Tumaini
Vocational Training and Community Center
Arusha, Tanzania
On August 9, 2003, the Tumaini Vocational
Training and Community Center, located in the Njiro area
of Arusha, Tanzania, was dedicated. This facility is a joint
development project of The Fourth Presbyterian Church of
Chicago and Global Alliance for Africa.
The dedication was well attended by approximately 100 community
residents and several Honored Guests. Felix C. Mrema, a Member
of Parliament (MP) who represents the Arusha area of Tanzania,
traveled to the dedication from Dar es Salaam. He was joined
by Fulgence L. Saria who is the District Commissioner (DC)
of Arusha. Raymond Sambuli Mosha, Ph.D., Director of Tumaini
and Global Alliance’s East Africa Program Officer,
served as the Master of Ceremonies.
Allan Kayler, representing Fourth Presbyterian Church, and
Tom Derdak, Executive Director of Global Alliance for Africa,
also participated in the dedication. As part of his speech,
Mr. Kayler read a letter from co-pastors John Buchanan and
Joanna Adams which congratulated the local staff on the completion
of the facility and pledged the continuation of a relationship
between Fourth Presbyterian Church, Global Alliance for Africa
and Tumaini. Dr. Mosha translated several paragraphs of the
letter into Swahili for the audience. Prior to the formal
ceremony, Allan Kayler and Tom Derek each planted a tree
in the Tumaini courtyard as a permanent symbol of their organization’s
contribution to the facility. The dedication was reported
in The Arusha Times (English edition) of August 16-22, 2003.
Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago received appropriate
recognition and appreciation.
The
new Center has two major classrooms, a larger conference/meeting
hall, which can also be used for classrooms, an administration
office, and a storage room. At the present time Tumaini
continues to offer the original courses of English,
Level I and Level
II Computer Proficiency, and Basic Secretarial Skills.
However, the near-term plan is to develop several additional
vocational
courses, which may include the Construction Trades (carpentry,
masonry, electrical, plumbing), Automobile Repair, Animal
Husbandry or Sewing. In addition, there is a plan to
develop a schedule of educational seminars in the Community
Center
for local residents. Topics will include Public Health
and AIDS Awareness. Longer term there is a need to
add a room
that would house a library and to build a guest house
on the property with four guest rooms and a kitchen/common
area
that could accommodate visiting staff and volunteers.
Background
The genesis of Tumaini, which means “hope” in
Swahili, started when Ray Mosha and his wife, Joyce, decided
to address a major problem in East Africa and Arusha, which
is the lack of vocational or technical training education.
Their goal was fairly simple - to try to satisfy an ever-growing
demand for practical skills that would allow local residents,
many who had come to Arusha from rural areas, to raise themselves
out of poverty and to help them become self-reliant and able
to provide support for their family. In 1999, recognizing
that Arusha was significantly under served by affordable
training facilities, Tumaini was established in an area of
Arusha known as Njiro. A small amount of funds were initially
raised from individuals in the local indigenous community
to rent two small rooms, purchase minimal equipment, books
and supplies and begin offering a limited curriculum which
included a two-month English course, basic computer skills
and basic secretarial training.
Though Tumaini continued to operate on a small scale
for several years, space and resource limitations restricted
the number of students and made it almost impossible
for
the Center to be self-sufficient. Global Alliance for
Africa was introduced to the project in 2001. Global
Alliance for
Africa’s primary mission is to work in partnership
with Africans to develop programs to house, feed and educate
children orphaned by AIDS and generally to promote educational
and health programs for impoverished people living in remote
rural areas and urban slums throughout Africa, with a focus
in East Africa. With the goal of developing and implementing
programs that result in the economic strengthening of families
and communities, the mission of Global Alliance fit with
the vision of the Tumaini Vocational Training Center. Dr.
Raymond Mosha, the founder and director of Tumaini, was educated
at several Catholic universities in the U.S. and has been
a guest professor at Loyola University Chicago teaching courses
in theology and African Spirituality. He has also made presentations
at Fourth Presbyterian Church.
Fourth Church’s involvement began in late 2001 when
Tom Derdak approached the Global Sub-Committee of the Mission
Committee about partnering with Global Alliance for Africa
to establish an expanded Tumaini and providing a $25,000
grant to fund the construction of a new vocational education
facility. Kay Felkins, both as a Trustee of Global Alliance
for Africa and a Mission Committee member, championed the
project as a unique opportunity for Fourth Church to fulfill
a stated Mission Committee objective to extend its mission
into Africa. Besides the financial commitment, there was
the opportunity to form a partnership with the Center that
could develop into a long-term relationship with the potential
for continuing individual and group involvement and mission
service. After further research and discussion, the Mission
Committee approved the cooperative initiative with Global
Alliance for Africa and the grant in the spring of 2002.
Mission Trip to Kenya and Tanzania
In August 2002, a Fourth Church Mission Trip to Kenya
and Tanzania was conducted in conjunction with Global
Alliance
for Africa. Kay Felkins, representing Global Alliance,
and Bob and Vicki Reynolds, Executive Presbyter-Chicago
Presbytery
and Director of Mission at Fourth Church, respectively,
led the trip. Other participants included Allan and Linda
Kayler,
Paul and Linda Higdon, Kathleen and Laureen Cleary, Marsha
Muldrow, and Constance Benrud. During the 15-day trip
the group visited several of the Global Alliance for
Africa’s
partnership programs to support children orphaned by AIDS,
women’s agricultural and dairy cooperatives, and safe
water programs.
The next part of the trip took the group to Arusha, Tanzania,
for several days. In Njiro, they visited the original
Tumaini, where they met the Director and staff and presented
reference
books for the Center’s library. They also went to the
new location and participated in a ceremony to bless the
land in the area of the new Center. That evening the group
were guests at a celebration hosted by Raymond Mosha and
his family. One of the most memorable experiences in Tanzania
was a day trip to Dr. Mosha’s ancestral family home
in the Village of Kyao, which is in the foothills of Mt.
Kilimanjaro.
Future Mission Opportunities
There is still a lot of work that needs to be completed
before new Tumaini can begin to realize its full potential,
but
the opportunities appear tremendous. It is the current
intent to work with the Mission Committee to organize
a return trip
to Tanzania in the summer of 2005. As additional courses
are introduced and various seminars and public forums
are scheduled for the Community Center, there may be
options
for individual volunteers to participate as technical
and educational resources and tutors. In the future
there could
also be opportunities for group retreats and volunteer
service work with Global Alliance for Africa’s community partnership
programs.
