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Christmas Appeal
Author: ericbeachhpa
I am the webmaster / administrator for Familia Moja Community Project - UK. I assist the trustees of this charity in the publicity using this website. The organisation's aim is the prevention or relief of poverty and sickness in the Tabora district of Tanzania by making grants or donations to a Community Based Project [CBO] with the same name licensed in Tanzania.
Greetings from Tabora
The latest newsletter from Tabora is here for you to download.
Annual Report for 2024/25
Hi
And apologies for the lack of content recently. Unfortunately for those of us at FMCP-UK it has been a busy year personally and it has not been an easy year for Dr Ruth either. A lost mobile phone earlier in the year while travelling meant that most of the photos that we would have liked to have used disappeared in Istanbul.
But, we have an encouraging report for you [with some pics!] and we hope that this will be a blessing to you as the work of Familia Moja has been a blessing to many in Tanzania
Report from Familia Moja Itetemia
Below are some statistics provided to us by our Tanzanian partner organisation.
These show the numbers of people that they are supporting and the extent of the work that they are involved in.
FMI provide basis medication
FMI supports some of the poorest clients with basic medication.
In 2023 they delivered regular medication on 329 occasions to about 29 clients.
In the first 8 months of 2024 they delivered medication on another 139 occasions to about 18 clients.
FMI helps clients with trips to hospital
Where people need hospital trips, FMI will assist with transportation where people are too poor to afford that. Occasionally they will also help finance in-patient stays and help families with the logistics involved.
In 2023 they made 112 trips and helped with 6 in-patient stays.
In the first 8 months of 2024 they made another 26 trips and helped with 4 in-patient stays.
FMI’s biggest job recently has been feeding their clients
With poor harvests and near famine conditions, many of the poorest in Tabora have really struggled to feed themselves. If illness, age or disability mean that you cannot grow your own crops, the malnutrition or starvation will follow. FMI has been providing monthly basic food deliveries to many of their clients. These usually contain maize, beans, oil, salt, sugar, tealeaves, soap, matches, and dried fishes. Occasionally the also contain special foods for clients with special needs – like ingredients for ‘super porridge’.
In 2023 FMI supported just over 50 families on a monthly basis, families that would otherwise have had no food security.
In the first 8 months of 2024 they supported another 35 households.
In the 20 months between January 23 and August 2024 they also needed to supply emergency maize rations to people who suddenly found themselves short of food and needed short-term help.
Other assistance to FMI Clients
FMI also provides other assistance where needed. They have;
- paid rent for three households – one elderly man, one single-parent family with seven children and one widow looking after two grandchildren.
- housed two frail elderly clients in our 2 unit protected-living facility – providing residential care and nursing care when needed.
- set up a hostel for 14 vulnerable children [16 from August 2024], thus enabling them to continue their education. There are 6 children in secondary school, 8 in primary school and 2 older children [the recent arrivals who are being homeschooled as they arrived completely illiterate. They will join school in January 2025]. The hostel is run by a fostering couple, Mama and Baba Samweli, plus one resident teacher and 2 ladies who help cooking.
- supported 36 children with school uniforms, exercise books and pens, and shoes – without which they can’t go to school.
- supported a handful of other children who needed extra food or tuition to enable them to progress in school.
FMI also supports women with HIV to become self-sufficient
FMI supports a women’s group where they learn to set up their own market gardens. They initially get paid to help and learn. Later they are funded to buy seeds and are allocated small areas near our rainwater collection ponds. With intensive supervision they learn to help each other.
All of these women would otherwise have been destitute. This initiative helps them, not only with the ability to provide for themselves financially, but also helps them to learn new skills, gain self confidence and life coping skills well beyond market garden work. Mama Ndugu meets and works with these women every day.
FMI funds its own workers
At the start of this period there were 9 ‘members’ of FMI, each playing a role to help run the project. There was concern that there wasn’t enough money to continue to fun all of them. A kind donor provided 5 of them with small motorbikes to enable them to be self-sufficient without the FMI ‘stipend’ that they were given to cover living expenses. As such the team has shrunk to 4 ‘members’ which has obviously increased the workload and decreased the capacity for the agricultural projects.
