Zara Charity Tanzania

 NEWS LETTER

INTRODUCTION
žZara Charity aims at supporting vulnerable groups within their local communities such as orphans, porters who climb Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru, marginalized groups like the Maasai women group(Make A Change) and in addition to that, Zara Charity is also supporting the Ngorongoro Marathon which raises awareness against Malaria.


žDuring the last years we have developed our own projects further. In the following we will give you a summary of what we have done up to now in our individual projects.

Mount Kilimanjaro Porters Society (MKPS)

žThis project supports porters who climb Mount Kilimanjaro and Meru due to the fact that most of the porters are low income earners and they have low or no education at all, so the project is aimed at improving the living and working conditions of those porters, especially by providing them the following:
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Free education during the low season, such as health education e.g. MALARIA and HIV/AIDS, financial management education, mountain sickness education, environmental conservation education and English.
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As of late, all porters have their own bank account and bank card, which will help them to handle their money better; due to this, some of the porters pursue their own businesses, can afford to build their own houses, pay their bills and are taking care of their families in terms of basic needs such as food, shelter, clothes and education material.
žIn terms of environmental education we have started and partly finished several tree planting projects around Moshi and Karatu (Highview Hotel) in order to raise awareness on environmental problems and to give employment to the porters during the low season.

EQUIPMENT'S FOR HIKING

žThe porters’ work is not easy; they have to walk in low temperatures and carry a heavy weight. Zara Charity attaches importance to the fact that their maximum weight doesn’t go beyond 25 kilos including their own gear. For the porters’ safety, Zara Charity guarantees, that the following equipment is available:

žrain trousers and jackets

žwarm trousers and jackets

žshoes

žprivate bag and take-away food

žmedical check up

žhiking sticks, gloves and caps

Wages

žZara Tours Adventure in Collaboration with Zara Charity is aimed at ensuring a minimum standard of wages. In so doing, we are making sure, that every porter who is registered under the company receives 15,000 Tsh per day. We’re also seeing to it, that as registered porters, they have an identity card and a bank account, which can help us to distribute their salaries on a regular basis. In addition to that, we are able to secure the properly handling of money of our porters

Porters sign for their wages

LOAD CARRIED BY THE PORTERS

žApplying accordingly to the Tanzania National Parks Act, it is recommended, that every porter should carry a load limited to 25 kg. This weight includes the company cargo and the porters own gear. Assuring this requirement, our company in collaboration with Zara Charity affirms that the following standards have to be checked together with the visitors from the point of departure at the hotel:

žInitially, the whole cargo for the travel has to be prepared

žAccording to the number of porters and visitors we have, the load has to be distributed equally

žNot to neglect is lastly the weighing of each individual cargo to comply with the required standards of 20 kg per porter plus 5 kg in addition for the porters own gear

žIt is not only this individual effort, proposed by the company in collaboration with Zara Charity, but also the management of the respective National Parks, that cares for the compliance with these guidelines. Before entering a park’s gate and climbing the mountain, the parks’ officers are in an endeavor to approve the proposed weight of each cargo.

 FAIR TIP DISTRIBUTION

žA tip is not comparable to a contract. The charges depend on the willingness of each visitor due to various reasons, mentioned below:

žHow the visitors have enjoyed their tour trip in general

žThe visitors contentment depends on the assistance they received during the trip, but also

žon the clarification of the natural features observed,

žon the individual caring  in case of accidents or disease and also

žon the food prepared.

žConsidering these services, the visitors can agree to provide a motivation to the crew for a well done job. This is the normal process the company is aware of, but in order to assure a fair tip distribution among the employees, the company under Zara Charity has decided to provide a tip sheet. Thereupon, we specified six important employees, such as guide, assistance guide, porter(s), cook, waiter and the toilet porter. Bearing the sheet in mind, the visitors can discuss about the amount of each category. After the crew is back from the trip, the MKPSs office makes sure, that the employees confirm with their signature on the aforementioned sheet the amount of money they received.

CLOTHING AND

EQUIPMENT CLOTHING 

žWe are conscious of the fact that the work which is done by the porters is hard and exhausting. In order to ensure their safety, the company is checking their clothing and equipment and is adapting it depending on the trip they are going to. There’s a difference between hut and camping route, latter is harsher. At any rate, the following equipment is supposed to be provided to the porters and the guide before their departure:

žrain trousers and jackets

žwarm trousers and jackets

žshoes

žprivate bag

žtake away food

žmedical check up

žhiking sticks

žgloves

žcaps

žThe mentioned equipment assures the porters safety during and after the tour trip.

