KEY PARTNERS OF THE WATOTO KWANZA PROJECT:
Gwen Harrop (nee.Jones): Melbourne, AUSTRALIA. Australian Co-ordinator and Director
Gwen is a Physiotherapist originally from New Zealand but now resides in Melbourne, Australia. Once qualified as a Physiotherapist, Gwen felt she could be useful as a volunteer. In 2006, after traveling around Tanzania, she volunteered through Global Volunteer Network in Kawe, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (http://www.volunteer.org.au/). There she helped in a Disabled school and having been a gymnast and coach, she also helped run some ‘sarakasi’ (Swahili word for gymnastics) classes. The children had no equipment and were flipping and tumbling on concrete! During her time in the disabled school Gwen met a bright and angelic pupil called Tatu. Tatu, 6 years, was suffering from a condition well known to Physiotherapists, called club feet (talipes equinovarus). Although occurring at the same frequency, this condition isn’t seen in toddlers or school children in western nations as it is easily corrected in the first year of life. After exhaustive visits to her local hospital where they were unwilling to help, Gwen referred Tatu to Children First Foundation (http://www.childrenfirstfoundation.com/) and so began the year long process of getting Tatu a passport, visa and signing the huge amount of paperwork required to bring her to Melbourne, Australia. Without Janet Kiwia's and World Jet Travel's assistance, this could not have been done. Tatu’s surgery was a blinding success. She spent some of 2007/08 living with Gwen but the majority of time was spent at ‘The Children First’ farm in Kilmore – she attended local primary school and became fluent in English within 3 months. After a year-long stay in Australia, Gwen returned Tatu to her family and re-settled her. It was on this trip that Gwen got a true in-sight into just how dire conditions were in the community of Kawe. She came to the conclusion that something needed to be done to help and decided to team up with Janet and World Jet Travel, thus the WATOTO KWANZA Project was born. Gwen has now visited Kawe four times and is due to visit again in Feb 2010 to bring home Kawe resident Issa (see Children's Stories').
Janet Kiwia: Dar es Salaam, TANZANIA. Tanzanian Co-ordinator & Tanzanian Administration Officer
Janet, a travel agent for Dar es Salaam based– World Jet Travel, lives in the Kawe region. Janet is an incredibly devoted woman, she has supported those in need all her life. Janet, along with the whole team at World Jet Travel, have for many years off-set a portion of their wages and profits towards helping those in need. They have built a clean toilet block with running water in a local school, funded water tanks and helped numerous children with provision of the basic necessities of life that we in the western world take for granted. People often approach Janet for assistance, some times she can help, sometimes she cannot. With the partnership of Janet's local support and Gwen's international support, more often than not, these people are now able to helped. Examples include; we have sent through sufficient funds to allow 100-orphans / disadvantaged children to enter school for 2009, a recent box of nappies was sent to assist a disabled girl with incontinence, a little boy whose primary carer is a single-mum has a heart defect – he was referred to Children First Foundation and a sponsor was found to provide him with clothing and educational items. Janet has been working hard on creating useful work for local disabled adults. She has set up a system where disabled adults are building and modifying bicycles for other disabled citizens. For example; a hand pedaled bicycle for a young boy with malformed legs. Janet keeps ideas realistic and advises on whether things will work or not. She is our mainstay!
Janet with WKP children Gwen with young Tatu
Other supporting members of the WATOTO KWANZA Project are:
Fiona Daniel Perth, Western AUSTRALIA. Disabilities Support Project Manager
Fiona volunteered in 2006 at Kawe Disabled School in the Kawe community. Her efforts to support the children of Kawe are on-going. Fiona regularly sends relief packages and assists with school fees. She is a valuable asset to the project. Fiona is now overseeing the fundraising side of the Watoto Kwanza sub-project 'The Disabilities support project'; offering support to disabled adults by job creation. The disabled adults are given work modifying bicycles to suit disabled children (see 'projects').
Louise Smith Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Assistant Director, Treasurer and Administration Officer
Louise volunteered in Kawe in 2006. She taught at a local Nursery school. Sadly, since then, this nursery school has closed due to lack of funding. Louise has travelled extensively through Africa and is passionate about helping those in need. She has studied Event Management and is hence playing an intergral role in the planning and running of our annual fundraiser 'Evening on the Bay'. Louise also monitors Watoto Kwanza funds and accounts.
Asaph Maerere is a school teacher in Kawe who is keen to help the needy. Many children who don’t attend school linger around the school grounds. Teachers like Maerere are able to identify these kids and register those that are legitimate. Asaph is also the head-teacher in the disabled school.
Gaby Hanson (aged 7-years)
Gaby became good friends with Tatu during Tatu’s stay here in Australia. Since then Gaby has been making and selling felt book-marks and crepe tote bags as a fundraiser. These are available through The Sports Injury Clinic or email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Paulo Tam – web developer at MMR studio (http://www.mmr.com.au/), St Kilda, Victoria, Australia who has donated his time to make this web-site possible.
'The crew’ at The Sports Injury Clinic, Frankston, Victoria, Australia and World Jet Travel, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