It is hoped that FMCP-UK will be able to fund the return of these ‘members’ to increase the capacity of the team. We are not the only group that assist with funding. There are some individuals who donate money directly and there are also supporters in Germany [where Dr Ruth comes from].
How can I help?
You can help by praying for the work and the funds necessary.
Or you can give to assist in the financing of this project.
You can give using our CAFDonate secure portal which allows us to collect Gift Aid if you are a UK tax payer.
https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/11331#!/DonationDetails
Thank you.
Newsletter Tabora Familia Moja November 24
This letter has been written by members of Familia Moja in Tabora and only edited by me (Dr Ruth Hulser) to share recent updates.
As they sailed, he (Jesus) fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.
Luke 8 vs 23-24
The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”
He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. ”
We have all felt like we were sitting in this boat for the last few years. Much of our development work, which is really the holistic side of our Familia Moja project has more less come to a standstill because all funds are needed to cover the cost of medicine and hospital cost (no NHS in Tanzania!) and to support our 156 clients, who receive a basic food package every month. We are grateful to you for saving “our boat from going under” and we will share some stories from our clients. This will help you to see how the help that we can give remains vital for these families.
Amina
Amina is an 8-year-old girl with sickle cell anaemia and developed an infection in the bones in her left foot and the bones were sticking out and rotting. After a long period trying to get treatment in the local regional hospital (it has no orthopaedic doctors) she was referred to the big hospital 300 miles away in Bugando for further examination. The cost of the treatment was very high so we are grateful for your help as her mother cannot afford any expenses.
Salima the mum is a widow, her husband died years ago, she has 9 children, but only the last 4 are still living with her. Her older daughter Asha (18y) has recently given birth to Mussa, a little boy making their lives even more difficult. In one room now live five people and a newborn baby. (We pay the rent for that one room). We have just realised that her husband left her a small plot of land close to our hostel and we have decided that the family and Amina could gain great stability if we could build them a 2 room house and outside toilet and shower. This would cost £750 which we feel would be a wonderful fundraiser for this Christmas as this family has been ‘anchor less’ since the father has passed away.
Baby Christopher
Do you remember baby Christopher whose mother died two weeks after giving birth to him just before Christmas 3 years ago?
We thank God for your generous financing of the incredibly expensive formula in Tanzania. The child continues to get supplies of porridge, cow’s milk, peanut butter, etc. He is now 2 years and ten months old, living with his grandmother, siblings and cousins. Two of his sisters have finished primary school just now and are preparing to go to secondary school with our help.
There are still 6 children living with granny and aunt and no stable source of income. They survive with our double monthly food parcel and help with school expenses.
Emanuel
We met Emanuel a long time ago. He is suffering from a mental health disorder. When we first found him, he could not even say hello. Emanuel lives with his elderly mother who is busy growing and selling green vegetables and spinach.
Emanuel cannot be left sitting outside by himself, so the mother has to lock him inside everyday when she goes around the suburbs trying to sell her vegetables. He will escape and get lost if not locked up. We started to arrange antipsychotic medication by monthly injections that our nurse gives. This helps him to calm down and at least to be somewhat cheerful and he is able to communicate now.
Emanuel managed to escape a few months back and was miles away with us having no idea on how to find him. He was hit by a car and broke his shoulder bone and was in a bad condition for a long time. But, thanks to your support for the needy, we were able to treat him successfully and he is finally doing well. They also receive basic food packages every month so that he and his mother can support themselves.
Leticia
Leticia was five years old when she sustained very bad burns in a kitchen fire. The burns covered several parts of her body and large burns on her head and face. Familia Moja paid for her treatment of the infected burns on the ward in St Phillip Clinic in Tabora for weeks. We then sent her for reconstructive surgery at a specialist hospital in Dar es Salaam, financing the stay (the surgery was free). Her condition has stabilised to a certain extent. Ideally, she would need to undergo further plastic surgery to her face and nose. However, because of your faithful contributions over these years, your love has enabled Leticia to heal enough to return to school. Letitia has amazingly passed last year as the best pupil of a whole region, and the government has offered her a full scholarship for boarding at a governmental school.
