Sheila Grant - personal statement

My first connection with Tanzania came in 1984 when I took up a post as a Community Development worker in Arusha Region, in northern Tanzania. Working with a local team from the Catholic Diocese of Arusha, my role was to help set up small income-generating projects in handicrafts, running grinding mills and we even tried bread and soap making – both in short supply in those days. We also facilitated different workshops and meeting to encourage the women to take up Mother & Child Health services and liaised with local government and services to ensure the women were included and listened to.

I met my husband in Arusha - a Canadian working for a not-for-profit company supporting church organisations from many denominations to build education and health facilities in several countries in East Africa. We left Arusha in 1990 but Tanzania has always remained close to our hearts. Over the 30 years since leaving we have sought opportunities to maintain links and support the people of the country. Little did I realise that when we moved to Worcestershire from Birmingham in 2016 that a chance conversation with a fellow choir member (Margaret Green) would open up one such opportunity! I was asked if I was interested in attending Mission Morogoro Trustee meetings to learn more about the charity and in a short time I was impressed by the number of projects that a small number of committed people had managed to support since Mission Morogoro started in 2012. 

My first visit to see these projects and the area around Tunguli was in 2019. It was also a chance to try out the Swahili I had learnt 35 years earlier, which came back surprisingly easily. We visited the Health Centre, sewing groups, women’s groups, and many of the new wells and hand-washing projects that have been financed by Mission Morogoro supporters. The visit was a first-hand reminder of the struggles of daily life for people in a remote area of Tanzania – access to clean water, a poor harvest, limited health services.  However it was also a heart-warming reminder of how the concern and support of a group of people in Worcestershire can have an impact on people’s lives in small but effective ways. Mission Morogoro has been greatly helped in more recent years by working with a Tanzanian NGO – Sanitation and Water Action (SAWA), who have expertise in community organisation and motivation. The changes their work has brought to the number of households with improved toilets, hand-washing and access to clean, safe water is very impressive.

I finally became a full Trustee of Mission Morogoro in November 2019 and look forward to working with my fellow trustees to establish the security and sustainability of the projects we support.