B2A Community Development
The Maskini Community in Mwanza, Tanzania
We are committed to helping the poor and disabled (Maskini) community in Mwanza. These people, many of whom suffer with leprosy, live either on the streets or in Bukumbi Care Centre.
We are working with them to meet their basic needs - things which, in the Western world, we may simply take for granted:
Safe, clean water to drink
A nutritionally balanced diet
Hygienic toilets and showers
A separate laundry area
Somewhere secure to store any personal effects
Access to medical and dental treatment
A gathering place
Any means to generate an income of their own.
Our ongoing programme has already gone a long way to meet these needs, restoring dignity and raising self-esteem along the way.
Bukumbi Care Centre
Our Community Development programme is centred around Bukumbi Care Centre (BCC). We are committed to a long-term plan of improvements at Bukumbi, involving input from the community itself and utilising volunteers to carry out refurbishments. So far, we have achieved the following:
We provide on-going access to medical and dental treatment for the 300 residents. 
We have refurbished the toilet blocks and four of the six dormitories, with more renovations planned for 2010.
We have provided new beds, bedding, mosquito nets and secure storage for belongings, however meagre they may be!
We have raised £14,500 to fund a new water system for the Centre, which we hope will be fully operational later in 2009.
In January 2009 we employed Kibibi Kengia as a Community Development Worker, and she has set up an income generation scheme for residents to make and sell their crafts for a small profit.
Fay David, our full-time Education Co-ordinator, is researching the learning needs of children within the community, getting them into school and providing them with support for their learning. But there’s always more to do…
Click here to see details of children that require education sponsorship
We record our work at Bukumbi in a monthly diary - click here to read it.
Hope for the future, and how you can help
Our long-term goal is to empower the Maskini community and give them the chance of a better life. With your help, we can make this a reality.
Would you like to visit Bukumbi and make a hands-on difference to the lives of the people there? We have vacancies for volunteers to come out in 2010. Please email Ruth Bowyer, our Visits Administrator, for details.
You can always donate money to Bridge2Aid – even £5 would allow us to buy a new cleaning kit for residents of a dormitory at Bukumbi. Or why not take part in one of our fundraising challenges?