Posted 18.09.2020
Life under lockdown in Tanzania – an update from our partner charity Pamoja Leo
Rhodes Wealth Management is proud to partner with Tanzania and UK based charity ‘Pamoja Leo’, and they have been kind enough to provide an insight into how the Coronavirus pandemic has affected life in their community and the work they do:
‘The spread of Coronavirus was something that came to Tanzania quickly and without time for us to prepare. We were told on the 18th of March that all school and day-cares would be closed to help reduce the spread of Coronavirus. My number one worry was ensuring the children had food available for them.
Pamoja Leo’s amazing team set out to create a response plan that would address all the concerns we had:
Food Parcels
We delivered food for 370 people every two weeks throughout the crisis – over 4.4 tonnes of food in total.
I am so proud and thankful for a big team of donors and volunteers that made it possible and because of that we were able to feed and keep all the children in the project healthy and happy. Many of our children who were underweight had gained weight and were getting healthier. This would not have been accomplished without the amazing staff that Rhodes Wealth Management support at Pamoja Leo that packed and dropped all the food out every 2 weeks.
Health and Hygiene
The day lockdown was announced we distributed over 200 bars of soap and we carried out training for all caregivers. The training included the best ways to keep hygienic and safe as well as how to protect their children and their community.
In the following weeks we distributed 250 reusable masks to the community as well as 100s to all social workers and community workers within the Tanga region with hand washing stations and sanitizers.
Education
Education is a crucial part of helping them deal with trauma as well as get them prepared for starting school. To ensure the children’s education was not impacted by coronavirus we printed 1000s of worksheets that were given out every 2 weeks, we purchased toys to distribute to ensure they were playing during lockdown and we bought 25 MP3 players and distributed them with pre-recorded lessons to ensure all children were supported through their learning.
The past 3 months in lockdown were some of the most challenging I have experienced since we have opened the centre. I am forever thankful that I have some such an amazing team that brought together our Covid-19 response plan.
That is the beauty of being a small charity is we can be responsive and deeply connected to the needs of the children we help. It is also why the consistent monthly support of our Business partners that donate each month is important as we are able to respond to the families and children’s needs.
We are already starting to get back to a new normal; redesigning the path to independence for each family. Just last week we started 4 new chicken keeping businesses for grandmas, aunts and single mothers caring for orphaned and vulnerable children that attend our Family First Daycare.
We know that times are hard but we also have felt the true spirit of togetherness through the support of a large global community that continues to show up for children.’
Georgina Harris-Hill, cofounder of Pamoja Leo.
If you would like to find out more about the fantastic work that Pamoja Leo do, or become a regular contributor, please visit their website: https://pamojaleo.org/