 CLOTHING AND EQUIPMENT STORE

KILIMANJARO ORPHANAGE CENTER

This project is aimed at supporting orphans within the local community so that they can obtain their basic needs such as food, shelter, clothes, as well as education to improve their living conditions.

Since there is a big request on food in order to satisfy all the children, the orphan center has decided to grow the most needed food on their own and therefore some acres of land were bought in order to plant maize, rice, bananas and onions. Given that the growing of maize was very successful, they were able to feed both the pre school kids and the orphanage for the whole year.

WORK AT THE FARM

Currently a new dormitory has been built as well as the new toilet and bath rooms.

The kids are also supported in their different religious believes, where they achieve spiritual care. 

The orphanage also has a school bus which takes the children to their schools and returns them to the center again. 

   ACADEMIC SUPPORT

žMr. Victor, who has been working at the Orphan Center for about one year, decided to apply for the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center and has been sponsored by the Kilimanjaro Orphanage center during his studies. Now he has successfully finished his studies and will become a doctor and he’ll also care for the children at the center.

MAKE A CHANGE PROJECT

This project aims at supporting Masai women so as to liberate them from their traditional belief, which is based on oppression, exploitation and elimination of women within their society.

In order to improve this situation and to help the Masai women in Karatu/Ngorongoro, ZARA Charity plans to build an educational training centre for them. It will be built in the Highlands of Karatu. Not only a class room, but also accommodations for students and teachers as well as washing and dining houses have to be built. We hope that the skills learned in the center will help those women to grant their family a better living by establishing their own business or by getting employed.

MAKE A CHANGE SELL THEIR PRODUCTS IN KARATU

MAKE A CHANGE PROCEEDS

So as to afford a project like this, some of the Masai women have designed several dresses that have strong influences of the Masai colors and jewelry. The dresses are being sold at High-view Hotel Karatu and Spring land Hotel Moshi, they can also be ordered online. The benefits from the sale will then help to establish the set-up of the educational training center. 

DESIGN CREATED BY THE MAKE A CHANGE GROUP IN KARATU

NGORONGORO MARATHON 

Ngorongoro Marathon was held on 6th April 2013 in Karatu, Arusha region. The race against malaria took place for the sixth year in a row and was organized and sponsored by Zara Tanzania Adventures, Zara Charity, Tigo Tanzania, Chuchu, African Safaris, bougainvillea Safari Lodge, Hans Paul Automechs Limited, and Simba safari. A total of 536 runners participated. 

PARTICIPANTS ON THE RUN

 

BASIC OBJECTIVES OF THE RUN

The aim of this annual event is to inform the local community about malaria according to the statistics from FEMA  ​​it was found that malaria is a disease which kills more than 650,000 people a year in Africa.

In the Southern Sahara desert 88 million of people live at the risk of getting infected by malaria. It's believed that there are indicators where approximately twenty million people will be infected or suffered from malaria this year.

While in Tanzania only about one person dies every minute due to the disease. It is based on these statistics that we as Zara Tanzania Adventure and Zara Charity decided to initiate this race in terms of ngorongoro Run since 2008 to raise funds that will be used to help communities in Karatu and Ngorongoro for prevention, access to treatment and education about this disease and its risk.

This is the sixth race since its inception and we are grateful for the success we have gained, whereas last year more than 200 international runners were able to share this with the 300 children running and bringing the total participants to 500

ARRIVALS AND WINNERS AWARD

WHAT WE DO

For the money we have raised we managed to do the following: -

Provided mosquito nets for orphans and karatu Hospital.

Assisted in completing construction in the respective maternity wards including ceiling board and windows

Also provided integrated education to the community about how to terminate reproduction of mosquitoes and the importance of prevention against malaria, including encouraging the use of mosquito nets. Through these communities we managed to identify and significantly reduce the prevalence of malaria which has decreased greatly.

DONATION AT THE KARATU HOSPITAL IN BY ZARA CHARITY

HOW WE DISTRIBUTE OUR FUND

Many people are interested in supporting those vulnerable groups in a developing country like Tanzania. We guarantee that those who are in need of help will benefit from the provided charity news letter zara1@zaracharity.com

For further information please visit our website www.zaracharity.com where you can find each of our Zara Charity member groups that are truly taking responsibility for those vulnerable groups and exhibit high transparency requirements.