CLUB members were given a talk about Tanzania by a local woman who has an unusual passion – for rubbish.
Lucy Swanbrow spoke eloquently about a number of environmental projects she had been involved in that were being carried out by Project Takataka, Kswahilli for rubbish.
She explained that she first visited Tanzania to see her father’s cousin Faye Cran. She fell in love with the country and has consequently been back for several three-month spells and became involved in many charitable projects.
“Tanzania has fantastic landscapes, wildlife and flora and the people are very friendly,” she said.
But rubbish is everywhere, roads and rivers are clogged with detritus, the locals just drop their rubbish as they go. Trying to change this is a Herculean task.
“It’s a country of extreme contrasts between luxury hotels and extremely poor rural areas where people are lucky to get one meal a day.”
Education is highly valued and it costs 2-300 US dollars a year to go to school.
Her fundraising ideas can sometimes be very novel. She has held a ‘knicker’ party where the entrance fee was a pair of knickers and through this event she was able to take 500 pairs of the underwear to give to girls at a rural secondary school supported by Project Takataka.
The African Girls Sanitation Project aims to provide sanitary products for girls who might otherwise miss up to six days schooling every month.
They also plan to build a toilet block for the girls that will cost £5,000 and an incinerator to dispose of the waste to stop pollution of the surrounding area.
On June 14 from 12 noon Project Takataka will be selling a wide variety of handicrafts and home made cakes at Sarisbury Green fete to try to raise funds for the project.
“Come along and have all your gift needs sorted out,” said Lucy.