Our Committee

A dedicated team of volunteers and partners form the committee of the Tanzania Development Trust. We are passionate about making a difference in the lives of people in Tanzania. To support the work we do, the committee includes individuals with expertise in fields such as education, community development and project management.

Committee members from Tanzania and the UK meet online monthly to assess and review projects, with regular ongoing dialogue between meetings.

UK-based committee members include the Chair, Treasurer, Project Officers and Fundraising and Digital teams, all highly knowledgeable about Tanzania. Most have been involved with TDT for many years, and many are regular visitors to Tanzania.

The Tanzania-based committee consists of local representatives in each of the areas in which we work and are therefore essential to our work. These areas are: rural Dodoma, Kagera, Kigoma, Lindi, Mara, Mtwara, Singida, Shinyanga and Simiyu.

Our Tanzanian team initiate projects as well as assessing and monitoring applications. The committee gets clear evidence of community participation and approval from local government officials and are our eyes and ears on the ground. They gain insights into the progress of projects as well as monitoring their impact.

Meet the Committee

Ahia Ntamubano

Kagera, Ngara Representative

Ahia Ntamubano is  Executive Secretary of Kagera People Centred Development Foundation(KAPECEDEFO), a National NGO facilitating community development projects in Ngara District – Kagera Region. “I am pleased to join the TDT family,  hoping to share information,  knowledge and practical experiences with you in our efforts of working with and for communities.”

Aikande Clement Kwayu

Trustee

Aikande Clement Kwayu is a senior development and research consultant at BUMACO Limited in Tanzania. She is also an honorary research fellow at the Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her consultancy and research work focuses on the role of different actors in development. Her website is here.

LinkedIn.

Alpha Ngailla

Muleba, Kagera Representative

Alpha Ngailla is a teacher at Ikondo secondary school in Muleba district. He has a Bachelor degree of arts with education, major in History.

Benedicto Hosea

Kigoma Rural Representative

Benedicto has lived in Zeze village near Kasulu, Kigoma all his life. He has a degree in Environmental Planning and Management, and a strong passion for agriculture – especially in rural development and as a route out of poverty. He set up Mboni ya Vijana to do this.  In 2018 BTS sponsored him to speak at their AGM, and at the UK Parliament. Hear his story here

Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn.

Brian Medcalf

Treasurer

Following a career in Pharmaceutical Project Management, Brian worked in management of an alcohol counselling agency. After periods of volunteering in Southern Kenya, he, with his wife Aleen, was based in the Dodoma region of Central Tanzania, assisting with sponsorship projects and school management, from 2011-2015. He continues to support this work from the UK.

    Brian Rockliffe

    Project Officer

    Brian worked as a VSO volunteer in Tanzania between 1974 and 1978, initially as a teacher at Ilboru Secondary School near Arusha. He worked for VSO throughout his working including as Director of the International Citizen Service (ICS) programme.

    David Gibbons

    Project Officer and Trustee

    David lived in Tanzania as a child. He is a teacher in the UK, and helped coordinate and support a school link and exchange with Shambalai secondary school, Lushoto.

    Evelyn Leonard

    Kigoma Urban Representative

    Evelyn studied Organisation and Management for her BA degree. She worked for Barclays Bank and the British Council before taking up her current position as Director of the Kigoma NGO, Hope for the Community.

    Ezekiel Kassanga

    Simiyu and Tabora Representative

    Ezekiel is the founder and Executive Director of Kawiye Social Development Foundation, and the founder of the Tumaini School. He holds a Postgraduate degree in Education Management and Planning with over  15 years of working with the community. Ezekiel’s organizations empower marginalized people through training and assistance. Hear his story here

    Freda Rockliffe

    Project Officer

    Freda worked as a VSO volunteer in Tanzania 1974-78 at Sec schools in Arusha and Dar es Salam teaching science and English . 1983-84 at Milton Margai teachers college as education lecturer Sierra Leone. In the UK as a primary teacher in London for 15 years. 2000-2016 lecturer in primary education in 3 London universities. Her interests include girls education, small scale income generating projects and clean water sources.

    Godfrey Makenzi

    Mtwara Representative

    Godfrey holds a Bachelor Degree in Regional Development Planning from the Institute of Rural Development Planning, Dodoma. He works as civil servant at Masasi District Council.  He has a passion for helping communities and the rural poor, and helps grass-root CBOs and NGOs to write project proposals.

    Hamza Rajabu

    Singidia North Representative

    Hamza is the Executive Director of the Malengo Development Foundation (MDF). He holds a Postgraduate Degree in Public Health from Coventry University and a Bachelors Degree in Family Nutrition and Consumer Science from Sokoine University of Agriculture.

    Ian Coles

    Trustee

    Ian is a qualified English & US lawyer. He has worked in the London office of Mayer Brown LLP, the international law firm, heading both the global Africa & Mining practices for many years. He is now a senior consultant with the firm. His work in Africa has extended to both transactional and government advisory mandates, with the practice group having had experience in more than 30 different African jurisdictions (including Tanzania). He has travelled extensively in Africa.

    Ian Powell

    Project Officer

    Ian did VSO in Tanzania from 1974 to 1976, teaching Chemistry and Maths. When he returned to the UK, Ian founded a charity which did education and crime prevention work, before moving on to work for a number of other not for profit organisations.

    Janet Chapman

    Chair of Trustees and Project Officer

    After a career in educational technology, Janet has been visiting Tanzania since 2014 to help assess projects and work with our partners. Realising that a lack of maps hampered their work she started the mapping project Crowd2Map in 2015. She is passionate about girls’ rights and chairs the committee. 

