We were delighted to welcome David & Anne Curnock to St Michaels to bring us news about one of the projects that we are supporting through our church giving.  Berega in Tanzania is a group of small villages about 300km inland from Dar Es Salaam. It is a poor community that suffers from regular droughts and is noticing the clear effects of climate change.  Malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea are all commonplace particularly in young children.

David & Anne have been visiting Berega for many years now and David, as a paediatrician, has worked with the staff at the local hospital teaching clinical officers and nurses, and raising funds in the UK for vital improvements to the basic facilities they have at the hospital.

Over the years Anne has developed strong links with the primary school there and done some teaching as well as developing some holiday club training for Sunday school teachers who come from all over the area to gain training and ideas for their work in their local communities. This is done in conjunction with involvement from the bible students at the local lay training college.

The project that we at St Michael’s are supporting, in conjunction with five other UK churches, is run by Tear Fund and has the title of Church & Community Mobilisation Process (CCMP).

Church and community mobilisation involves mobilising a local church to act as a facilitator in mobilising the whole community to address their own needs.  Groups of facilitators (about 20) are trained in the process.  These facilitators then meet with groups of 15-20 people in their communities and do a series of about 6 bible studies to set the foundations. From this there is then a process of asking:-

• What are the greatest needs?
• What resources do they have?
• How can they use the available resources that are there within the community to address the needs?

We are, in part, funding the training of these facilitators as well as the monitoring and oversight of the programme. To find out in more detail how the CCMP programme works see this link.

The outcomes from the CCMP process in areas very close to Berega have brought great outcomes such as simple new wells dug to bring a more reliable supply of clean water from levels below the river bed that appear to be dried up.

We look forward to hearing more news from Berega as the process continues.