Amount of grant approved (£) : 1,528
Year of grant : 2015
Thawi Village is among the villages in Kondoa in Dodoma in which many of its inhabitants lack skills for their future. The economy is very poor. The plan is for a project for youth and women to be trained in sewing and knitting skills. It moderately cold in Thawi village and other neighbouring villages so offering a market for the goods made. This project will help youth and other people at home to attain skills in knitting, crocheting and sewing in order to enable them to be able to earn to support themselves and their families. TDT is asked to provide sewing and knitting machines.
An update report: I made my way by motorbike from Kondoa to Thawi Chini village. It’s a 2 hours trek and heavy rains meant boots off and a deep wade across a river. I was rewarded with a substantial lunch including a chicken slaughtered by the generous vice chair of the group Rehema Muhamid . Marko Shayo was away at a funeral so the meeting was conducted in Kiswahili. I struggled with the local dialect. I met Zubeda Haji (katibu), 9 women members, the larger than life village mtendaji Abdi Issane (‘Obama’), and the ward councillor Juma Noro. The group chair Amina Msafiri was ill. I found the village in a better state of health than in 2015 when severe drought meant crops had failed and everyone was selling livestock. Now good rains promised a good harvest.
The 6 sewing machines we funded were in use but the drought had depressed the local economy in 2015 and sales of clothes had been low. The knitting machine and button hole machine and zigzag machine had not been used because the teacher identified last year by Marko had left the area. When I spoke to him after my visit he said another teacher had now been found. Group members are optimistic that a good harvest will encourage parents to buy new school uniforms and sales will be better this year.