Thare Machi Education

technology bringing knowledge and hope

Jack's report

"We have made it back safe and sound. Nigel and I have been through a lot in the past 5 months. We flew out into Nairobi in the middle of the troubles in January meaning we were unable to do a lot of the work we were meant to do for tme. As we were unable to do any work we moved onto Tanzania where we were able to get links with ICAP an international charity who work in the care and prevention of Aids.
After this we moved onto Malawi, where we met up with a tme link which meant we were able to then use the DVD players and discs in local villages. This gave us the opportunity to get a total of three translations for future recording.
Eventually we moved onto Zambia with a new companion called David, who flew in to meet us in Lilongwe. With him we met up and were able to work in a school in Zambia and get 2 recordings done. Unfortunately only one of these recordings was any good due to the difficulties of background noise. If it wasn't children playing outside the school it was the thunderstorm coming in overhead or traffic coming past the room. Despite all this we got one half decent recording which I hope can be used for a new DVD.
During the rest of our travels we constantly met people who needed the use of these DVDs in schools, hospitals and local villages.
The place I felt needed these DVD players the most was our last port of call in Nairobi. This was the Kibera slums, where we met with the Pastor of a local church who had also started a primary and secondary school. The houses in the area didn't have toilets and no room to dig a hole (you may know where that's going), so don't step on the plastic bags. The health centre was a small hut which if they were lucky had Panadol. Most people in the slums have HIV and have family members with HIV. The DVDs will be extremely useful in the church and the schools. It was amazing in the brief time we were there to see such bright young children able to learn using these machines.
I have completely enjoyed my experience in Africa and thank everyone for their support and I am so grateful that I could help tme. At least I hope I have been of some help. I have fallen in love with the people of Africa and you can be assured this will not be my last trip there."



The first two pictures are of people watching DVDs in Malawi.

The third picture is of the slums and the forth picture is of a river of poo in the slums.