    C2M Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn.

    Jen Bjorkman

    Communications Lead

    Jenny is a UX Consultant with decades of experience in financial services and tech. Over the last few years she has worked with various charitable organisations to help them increase their online donations. She’s also active as a mentor, coach, facilitator, guest speaker and panel member for several organisations in the UX and tech communities.

     

    Jeremy Lefroy

    Trustee

    Jeremy Lefroy and his family lived in Moshi between 1989 and 2000.  While a member of Parliament (2010-2019), Jeremy chaired the All Party Group in Tanzania. He is a director of various companies including Café Africa and is  Hon. Treasurer of Britain Tanzania Society.

    Jonathan Pace

    Trustee

    Following a career in Music Education and School Management, Jonathan worked in Namibia as a VSO volunteer with the Ministry of Education. He joined TDT as a Project Officer in 2010.

    Laxmi Aggarwal

    Trustee and Project Officer

    Dr Laxmi is an environmental scientist, green criminologist, and sustainability consultant from Mwanza, Tanzania. Her work centres on conservation and decolonised methodologies, creating solutions based on local data and cultural nuances. Influenced by her upbringing near Serengeti, Laxmi is tirelessly committed to environmental preservation, rural development and empowering marginalised groups. As a trustee of TDT, she supports and consults on grassroots projects.

    Neil Stevens

    Trustee

    A business owner, and part-time philanthropist, bringing over 25 years of business consultancy and project delivery experience to the TDT team. Neil is passionate about improving the lives of young people in East Africa and is a big believer in ensuring that every penny of fundraising is spent on delivering maximum impact. He is a co-founder of The Stevens Foundation and has several other business and commercial interests.

    Patrick Matonya

    Dodoma Representative

    Patrick Matonya, leads the Diocesan Deaf Ministry in Dodoma and has a Diploma in special needs. He started to work with the DCT deaf ministry in 2016 as a translator. His passion is to serve people with special needs and he is fluent in Tanzania Sign Language. Learn more about him here.

    Paul Harrison

    Chair of BTS and Trustee

    Paul has over 20 years’ global work experience in environmental conservation. He is a director of specialist advisory firm, Kilimanyika and former United Nations Development Programme staff, where he set up and co-ran the Global Wildlife Programme.

    LinkedIn

    Phil Grant

    Project Officer

    Phil has been involved with overseas development for 40 years. In Tanzania he has been an agricultural extension officer, manager of a farmers’ training centre, and has also worked with Maasai people in capacity building. He was also a VSO trainer in the UK for many years.

    Rachel Monger

    Project Officer

    Rachel and her family lived in Tanzania for 10 years, volunteering with Emmanuel International. In Iringa and Mwanza she was involved in establishing community development projects working with local groups making fuel-efficient stoves, training in conservation agriculture and tree planting, beekeeping and women’s income generating projects.

    Ramson Lucas

    Lindi Representative

    Ramson Lucas studied a degree of Community Economic Development and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in International Cooperation and Development at the Open University of Tanzania.  He is also Project Manager for a development project in Lindi schools for an NGO called Sports Development Aid which has been using Sports as a tool for development since 2011.

    Rhobi Samwelly

    Mara Representative

    Rhobi is an FGM survivor and activist and the founder of Hope for Girls and Women Tanzania. In 2018 she was invited to speak about her work at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, and organise an event showcasing how mapping can help protect girls from FGM by UNFPA.

    Hope’s Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn

    Robert Kasaaju

    Kagera North (Bukoba) Representative

    Robert is Headteacher at Nyakato Secondary School and has a bachelor degree of art with education.  He is passionate about supporting his community.

    Ruth Ndegwa

    Trustee

    Ruth is an experienced professional in Financial, Operations, Governance and Program management with a distinguished multi-decade track record managing contracts, grants and sub-grants for large-scale multi-million dollar global projects in East and Southern Africa. She has several years’ robust working experience with various organizations in agriculture, environment and technology. She has an outstanding passion for entrepreneurship in women-led and youth-led enterprises in Africa.

    Sheila Farrell

    Trustee and Fundraising Lead

    Sheila is a transport economist who has undertaken many assignments in Tanzania over the years. Her main areas of expertise are in business planning and finance. She has a strong interest in economic development strategies for poorer countries, and is fully committed to the eradication of poverty.

    Steve Scorer

    Project Officer

    A career in teaching in UK, France and Spain was followed by retirement and travel. Steve then stumbled across VSO at the Adventure Travel show and signed up for a short posting in Lindi, south east Tanzania in 2014, which ended up being for 3 years. Steve joined the TDT team in early 2019 and is also on the board for Tumaini Open School.

    Vipul Tanna

    Trustee and Project Officer

    Vipul was born in Tanga, Tanzania and now lives in the UK. He is a technology executive with a specialism in business applications and large scale enterprise transformations. Vipul is keen to contribute and “give back” to his country of birth through his engagement with TDT.

    Willhard Titus

    Singida Representative

    Wilhard has a Bachelor degree of Education in Economics from University of Dodoma. Now Wilhard works as business studies teacher in Manyoni district. He is also co-founder of Mbalamwezi Organisation, a charity that supports male teenagers from rural areas in Singida region.

    William Shayo

    Shinyanga Representative

    William studied for a BA in Mass Communication before joining the Tanzania Red Cross Society for over six years. He lives in Shinyanga, and is currently executive director of the Organization of People Empowerment, overseeing various community projects.