MATIPWILI PRIMARY SCHOOL TRANSFORMED!!

Students and staff from Scotch College and Presbyterian Ladies College in Perth, Western Australia recently visited us at Kisampa and spent most of their time working in the village renovating the Primary School.

Their task had begun long before they left home as they worked hard to raise funds for their project.

Armed with heaps of energy, and eagerness as well as cement, corrugated iron, paint, brushes,tools, overalls and gloves the 24 students and 6 staff set to work.

In four days they completely renovated four classrooms in the school from dark and dingy rooms with leaking roofs and no doors to light, airy, welcoming and clean places to learn.

And all the while they had a lot of fun, made friends in the village, learned some Kiswahili and impressed us all with their drive and enthusiasm.

They have left funds for the sponsorship of a needy student through Secondary School so our ties with the Perth schools will be continued.

Asante Sana Scotch College and Presbyterian Ladies College.

KARIBU TENA KISAMPA AND MATIPWILI.....you are very welcome to visit Matipwili and Kisampa again!!

Fish Farming Project

In partnership with Team Canzania we are setting up fish farming trials in order to learn more about maximising the fish resources we have in and close to our river.

Team Canzania, a group of Canadians interested in assisting our community, have raised funds which have enabled us to engage a team of consultants who are teaching us and our villagers new ways of sustainable fish farming.

The river Wami which borders Kisampa and Matipwili is a perfect place for the trials as it has many ox bow lakes.
We have two sites, one at Kisampa, one at a sub village called Mingogi.

Brushwood parks have been constructed and are in place. To make such a 'park' small branches are cut, dried and placed very close together in an area of about 15 square metres in the ox bow lake during the dry season.
When it rains the area fills with water, algae grows on the branches in the brushwood park attracting fish which enjoy the protected environment with plentiful food.
After the rains the area is harvested by netting the perimeter. The branches are then removed and stored until the next season.

We are hoping to be able to harvest fish in this way twice a year as we have two rainy seasons. Statistics from other areas have shown that fish production in brushwood parks can be increased by about 500 to 600%. This would dramatically increase the food production especially protein, for our local community.

So far the trials are on course...the branches have been set, the rains have fallen, we just have to wait a couple of months until our first harvest.

Mkumbile sets off on new career path

About two years ago Mkumbile was bathing in the river Wami that runs through Matipwili when a crocodile attacked him. He was dragged to the shore by friends but the crocodile had severely injured his leg.
Mkumbile was taken to hospital in Bagamoyo...a trip of about three hours by bicycle.....and then transferred to Dar es Salaam where they, unfortunately amputated his lower leg.

An appeal to the Friends of Kisampa soon raised enough money for Mkumbile to have a prosthesis which was fitted about a year ago.

Mkumbile then learned to live with his disability and to gain strength.

He came to us not so long ago with a business plan for a bicycle repair and spares business that he planned to start in Matipwili. He need start up finance as, until now, he has been unable to earn anything and has been reliant on his relatives for everything.

Among our Friends we have a sponsor who had left us funds for a good cause whenever needed.
We used these funds to assist Mkumbile. He was handed the money last week and is now busy setting up his business near the market in the centre of the village.

More Community News

Even more sponsors have pledged to fund students at Matipwili Secondary School. We now have 40 sponsored students. Most of them are able to stay in their home town of Matipwili but several are at school away in other villages. Some of those sponsored are orphans none have two parents.


It is just wonderful to visit the school and tell a student that their struggle to raise funds is over, they can concentrate on enjoying their learning.

Kisampa's New Blog

February 9th 2008

Dear Friends of Kisampa,

Welcome to our new blog. We are very excited to offer you this chance to keep in touch with our news and developments.

We will give you news of the camp, the community and any other issues relating to Kisampa.

Camp

We now have two new and beautiful accommodation "bandas". These are built out of natural materials, are very open and airy and feed back from guests has been very postive. They love the feeling of being surrounded by nature and yet secure. We are now in the process of building the third one and our local artisans are rightly very proud of their work.

Community

School is in. Friends of Kisampa are now sponsoring 34 secondary school students through the five years of their secondary education. This is an incredible achievement - well done and thankyou. This is 15% of all the kids at Matiwpili secondary school. We are now working hard on raising the money for a water catchment system and other social projects.

Conservation

We are still experiencing dry weather and the elephants are moving back into the valley to eat the Marula fruit. Sadly we have found a number of snares and have boosted our patrols (hiring two local Masai to help), as well as talking to the surrounding villages to ask for their help with this problem.

Recent visitors

We have had several interesting families from Australia and England, all with young children and we have had a lot of fun introducing them to the African scene and our village friends. They seem to particuarly like to play with the kids in the village.