This week we celebrated Labour Day on 1st May in Tanzania. This is the International celebration of workers and their contribution to the economy. In Tanzania it has always been a very important day, with Tanzania’s Socialist roots and the day is eagerly anticipated by workers across all sectors.
We have had an annual celebration since we began as Bridge2Aid and it’s always good to see all the different members of the team assembled together in one place for a celebratory meal.
As we looked back over the past year, it was great to see how successful Bridge2Aid has been thanks to the work that the team has done. The Dental Training Programme has continued to expand and is now working in the centre of the country as well as the north west. Hope Dental Centre continues to grow with more personnel and more patients being treated than ever before, and there is also great success with the development of our work at Bukumbi.
As I said to the team on Monday, organisations are very much like bodies. Each part of the body has a different role to play (this isn’t my idea by the way, it goes back 2000 years in scripture!). It’s easy to think that some parts of the body and some roles are more important than others, but without the support of everybody, nobody can fully do their job well.
So the work that each person has done has been very important in helping us to achieve our goals.
What is also important and what I am particularly proud of is the way that the Bridge2Aid team has worked. Each person has put in a great deal of hard work, and shown commitment to the task, dedication to their fellow team members, and above all a desire to work in a way which achieves excellence in everything that they do.
One particular section of the team that doesn’t receive as much recognition as it should is the all important security and domestic team.
I was delighted to be able to present certificates of recognition and a small gift to each one of these team members. Their role is key in keeping the offices and buildings that we run safe and secure and making sure that everything runs smoothly.
The looks of appreciation on everybody’s faces when they received their awards was a great thing to see, and full credit to Jackie, our Operations and Finance Manager in Tanzania, who came up with the idea of awarding this particular team and celebrating their achievement as part of the wider Bridge 2 Aid organisation.
A great afternoon together.