Supporting widowed and low income women
Amongst other things, Familia Moja continues to help widowed and low income women to do gardening work under Mama Ndugu’s supervision. This enables them to earn an income and support themselves with the money they get for gardening projects. We see good results from the help that these women get, a new hope and joy of life again. And we begin to see their smile blooming again, they shine again.
“No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light.”
Luke 11 vs 33
Yes: God’s light is there and we can see it shine in Tabora.
These people whose stories we have shared and many more show how God is bringing his light of hope and love in situations that often would have been so dark otherwise.
We are grateful for your continued partnership in Christ in prayer as well as all other support and wish you a blessed time in Advent and Christmas and a happy New Year.
God bless
From the team in Tabora with Evelyn, Rahabu, Samweli, Neema with all others. Also, from Ruth in UK [who with Phil and Elaine translated and edited this letter].
A Christmas Newsletter from Tabora
Do not be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be afraid, because I am your God, I will strengthen you and I will help you too……
Isaiah 41.10
Maybe you remember how we looked forward to this year with concern last year…
And really: this year again there was no rice harvest in Tabora and the corn harvest was very poor for the second time. This is now our second year of severe shortages of staple foods. The rest of the situation hasn’t improved much since last year’s inflation. High gasoline prices are still driving up the price of oil, sugar, tea, flour, and so on. Medication remains expensive and we just didn’t know how or whether we could ‘manage’ it without letting our families down?
And lo and behold : we are almost at the end of another year: and miracle of miracles – we have been able to support all of our ‘families’, ‘single people’, ‘sick people’ and ‘dying people’.
The Lord stands by our side, just as you have stood by our side.
And so we were able to continue to support our weakest and poorest households, formally andand informally: Old single people, abandoned by their families and no longer strong enough to till a field on their own, look for water, collect wood, etc. Or widows who often ‘stay’ as the sole support of small children or grandchildren. Or children who are ‘orphans’, where there is no one left who feels responsible for these children. But also sick people where the families simply cannot afford the expensive monthly medication (epilepsy medication can cost over €30 a month per person……)
We also continue to care for 2 old ladies in our mini retirement home.
We have 9 children in our mini hostel (in my old house in Tabora) cared for by Mama Samweli as house mother, so that these children can continue to go to school and grow up in a safe, ‘normal’ family group.
Here is me with ‘hostel’ ‘trip’ : taking everyone to a swim in the only pool in Tabora
We were also able to support our breakfast group for 45 pre school children until last month. The boy is one of the children from the breakfast group. He lost his leg in an RTA and we got him some crutches for now until he is old enough to get a prosthetic leg)
We also still are selling subsidized whole grain corn flour to the poorest.
Our Irrigation’s Project for our rainwater collection ponds and the small market gardens has now been taken a step further with drip irrigation in the first 8 gardens (saves water and a lot of time).
One of us who needed more help last year is Beatus Chundu, a man in his 70s [photo below]. We noticed him 3 years ago because he could only buy half a kilo of cornmeal in the shop (his only food for 3 days – after he gradually sold a piece of clothing or household item in front of the shop each time…). Since we supported him with a monthly basic food package, he regained his strength and showed himself to be a very lively personality with a great sense of humour and great trust in God. This year, however, he needed an operation, which we made possible for him, but he recovered very slowly and with many complications. He has now developed a hernia, but the surgeon advises against further surgery. So, he struggles, and we now visit him more than twice a week to be able to support him
Christopher is another of our Familia Moja clients. He had reached a very important ‘milestone’ in his life: he turned two! As you may remember, his mother died shortly after his birth due to complications from her cesarean section, leaving his grandmother alone and penniless with 6 children under the age of 7. Since 50% of children without mothers in Africa do not survive early childhood, we had promised – with our trust in God – that we would provide baby milk as well as the basic food for the whole family (even though we had no money for it at the time ). 2 years later we see little Christopher (named by us because he was/is our Advent / Christmas miracle) and he is ALIVE! And all the other children too!
