We had already seen the amazing work that The Mango Tree in
Kenya was doing and so we were very excited to arrange to stay with Andilile
Ibrahim who heads the Mango Tree charity in Tanzania. The Mango Tree in
Tanzania was set up in 2004 by William Fulton with the aim of providing
financial, emotional, healthcare and educational support to orphans. It is
currently supporting over 13,000 orphans in the Kyela district of Tanzania.
We were taken to a local secondary school which had been supported by the Mango Tree for over 3 years. The headmaster told us about the amazing work the charity had done for his school including providing a generator so that students could stay at school after dark, desks, chairs and tuition fees for many of the students. We were also lucky enough to see some more desks and chairs being delivered to the school and were invited to take part in the handover ceremony where JJ helped to lift the first desk to hand over to the headmaster. I should also point out that the headmaster wore a short sleeved suit which any 80’s ballad band would be proud to wear (see below).
The next day we went to see one of the primary schools where out of 960 students, over half were orphans supported by the Mango Tree. As we stepped out of the car we were greeted by the children who were so excited that their screams made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. We interviewed the headmaster and filmed around the school. It was great to see some of the children the Mango Tree is helping to support here but they still need as much help as possible in a lot of the areas as the classrooms at this particular school were really under resourced.
We went back to the Mango Tree headquarters and took part in the monthly meeting where the 136 volunteers from around the area meet to discuss what’s been happening in their areas and to address particular issues that have been raised. The volunteers are vital to the success of the charity as they are the focal point for the orphans and villagers to talk through their problems and ask for advice. The volunteers take this information back to Andilile and his staff and they then try to offer solutions as best they can.
As with all the projects so far, we interviewed the main people involved; Grace (Health Department), The Pastor (Educational Support), Elias (Community Development) and Andilile (Director). They all spoke very passionately about what the Mango Tree here is trying to achieve and why they got involved. Once again we were blown away by the humility and kindness that we encountered by everyone involved and how much amazing work is being done there to help those less fortunate. As with the Mango Tree in Kenya, it has made huge strides in changing the attitudes of local communities to HIV and is helping to create a more sustainable future for many people in the surrounding areas.
. The Mango Tree is doing great work but still needs help and support to achieve their aims. If you want to find out more information or would like to contribute then please visit www.themangotree.org - It is definitely worth a look.
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