News & Events

In response to a special request at the beginning of the year, the College has produced 40 desks funded by FUM for Kiloleni Secondary School.

The SEND classroom was opened by the District Commissioner Mama Naitapwaki Lemeya and they had a bit of a party!

Here we see people enjoying the party and a new tribute sign to celebrate the opening of the building.

Our fundraising walks aim to raise £10,000 to build a much needed maternity unit, similar to that opened at Kiloleni earlier this year.

As well as general outpatient services the clinic provides a good range of maternity services, also Immunisation and Child Health care. HIV programmes include Testing and Counselling and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission. It is planned that in the near future the clinic will be able to offer laboratory services.

The official government staff roll for this clinic is 15 so the current two nurses and one attendant are kept very busy. They also receive support from a number of local volunteers for outreach work.
There are some bicycles but insufficient for the outreach work. These are often stolen en route to communities so staff saved for a motorbike.

Within the single building are rooms for consultations and treatment with smaller rooms for pharmacy, HIV counselling, vaccinations and maternal deliveries.

There is mains electricity though no solar backup. Water comes from a rainwater harvesting tank and an unreliable borehole supply whose salty water damages equipment.

Two boreholes were drilled successfully by FUM nearly 3km from Kiloleni village.

One has a hand pump fitted to supply villagers living in the area and a cattle trough.

The other is used to provide water to the clinic and new maternity unit via a buried pipeline using a solar powered pump. This was completed in autumn 2023.

We hope that the borehole supply will be sufficient to make it available also at the two schools and possibly an outlet in the centre of the village.

Here the village clinic had only one maternity bed for the 8000 population it serves and the water supply is poor.
An anonymous donor generously provided the £10,000 needed for a 4-bed maternity unit extension, now completed.
FUM fundraising in 2022 was for a better water supply. A hydrological survey and test drilling found good water 2.8 km from the clinic and from autumn 2023 a solar powered pumping scheme takes this to the clinic.

Mr Mwadua welcomed our Project Officer to the College during his visit to Tabora Region in August.  He had the opportunity to show him the new and refurbished buildings and introduce him to students.

Unfortunately, due to the very poor rains, the vegetable production scheme which the College has introduced had very poor harvests.  It is hoped that the rains will be much better in the coming season to allow this venture to flourish.

In March Mr Gulmay informed us that the College had been successful in its application to the Tanzania Forest Fund for a bee keeping project, to involve upgrading the FDC forest and improving the livelihood of the local community.

The highlight of this year was the visit by FUM’s Project Officer in August.  He stayed in Devon House for three nights which gave him some time to meet students as well as to be the first FUM officer to meet Mr Gulmay since his appointment.  It gave the opportunity to see the new buildings and refurbished facilities built in recent years.

Early in the year Mr Joseph reported that Sikonge had been selected to offer a six-month course to be funded by the Office of the Prime Minister.  This would be non-residential, students attending in the afternoons, using the same facilities as the full-time students.

On the first day of the Project Officer’s visit to Tabora Region in August, he visited Sikonge.  Once again, this was the first time that an FUM officer had had the opportunity to meet the Principal.  He enjoyed seeing the new and refurbished buildings, and was impressed by the well laid-out campus, with plenty of trees planted.  The trees include cashew nuts which, in time, can be harvested to give the College some useful income.

The 4-bed maternity unit was completed in October 2022 and opened by the popular MP for Urambo District, known locally as Mama Sitta. It makes a great difference to expectant mothers and avoids the need for many to travel 40km to Urambo Hospital by motor bike taxi.
The generosity of the anonymous FUM donors is very much appreciated.


In Swahili the plaque reads:
"This maternity building, built with funding from FUM, was inaugurated by the Honorable Member of Parliament for Urambo Margaret Simwanza Sitta on 26-10-2022"

Since autumn 2023 the clinic and maternity unit have received a good supply of water via a solar powered pump from a borehole 2.8km away.

As well as general outpatient services the clinic provides a good range of maternity services, also Immunisation and Child Health care. HIV programmes include Testing and Counselling and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission.

Provision of a rain water harvesting system with a large underground tank is the target of FUM's special fundraising for 2021 - 2022.

Most of the local citizens are
farmers and pastoralists who grow maize, rice, groundnuts, tobacco and keep cows and goats.

The village is about 25 km south west of Urambo. The road is rough but phone communication is good with three mobile networks available.