Many of you might know that La Grange supports the 'Asante Tanzania' project with donations from the sales of our 'Tradition Sélection Lions'. For those of you who are interested, here are the latest news from Tanzania:
Newsletter between Christmas and New Year 2020
Dear ASANTE-friends,
‘Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, 'It will be happier.' (Alfred Lord Tennyson).’
We could all do with more happiness and with more health, especially. This has become exceedingly clear throughout the last year. And so a difficult and challenging year lies behind us all and ASANTE wasn’t spared it’s share of difficulties. Unfortunately we had to attend to our friends in Tanzania from home, as both the trips we booked had to be cancelled due to Corona-restrictions. The first wave prevented my husband's easter-visit and the second wave prevented my visit with my friend Ingrid. We really hope that a visit around easter 2021 will be possible but we’re not very optimistic.
And yet ASANTE is alive. We are very lucky to be well-connected in Karatu and most of our projects continue to evolve.
Of course the pandemic obstructed our work and some scheduled projects had to be postponed: The dental surgery at Rhotia Health Center is not yet completed because the dentist Dr. Jochen Ruschhaupt and his technician couldn’t take the trip. In a very time-consuming process the complete equipment had been dismantled professionally at Bielefeld. It was packed into crates and shipped by air to Tanzania to be installed in the rooms that were all ready. As soon as travelling is safe again the two will be on their way.
During the last couple of years a good cooperation has been established with the tour organizers Studiosus. Travel groups visit Rhotia Health Center and guests as well as the tour operator sponsor different projects in Rhotia with generous donations.
The remodelling of the dental practice has been possible due to donations made by Studiosus. They also prepared the digitalisation of the radiology department doing paperwork in a week-long process, guided by Ulli. In late summer 2020 the high-resolution monitors for the professional visualisation of x-ray pictures have been delivered.
Luckily we have a very well-trained x-ray mechanic who can tend to patients from a large catchment area. The quality of the x-ray pictures is now known far beyond Karatu.
We are in close contact with our friends and neighbors Gabriele and Doug who are helping us advance the projects in Rhotia. A couple of weeks ago a swiss friends of their’s, Corina Cabalzar, helped us establish a cooperation with a very generous donor from Swizzerland. This will allow us to buy an ambulance and to build a large pharmacy in the near future. We’ll report on that. Corina had been doing volunteer work as a nurse at the Rhotia Health Center during her holidays, guided by our wonderful sisters Verona and Blasia.
At the beginning of the first lockdown in spring we were especially worried how Tanzania would deal with the pandemic. We are astonished to find that only 508 cases have been reported for the whole country up do date. Enquiries from our Maasai-teachers from Ngoile in Ngorongoro revealed that noticeably large numbers of patients suffered from strong coughs, fevers and fatigue – many more than usual during the rainy season. There are not Corona-tests and nobody knows which pathogen really is responsible for this.
In April I sent warning notices to all our friends telling them to wear masks, keep their distance and wash their hands more often. Advice not easily to follow when you live in a small round hut with sheep and goats and 10 children beneath the same roof and when there are no sewing machines to make masks and water is so precious you are glad to have some to drink and cook.
In the end we sent money and our teacher in charge, Danny, got water buckets with taps, desinfectant and soap so there could be at least a semblant of a hygenic concept at our ASANTE Tanzania Ngorongoro kindergarten. Years ago we equipped the kindergarten with a water pipe from the jungle and containers to collec rain-water, so there is almost always enough water. Lessons continued undisturbed, excepting some short breaks prescribed by the government.
We are grateful that everything went smoothly and that our four teachers didn’t lose the courage to teach children at the end of the world who would otherwise be herding sheep. Just like us, they believe in the importance of early childhood education and face this exhausting challenge on a daily basis. Great!
A couple of days ago I received photos from the children’s graduation ceremony. After two years of preschool they will now be going to the public primary school in the lower village. They would much prefer to spend their primary school days at our facility. But we are not registered as a school and education is compulsory in Tanzania so they have no choice.
They send greetings to the ASANTE family and thank us for all the things we made possible for them.
This short report about our doings during this strange year shows you how we stay on top of things despite difficult times. Without your support we would not be able to do that and I was especially happy that at the year’s end, when so many face financial difficulties, some additional donations came in. This will facilitate next year’s work. Thank you!
Let us stay optimistic and take Oscar Wilde's advice: ‘Everything is going to be fine in the end. If it's not fine, it’s not the end.’ He didn’t say that things might take a little more time sometimes until everything is fine…In that sense we want to thank you for your loyalty and we hope that the new year might bring more happiness than the last. Warm greetings from us and our teachers from Ngoile,
Yours Gaby and Ulli Winkler