What We Did in 2018

Installed a solar pump with portable panels that supplies water from Lake Victoria to the 8 acre plot provided by the Village Council to be used to support families living with orphans in Kinesi Village. In 2018, after a meeting with guardians, we offered each family to take a part of the plot to grow their own food. GRA provides water, compost and seeds. The project is working very well, and many of the families are growing their own organic food to sell or to bring home.

This plot grows hundreds of trees for food, lumber, habitat, staple foods like corn, beans, sweet potatoes, sorghum, cassava, peanuts and a variety of vegetables and plants for medicinal purposes.

GRA distributed more than 100,000 trees for carbon offset, economic opportunity and to support the local communities. This brings the total number of trees planted since inception of the project in 2011 to over 710,000. In December we received an order of 210,000 more trees to be planted in 2019 and the team has prepared the nursery to fulfill this order. Our goal – 1,000,000 trees planted by the end of 2020.

Maintained a team of two trainers and four to six permanent workers to operate the tree nursery on the 8 acre permaculture plot in Kinesi Village and planted more than thirty different varieties of trees in the nursery including fruit, medicinal, timber, ornamental, fencing and nitrogen fixing trees.

Trained approximately 175 individuals and community groups as well as several thousand students in 41 schools to plant and care for trees. Free trees were given to those individuals and groups that prepared holes to plant the trees. This year we have continued to focus our efforts on educating children to plant trees at their school grounds. Most schools have a good track record of keeping the trees alive providing care on a regular basis. We have supported more than 150 primary and secondary schools in the region (Rorya, Butiama and Tarime Districts) since 2011.

We have covered about 665 hectares of land and served nearly 3,000 customers since 2011.

Continued to grow, process and sell herbal products at affordable prices to over 500 customers for all types of tropical diseases including malaria, typhoid, parasites, yellow fever, amoebas and tuberculosis. We also continued to produce and distribute a superfood made of moringa and amaranthus that greatly enhances the wellbeing of people suffering from malnutrition or living with HIV/AIDS and other chronic conditions.

Provided free remedies for over 150 people most in need like orphans, elders and the poorest of the poor. GRA herbalist Lucy Ndege also offered consultations for those in need.

Free distribution and training on the use of Master Mineral Supplement (MMS) to disinfect water, treat malaria, and other tropical diseases with outstanding success.

Completed the 15th consecutive year of the Tumaini kwa Watoto (Care for the Children) program that provides 65 orphans living with foster families in the Musoma area with food, healthcare, school supplies, school fees for secondary school students, vocational training and colleague fees, uniforms, shoes, clothes and weekly activities at the GRA-Tz office compound.

Continued support for 75 families caring for orphans in Kinesi Village. The program provides supplemental food, clothes, health care, school fees, vocational training and colleague fees for those that achieve that level of education as well as other supplies. About 35 of the families produce their own organic food at the two GRA-Tz permaculture plots.

This year we continued to make an effort to provide further heath care coverage for all children and their guardians in the programs, both in Kinesi and Musoma and enrolled all orphans and guardians in a government program that provides health care IDs for disadvantaged citizens.

Provided after-school English, math and science for the kids in the program several days a week both in Musoma town and Kinesi Village. These classes are helping our students to be better prepared for their national exams and have a better chance to qualify for secondary education.

For the first time, 100% of the kids in the Musoma program graduating from primary school passed the secondary school entrance exams. The national average is about 30%.

Provided continuing scholarships for all 28 of the kids from the two orphans programs now enrolled in vocational trainings, colleges and universities.

This year we succeeded in selling our drilling equipment to a contractor in Mwanza, a large city about 200 miles from Musoma. The monthly payment we receive is used to fund the orphans and herbal health programs.

In total, since 2009, we drilled a total of just over 200 boreholes in rural villages without adequate access to clean, safe water. Of those, 135 proved to have sufficient quantity and quality of water to be developed into working wells - serving 10s of thousands of villagers with this life sustaining resource.

Two of our former Maji Mengi (Abundant Water) managers now operate their own successful rural water supply businesses in the Musoma area, serving the needs of local communities. We have referred a number of clients their way to drill boreholes, flush wells, install new water pumping systems or service existing ones. We are pleased that the water needs of the area are now served by local, home-grown businesses so we can focus on other needs not being met.

What We Did in 2019