Nachingwea

Where is Nachingwea ?

Nachingwea is a town in Southern Tanzania, East Africa , in the Region of Lindi, in the Diocese of Masasi. Very few tourists visit this part of the country, evenTanzanians hardly know where it is. Nachingwea has a Hospital, a Teacher Training College , three SecondarySchools, eight Primary Schools, a Nursery School and a Day Care Centre. It was one of the centres for the groundnut scheme in the 1950s and has an unused airstrip and an army barracks. The Anglican Parish of St Andrew islinked with St. Andrew’s Church,Stapleford.

How the Link was made.

In 1981 the priest in Nachingwea was a British missionary, Fr.Bill Spencer. He came to Stapleford to visit his friend, the vicar at that time, Colin Davison. Fr. Bill was building up the Church in Nachingwea and establishing churches in the surrounding villages. He asked for Colin’s help, so the firsttenuous link between the two parishes was made.

The first Visitors and the first two Projects

In 1987 U,S.P.G. arranged for the priest in Nachingwea, Fr.Raphael, along with Obed Pwirira, an agricultural expert (now the LinkChairman) and a teacher, to visitBritain. They stayed some time inStapleford and made a number of friends. On their return letters were exchanged regularly and gradually people here began to see what life waslike in Southern Tanzania . Theybegan to think of ways they could help.

The first people to be helped were the women. One of their jobswas to grind maize by pounding a long pole into a large round bowl. To save them this hard work Staplefordcollected enough money to buy a small electrically driven Corn Grinder. This also became a source of income forthe church by charging people to grind their corn. However this grinder was not really up to the task and thesupply of electricity in Nachingwea was very intermittent.

Clearly a better grinder was needed, so Stapleford set aboutraising £4000 for a diesel driven Hammer Mill, which was sent out in 1994.

Around this time Fr. Raphael retired, without a pension, so weprovided this, sending it to him quarterly. By now it was important to be well organised at this end soa Link Committee was set up as a subcommittee of St. Andrew’s Stapleford Parochial Church Council .

We make our first Visit

In July 1994 ten visitors from Stapleford made the first Safari toNachingwea. This was organisedthis through a civic group from Redditch which is linked with Mtwara, a port onthe coast. It wasn’t possible tostay in Nachingwea, as there was insufficient food or water, so the group spenttwo weeks with the Sisters of the Convent at Maili Sita, near Masasi andtravelled each of the four days they spent in Nachingwea by Landrover over verybumpy roads. The reception wasquite unbelievably joyous and to crown it the Hammer Mill arrived on the Sundayof the visit as the congregation were coming out of the Parish Eucharist.

Our first contact with the Britain - Tanzania Society (B-TS) came about at this time andsubsequently several members of the Link committee have joined the B-TS. TheNachingwea Link Committee also received group membership of the Britain-TanzaniaSociety, funded through Stapleford and the UK Chapter of the Society. We believe this is the firstarrangement of this type within the Society.

More Fund-raising

As a result of the 1994 visit the Parish of Stapleford now had amuch clearer idea of life in Nachingwea. We raised more money to send medical supplies, clothing, books and resources for the schools aswell as second-hand typewriters, sewing machines and even bicycles. All this went out by container throughFr. Alan Talbot who distributed the African Palm Crosses which are produced aroundMasasi.

The main source of our income is the annual ChurchChristmas/Autumn Fair which is solely for Nachingwea. So much interest has been aroused that other people nowregularly donate to our fund from within the Parish, from other parts of Cambridgeshire and even further afield. Many donationsare Gift Aided thereby considerably increasing their value

More visits

In July 1996 six more parishioners visited Tanzania . Their task was to find out in moredetail the requirements of the people at St. Andrew’s, Nachingwea and to assesshow our committee could respond to these requirements.

Then in July 1997 the District Medical Officer, the Chief NursingOfficer and a Tutor from the Training College (Lawi Issa, Fredy Stephane andMarion Nditi}, all members of the Nachingwea congregation, visited Staplefordfor six weeks.