We are very grateful to the Lord, He has strengthened and helped us: another whole year and shown that we can really ALWAYS trust in Him. -No matter what our external circumstances tell us!
That’s why we wish you/all of you a blessed Christmas and HAPPY New Year and we also say to you: “Don’t be afraid…
With gratitude for your prayers and help
Ruth Hulser
On behalf of the FMCP-UK Trustees, we would also like to thank all of our generous donors who have supported us – concerts, tradecraft stalls, collections at funerals, other events and just straight donations. Without your generosity this work would not be able to contine.
May God bless you and may you have a very Happy Christmas!
An Obituary and a message from Ruth
“Nasoro was one of the kindest, gentlest men I’ve ever known.”
Dr Ruth Hulser
Nasoro and Miriam at his Baptism
Nasoro was the security guard for the Diocese of Tabora and had worked for them for many years. When he reached retirement age, he was ‘pensioned-off’ as we would say in the UK, except for one small omission. No-one at the Diocese had paid any money into his pension and so, when he left, he was without any form of income to see him and his wife through their old age. Dr Ruth was far from happy with this arrangement, and so quickly employed him at the clinic as a ‘kitchen-hand’. Unfortunately, that didn’t last too long as the ladies already doing that work didn’t feel that he was up to the job. And so, Ruth employed him into her own household as a night guard but also a kitchen worker and was very satisfied with his work.
Eventually he was able to buy the piece of land next door to Ruth’s house and with Ruth’s help a small but fairly well-equipped house was built for him and Mariam his wife to live in. He became ‘part of the family’ which was Familia Moja. He was accepted into this ‘one family’ [which is what ‘familia moja’ means in Swahili] despite being a Moslem and having a Moslem wife, because FM doesn’t make distinctions like that when considering who to help. More recently, his wife started having some rather strange dreams. [And it seems that this is not entirely unusual for Moslems who God is seeking to draw to himself – see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K_lou3qTCY ]. She dreamed that she was struggling to find the local mosque. Every time she tried, she was thwarted and every time she asked for help she was directed to the local church. Eventually, the couple gave in to God’s prompting and recently they were both baptized as Christians.
The relationship with the rest of their family was already difficult but now it was to become more so, as they has broken away from their Moslem roots and as such were considered outcasts as they had dishonored their family. For many Moslems who convert, this effectively becomes a death sentence as that is often considered the penalty for ‘apostacy’. Thankfully, this wasn’t the case here as they were somewhat protected because of their involvement with ‘Dr Ruth’.
This last year Masoro died quite suddenly. It wasn’t clear quite why he died, but he left Miriam his wife in a very precarious and vulnerable situation. Traditionally, the family would turn up to claim all of the man’s possessions. This would have left Miriam completely destitute as none of them would be willing to take on an ‘apostate’ woman in order to look after her in her old age. However, when they arrived, they were told by local people that a whole lot of the things there were looking to claim couldn’t be taken. Why? Because they had been provided by ‘the doctor’ and so they belonged to Ruth. And the house [and the land it stood on] could not be claimed by them because the house was ‘the doctor’s house’. And so, after a bit of negotiation with the family, much of what Mariam would need to survive into her old age continued to be considered hers. Nasoro’s family obviously didn’t want to be very involved with their funeral and so it was Familia Moja that once again organized and provided the funeral.
But that is what you do for family. It is a long term commitment.
Will you join in that if you haven’t already done so and help provide more long-term support?
You can give using our CAFDonate secure portal which allows us to collect Gift Aid if you are a UK tax payer.
https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/11331#!/DonationDetails
A message from Dr Ruth
Please go to https://youtu.be/6XxGYA6tPbo to view this message [about 7 mins long]
February 2023 Update
Apologies for the slight lack of news since Christmas. Here are a couple of things to make uo for it!
Firstly we have a newsletter from Dr Ruth telling us some of what has been going on recently. And secondly we have a new ‘FM Short’ – a brief film telling people about the people we have been able to help. This is an update on Abdulla and Ashura [as mentioned in the newsletter below. You can access this film on YouTube at https://youtu.be/LE1cZ9zMM_k
If you wish to donate then the easiest way is via our CAF Donate page at www.cafdonate.cafonline.org/11331
The 1.5 degree warming goal died at Cop27 – but hope will not in Tabora!
