania, funded by TFSR Cymru for a two week residential set of short courses for 30 students in Tool Maintenance and Vehicle Maintenance. The courses were well received as you will [...]

These beautiful old antique sewing machines were donated recently. They are extremely lovely and extremely old. We'll try to find appropriate new homes for them.

Dear friends and supporters, We are writing to share that our Coordinator Tony Care has retired from his position in TFSR Cymru. Tony became a paid employee in 2007, having been a founder member of Crickhowell TFSR a very long time ago. When we became a separate charity in 1986 it soon became clear that a coordinator would [...]

Playground Equipment, Florah Magabe and local government involvement: Still just a glimmer of an idea right now but we've had some interesting news from Ms. Magabe regarding expansion of the training centres for vulnerable youth, single mothers and disabled people. She has been in contact with several lake zone Regional Commisioners regarding new space (see photo of possible [...]

We've talked a bit about several projects we've been working on involving child care and trades training in and around Mwanza. We've supplied training, sewing machines and other equipment to Florah Magabe's Wanawake ne Hatamu school and over at the Kalwande training school the first group of tradesmen have completed the first of the two week programmes in [...]

The Green Man was very kind to us this year. It was great to be back under the canvas at a festival again. Seeing old friends and meeting new ones, sharing stories backlogged by a year of isolation and teaching 'old' things like blacksmithing to people who may not otherwise have a chance to see how these things [...]

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fix sewing machines and he'll set up his own school! This report received from Michael Kimaryo, our project officer in Mwanza is a wonderful justification for our project. Sharing knowledge and providing tools pays off and here is a look at one way [...]

Another positive report from Mwanza as our work, supported by a grant from the Kitchen Table Charities Trust, proceeds. Still to come: there will be new playground equipment and more opportunities for disadvantaged young women to learn with the school's support. The training already seems to be getting used in local programmes. Yesterday we have finished the leather [...]

We've talked in earlier posts about our workshop renovations but we've been too busy to post work in progress posts. Our next container is slowly filling up and a lot of work has been done to both the shop and the workshop which has made it hard to find the time to get photos uploaded. Below we've collected [...]

This week marks a first for us and it's almost embarrassing. We were pleased to host a group of women from the Soroptimists International - Port Talbot. These remarkable women, whose mission and values closely match our own, have for fourteen years been supporting our cause by collecting tools and sewing machines for us to send to Tanzania. [...]

Here is another of #ourownstories from a rural tailor. The butterfly he mentions is an inexpensive clone of a fine old Singer made in China but roughly made with very poor tolerances and performance. They are very common in Tanzania but not very popular. We get very few overlockers donated but the next container already has four packed. [...]

We get a large number of sewing machines donated and we are able to send most of them to Tanzania for rural tailoring groups. Sometimes these donated machines are unsuitable, usually due to nylon gears which can't be replaced if they break. It's a sad truth that new machines don't seem as robust as those beautiful old iron [...]

Another post about #ourownstories, #ktss, and #kttss. We recently were very fortunate to successfully apply for a grant from the 'Kitchen Table Charities' (www.kitchentablecharities.org) which we must spend in Tanzania. It is being distributed to two causes. First, we will arrange for 4m TSH (around £1200) to be spent at the primary care centre run by Florah Magabe. [...]

We've talked a lot about the various ways that volunteers make our charity successful. The next few Friday briefings will highlight some local efforts and perhaps light a spark in your mind about a way you can help with our work. We have people from all walks of life helping us doing things like accounting, IT, and even [...]

Amazing handmade tools - grab a bargain [fusion_products_slider picture_size="fixed" cat_slug="fair-trade-bells-billhooks-drawknives" number_posts="13" offset="0" orderby="date" order="ASC" out_of_stock="exclude" carousel_layout="title_below_image" autoplay="no" columns="5" column_spacing="13" scroll_items="" show_nav="yes" mouse_scroll="no" show_cats="no" show_price="yes" show_sale="yes" show_buttons="yes" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id=""][/fusion_products_slider]

Bariadi district in Simiyu had been supported by TFSR/SIDO projects for the past three years during which artisans have benefited from toolkits of almost all trades. This year the project reached a new district called Meatu. It is about 60 kilometers from Bariadi and is all rural. Victoria is a member of Vawega tailors group at Meatu and [...]

This small hand hoe: (click it to see details) (and be prepared for the zombies!)

We have successfully completed the "Keep them Singers Singing" (#KTSS) project funded by Wales for Africa and the Peter Stebbings Memorial Charity, but the project will now be extended to Tanga Region, generously funded by The Morrell Trust. The project's aim is to train experts to keep all the sewing machines we've sent in the past singing sweetly! [...]

A fern trowel. A very nice addition the the tool shed.