From 1997 to now

A mirror Link Committee was formed in St. Andrew’s Nachingwea sothat all our support goes through the Church into the Community. Each Link Committee has been furthersubdivided into Church; Educational; Medical; Publicity and Fund Raising; andTechnical and Agriculture subcommittees looking at specific aspects of our workin detail. These include:

Church Subcommittee

Small projects have included helping to meet some of the church’sneeds for books, and vestments. A major long term project, which is in itsearly stages, is provision of assistance with project planning and fundraisingfor a major extension of the church building and development of the Churchsite.

Education Subcommittee

We have a continuous programme to sponsor girls for secondaryeducation by providing financial help towards fees and a mentorprogramme(secondary education is not free in Tanzania ). In 2009 eight new girlsjoined the secondary education programme. Primary teachers too have been helpedwith their professional development.

We have funded three primary schools to provide pupil text booksfor all subjects, particularly books for teaching English, which is thelanguage of instruction in secondary schools. Swahili is the language of instruction in primary schools.

Other education projects include supplying resources and equipmentfor classrooms, including the Special Needs class.

The Nachingwea Link built a new Day Care Centre for pre-school children.We supported them with major funding for building materials and sending sometoThe main source of our income is the annual Church Christmas/Autumn Fairwhich is solely for Nachingwea. Somuch interest has been aroused that other people now regularly donate to ourfund from within the Parish, from other parts of Cambridgeshire and even further afield. Many donationsare Gift Aided thereby considerably increasing their value

Medical Subcommitee

We have supplied a reconditioned operating table, refrigerationand lighting, dental and maternity equipment to Nachingwea Hospital .

In 2003 our Nachingwea colleagues initiated a programmeto eliminate Schistosomiasis (a water borne disease) from primary children in12 villages in the area, substantially funded by Stapleford.

Training courses for Traditional Birth Attendants, andHIV/AIDS education have been organised and run by the local medicalprofessionals, mostly funded by Stapleford Link.

Recently we funded the provision of anti-mosquitonetting for the windows of the Children’s Ward in the hospital.

Technical and Agricultural Subcommittee

A rainwaterconservation scheme at the Church was supported by funding the purchase ofmaterials to build a large water tank. This has since been copied on a smallerscale by householders.

The Nachingwea Committee identified a need to reducefungal attacks on their cashew nut crop by spraying a fungicide. The equipmentwas bought locally from Stapleford funds. Advice was also given about suitabletree husbandry to minimize crossinfection.

The “Women of Wolfville” in Canada raised funds to setup a cow project with the “Women of Nachingwea”.

A motorbike and several bicycles have been supplied forparish use to enable the clergy to visit the 21 outreach churches in theparish. Clergy wives have been supplied with sewing machines and solar poweredovens for domestic cooking thus helping to improve health in the home andsaving valuable timber. This subcommittee is currently working on the plans forredeveloping the Church site.

Publicity and Fund Raising Subcommittee

This committee is responsible for allfundraising. It runs the Christmas Fair and other events, maintains theweb-site and finds new ways to increase the visibility of the Link. Fundraising is specially important thisyear since Nachingwea have suffered poor rainfall during their main growing season and there is a strongpossibility of food shortage.

Twenty eight years of the Link

In 2006 we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the link.A ‘Safari Group’ of eight people from Stapleford stayed in Nachingwea in Augustand were blessed with the wonderful hospitality and generosity of our friends.We returned home bursting with news of Nachingwea.

Since then Bishop Patrick and his wife, Emme have stayedwith us in Stapleford and Dr Issa, with his wife Molle (now living in Newala)have been to visit us. Following this last visit we have helped to set up alink between St. Mary’s, Newala and St. Mary’s, Bocking in Essex .

We have learnt so much - about the people of Nachingwea- and about ourselves. Theimportance of the Jubilee 2000 Campaign has come home to us.

Letter writing goes on and, most important of all, so do theprayers. We know we are strengthened by the prayers of the people in Nachingweaand we pray for them, every day.