Chloe, Dylan & Brian’s Fundraiser

Hi, we are Chloe, Dylan and Brian and we have travelled from Ireland (Cavan&Galway) to Arusha Tanzania to volunteer with ‘STEP AFRICA’. Here we have chosen projects we would like to work on and assist on during this time. Since being here we have each seen areas which we would like to fundraise some money for and hopefully make a difference, and we have set up this gofundme page for this purpose☺️ All donations go directly to the projects.

Dylan & Brian - our project is Jitambue which is a Day Care, Pre-School and After-School centre in the Daraja Mbili neighbourhood of Arusha City, one of the poorest areas in the city.

The centre hosts children between the ages of 2-6 years old in an effort to keep them off the streets while parents seek work during the day. The area has a high crime and violence rate, and has issues with drug abuse and alcoholism. The streets of Daraja Mbili are unsafe for these children. Jitambue was established by Elinaja, a local from the area. Jitambue aims to provide free and quality education to these children, which will enable them to remain and complete school which is difficult for children in this area through the public school system. They also provide meals to these children, for many children in the centre this might be the only meal they receive in a day. On any given day, Jitambue may feed up to 150 children.

Jitambue receives no funding from the Tanzanian government, they seek a contribution of 15,000TZS (about €6) per month, however almost no family in the area can afford this. Despite this Jitambue still provides free education and food to the children. All teachers are volunteers, and the centre is based in Elinaja’s home premises. All of the food which is prepared and served to children is bought using money raised by volunteers. All the food is prepared outside over an open fire.

The money raised will be used to purchase food which will allow Jitambue to continue to feed these children on a daily basis. Money will also be used to purchase, tiles, cement, paint, sanitary equipment and teaching equipment to complete works to the upstairs which will include an indoor kitchen, additional classrooms and practical learning areas. Jitambue’s long term goal is to purchase adjacent land to the current property and expand the daycare centre into a primary school - providing free quality education to otherwise forgotten children.

Chloe - my main project is in StElizabeths hospital in Arusha and I am volunteering in their maternity unit. At home in ireland I work in a neonatal&HDU ward. I was hoping to do the same here but there is no unit/ward for the newborns/babies here. They stay on the maternity unit with the mothers in the same bed and without any monitors. They do not have, and can’t afford the equipment (such as neonatal monitors including blood pressure cuffs, any higher flow of oxygen, syringe pumps, breast feeding bumps, blood giving sets etc). The extent of a resus situation is not escalated as far as it is at home. If the baby needs this higher level of care they need to be transferred to the next hospital in Mt. Meru, which is an hour away and they often don’t make it, or else the family can’t afford the price of transfer to another hospital (you have to pay for your care prior to/or as you are getting it) and unfortunately the babies in this instance do not make it. St. Elizabeth’s hospital have been trying to open a NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) for these babies since 2019, they applied for funding but have still not received the money needed. Through other donations&work of volunteers they have been able to get some of the equipment needed. However, they still have a journey to go to open a NICU for these babies, and the most important thing they need is a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine (€7,100). I am hoping to fundraise some money to help assist the hospital and this department in some way from my time here.