The seasons are about to change in Tanzania and the rain has just started this week – but slowly as yet. Please pray that it will continue and in suitable quantities!
Last year’s water has gone in most of our ponds. October was very hot and what little water there was is now all but dried up. But in some places there was until quite recently, still enough for people to be able to grow some food. And where there is water [or the promise of water], there is work which will allow some people to earn money to allow them to feed their families. Now is the time when the fields are being prepared ready for the next year’s growing season.
The pond building work of Familia Moja and the work being done to improve the soil by making [and showing others how to make] good quality compost, has made a big difference in the lives of those who live around those ponds. And as global warming continues and famine stalks parts of Africa, the risk to the people of Tanzania increases.
One of Dr Ruth’s former guards has one of the ponds next to his home and has been able to continue to earn a small living. He has now also been able to help support one of his neighbours – a single mum living nearby with 2 children she has been struggling to feed.
Mama Ndugu – our ‘chief nurse’ – also lives next to one of the ponds. She has a garden where she is able to grow food to help feed her family and neighbours. Her garden has been doing OK, but the last crop failed to ripen properly because the water ran out. But she has continued to feed those in need around her – about 50 local children every day! She feeds them ‘rice pap’ which is a mixture of well-cooked rice and ground peanuts. She is also able to provide them with some fruit two or three times a day. Some of these children will get nothing else to eat. Food prices are rising and it is now costing about £75 a month just to buy the food. Thankfully, she has several volunteers who are working with her to collect wood for the cooking etc, so there are no other overhead costs.
Many of our ‘clients’ are receiving food aid, as many are too poor to feed their families or two old, ill or disabled to do this without help. If you wish to donate then the easiest way is via our CAF Donate page at www.cafdonate.cafonline.org/11331
When the cost of food has gone ‘through the roof’, and lots of people are struggling to find food, how do you identify those in the greatest need?
‘Famoi’ [our Tanzanian partner organisation] have food [thanks to the generosity of you and other donors] but not an unlimited supply. They have enough to prevent quite a few families and individuals from starving. But if the local population think that they have food to give away or sell cheaply, they will be inundated. And the food that FMCP UK have paid for is bought on the understanding that it is for those who may have no other mechanism to support themselves of others. So how do you find those who need the help most?
The local team have thought this through and seem to have a good local answer.
A market stall run by one of our ‘clients’.
So how will that work???
The answer is all in one of the primary products being sold. The flour in the bucket is being sold at a subsidised price so it is cheap. It is wholemeal maize flour and it is used to make a sort of porridge. But being ‘wholemeal’, the meal it makes is rather bitter and unpleasant. You can survive on it, but it’s pretty gross.
So if you have a bit of money to spare you wouldn’t consider buying such a substandard product.
And there is the answer. People will only buy this to eat if they are really desperate, and so Famoi have been able to use this to identify and target those in the greatest need. Once the FMI Team know who these people are are they can contact them and start the process of befriending them and offering them assistance This is one of three stalls that Famoi have set up. And this one is being run by a lady whose life was probably saved, quite miraculously, by Familia Moja several years ago. The lady in the photo was one of the patients Dr Ruth came into contact with back in the days when she still worked as a CMS missionary at St Philips Clinic. Due to severe immune failure, this lady developed a fungal infection in her head. She was admitted in order to administer life-saving drugs, but became psychotic and tried to ‘break out’ over security fences at night. Dr Ruth had no alternative but to discharge her home immediately. The clinic had no legal power to ‘section’ her like we might here in the UK, and so there wasn’t anything they could do to keep her safe. All they could do was discharge her with pills [the oral version of the treatment that she’d been receiving by injection in hospital] and hope that she would take them, Dr Ruth expected her to die quite quickly.
Not only did she survive (and she spent some years on the farm recovering), but her daughter survives also and she has been running this stall successfully for some years making enough income to feed her family (helped with a little maize from us).
So here is a life saved, helping now to save others.
Familia Moja Community Project 