Tanzania is the largest country in East Africa.
In its northwestern corner, bordering with Rwanda, lies the Angara district, an isolated,
underdeveloped, extremely poor region and home to 320,000 indigenous people.
It is also home to an inspiring story, a story of hope, connection and love, a story that
is just beginning.
Here is that story.
The name Tanzania conjures up images of beautiful snow-capped peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro, vast
wildlife of the Serengeti National Park, and bleached white sands of the Zanzibar beaches.
No outsiders would ever have heard of the region of Angara had it not been the point
of escape for 480,000 refugees during the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.
Tenth cities were erected in this area to provide shelter and safety to the refugees
for more than 10 years.
When they returned home, they left their impoverished host land devastated.
To date, the Angara district still has not recovered, and the affected towns and villages
struggle daily just to survive.
The district has remained dissected by a major road that connects the port city of Dar es-Salam
with the capital of Rwanda, Kigali.
The transient traffic of long-distance trucks along this route has left behind unwanted
consequences like HIV-AIDS.
Young families have immigrated to distant locations looking for work, forced to leave
their elder members behind.
The social, educational, and economic structures have remained crippled.
Two groups, particularly affected by these unprecedented circumstances, are the abandoned
elderly and the at-risk youths of the tent city villages.
Tensinians traditionally take care of their elderly at home.
There are no nursing homes, no pensions, or government benefits for them.
Young families support elderly people in this area most procure water and food for themselves
every day and maintain the soundness of their huts.
In their advanced stages, these elders find themselves in need of assistance, yet are
totally alone.
The social aftermath of the refugees' stay in the Angada district has played havoc with
the well-being of the children and adolescents of the local villages.
Poverty and near total absence of job opportunities have annihilated the youth's chances of eventually
becoming educated, skilled workers.
Children and young men and women in their 20s and 30s have no marketable skills, no education,
and no future.
They are at high risk for various illegal activities.
Enter into this picture Sister D'Ateva Daniel Mukibita, a Roman Catholic Franciscan sister
of Saint Bernadette, and a native of this same region.
Sister D'Ateva studied and worked in the United States for 13 years, primarily with
the elderly, which turned out to be providential.
A few months before Sister D'Ateva returned definitively to her community's motherhouse
in Tanzania, she heard a story that both upset and inspired her.
An elderly woman living alone fell and broke her hip.
When her neighbors didn't see her, they checked on her and found her lying on the ground.
She had been there for three days without food or water.
A neighbor transported the woman immediately by bicycle to the local dispensary.
On the way, she died.
One Sister D'Ateva heard of this.
She was heartbroken, not because the old woman had died, but because of how she died.
From this tragedy emerged the core idea of what was to become the Village Angels of Tanzania
program.
The objective was to help two marginalized groups of the Angada population, the abandoned
elderly poor and the unemployed, unskilled youth.
The Village Angels of Tanzania recruits local, unemployed young people to provide weekly
visits to the local elderly poor, bringing them food, basic supplies, and in some cases
house repairs to protect against the heavy rains.
At the Benaco Farm, the headquarters of the program, the youth's cultivate and harvest
crops are taught handicrafts like basket weaving and skills like building beds from trees.
They also receive instruction in English, health, and agriculture.
The elderly enjoy the social interaction with the young people.
With each visit, hearts are warmed and spirits are lifted.
As of July 2016, after just one year of operation, the Village Angels has reached out to two
remote villages, Kasulo and Ruwa Kalamela, where 70 elderly residents receive care from
16 youths.
Ginger de Tiva oversees the daily activities of the youths and accompanies them on their
weekly visits to the elderly.
Onions, Chinese cabbage, potatoes, and beans planted by the youths first supply food to
the elderly and then any excess is sold at local markets, producing modest revenues for
the program.
Plants of banana plants have been planted, awaiting their fruit in one year.
Dozens of hand-woven straw baskets and trivets made by the youths are currently for sale
in the states, with more on the way.
66 hand-built beds are being delivered in the first year to the elderly by the men in
the program.
Along with the beds, mattresses, pillows, and sheets were also supplied.
The elderly of the program had never slept on anything but the ground before.
All of them also received washing basins, eating utensils, and buckets to carry their
water.
A study is underway to identify the nutritional deficiencies and health problems of the elders,
resulting from a consistently limited and unbalanced diet.
The hope is to improve the elders' physical status through new sound nutritional practices.
As with most important undertakings, the Village Angels of Tanzania's success thus far is
a result of many people linking their arms and hearts to achieve a common goal.
We are dedicated to caring for the abandoned elderly poor and the at-risk unemployed young
people of one of the most remote and underprivileged regions of Tanzania.
We are just ordinary people trying to achieve extraordinary accomplishments.
On behalf of everyone in the program, I thank you for listening to our young story.
