Archive for September, 2008
Website for Huruma Women Group
The Huruma Women Group is a community-based organisation of Tella Mande in rural Moshi, initiated and directed by Mary Saria and Berther Mawenya. The aim of Huruma (swahili for ‘compassion’) is to help the disadvantaged and vulnerable families in the community. ZARA has been a friend and supporter of Huruma Women Group for several years. In July, Huruma Women group welcomed their first international volunteer, Julia from Germany who has degrees in social work and educational sciences. Before starting with Huruma, she first spent 3 months in Dar-es-Salaam accompanying the social workers of the SOS Children’s village at their ‘Family Strengthening Outreach Program’. Then during a further 3 months in Tanzania with the Huruma Women Group, she tried to assign certain principles that worked at the big organisation in the capital to the small rural initiative of Mary and Berther. As a result of Julia’s voluntary work, Huruma now even have their own website, as she convinced a friend of hers who is web designer, Jacek Jonczyk to create a webpage for the charitable group free of charge. The website is now online at http://www.huruma.info. ZARA thanks Julia for her big support, Jacek for his effort and Gabriel of World Unite! for translating the website’s English texts into Swahili.
2nd Ngorongoro Run to be held on April 18th, 2009
Minnesota Health Voluteers with the support of ZARA will be organising the second Ngorongoro Marathon on Saturday, 18th of April 2009. Runners will make their way through one of the most beautiful and unique landscapes on earth, ending at the mighty Ngorongoro Crater. Participants can run the full half marathon (21 km) as individuals or as part of a team running a fraction of the race. Tourists and locals are welcome alike.
The aim of the run is to raise awareness and funds for the fight against malaria. Malaria affects between 300 and 500 million people every year, over 90% of whom live in Africa. Malaria kills over one million every year, but there can also be debilitating effects to the survivors. Women who become infected during pregnancy run the risk of having low birth weight babies, may suffer from anemia, premature births, birth defects, still births and spontaneous abortions. Young children can be left with neurological after-effects and learning disabilities.
If you take part in the run, you can book any ZARA safari or climb for a discount of 50 USD. First, please contact Jolene Mullins, Tanzanian Country Director of Minnesota Health Volunteers at mihvtanzania@gmail.com to book your participation in the run and inform her about the time you expect you need to run the half marathon. Runners will be grouped into three speed groups depending on their estimated pace. Then, book your ZARA Tanzania adventure (before or after the run) online through the ZARA website and mention that you take part in the run to claim your discount.