In October of this year, two of our trustees Sarah Feather and Richard Luxmore, along with their partners, travelled to Kindwitwi. The aim was to review progress made since Geoff O’Donoghue and Jennifer Cosgrave visited at the same time in 2022. The trip to Tanzania, whilst always a privilege and exciting journey does require lots of planning, time away from work and responsibilities at home as well as personal expense. Between 26 October and 1 November Sarah and Richard visited Kindwitwi. During this time, there was a special celebration in the village to mark 30 years since the death of Fr ..read more

Rufiji Leprosy Trust has benefitted from many legacies over the years – which have really changed the lives of people in Kindwitwi. We have used legacy income to support leprosy relief work, development of new needs for the village and within our daily support of the village. Thank you so much to everyone who has kindly left a bequest to us. If you are planning to include a legacy as part of your estate’s giving to charity, please do consider the Rufiji Leprosy Trust. Legacies really help RLT to deliver our work and enable us to plan in to the medium and longer term. RLT is incredibly gratefu ..read more

You will remember from the last newsletter that the Rufiji Leprosy Trust made funding available for renovations to be made to several buildings in Kindwitwi. During the trustees visit in autumn of 2022, it was clear that the buildings were really run down and not safe or hygienic to work in nor for the children and teachers to run the kindergarten from. We are happy to say that renovations to the two kindergarten buildings, the chapel and the administration building are largely complete. There are still some finishing touches needed, including connecting the buildings up so there’s electricity ..read more

Each month, we receive donations ensuring that vital support is provided to people living with disabilities because of having had leprosy or that have suffered terrible personal losses, such as the death of parents due to this illness. Every month, the team in Kindwitwi meet with this group to give out the food and the basic day to day supplies that you need to get by (soap, toothpaste, shampoo etc.). These meetings are also a good opportunity to catch up, check in on the group’s general health and well-being but also hear the latest news and gossip! Here is a picture of the last meeting of so ..read more

Maintaining strong connections with the team in Kindwitwi is vital for the effective stewardship of the donations you make to RLT. It is also an important way of making sure that we, as a trust, understand the continued and evolving needs of the community in Kindwitwi when it comes to leprosy care. There is nothing like a face-to-face meeting to ensure that things do not get lost in translation! To that end, two of our trustees will visit Kindwitwi at the end of the year, taking time away from work and family is no small thing, so we thank them both in advance for their commitment and look for ..read more

Between 6 and 15 October 2022, Geoff O’Donoghue (Co-Chair of RLT) and Jennifer Cosgrave (RLT Trustee) travelled to Kindwitwi to spend some long-overdue time with the team on the ground and re-connect with the community that your donations support. The impact of the pandemic has meant that the trustees have not been able to visit for over three years. If this global crisis has taught us anything, it is the vital role that face-to-face interaction plays in building connections and mutual understanding (in this case) between donor and community. This edition of the newsletter is dedicated to shar ..read more

As part of our new series, Stories from Kindwitwi, the trustees from RLT are collating the varied and fascinating experiences, anecdotes and stories that our global community has had in Kindwitwi.  To capture these stories, our trustees are inviting people from the RLT community to have a virtual coffee with us, to tell us about their connection with the trust, Kindwitwi, RLT, Fr Robin and Tanzania.   Our first guest was Nick Bowley, previously the Head Teacher at the International School of Tanganyika and supporter of Kindwitwi and RLT for many years.  We would like to tak ..read more

We are sorry to bring you the news that Bob Laverton MBE, who was a trustee of RLT for more than 30 years, passed away at the age of 100 earlier this month.  Amongst his many accomplishments, Bob spent forty-two years with Lloyds Bank plc, of which 22 were in branch management. He saw war service in the RNVR 1941 – 1946, extending his service with the RNR to 1971 (Reserve Decoration). He was a founder trustee of RLT and in 2004, Bob was awarded an MBE for “services to RLT in Tanzania”. This picture was taken in 1992 on a visit Bob made to Kindwitwi. Bob, on the right, is with Canon R ..read more

For this instalment of the Newsletter, we asked the team in Kindwitwi to share with us the story of the Ward, which is one of the most important projects that your donations continue to support.  In their own words, this is what the team told us! Kindwitwi Leprosy Ward was built when father Robin Lamburn the Anglican Church Missionary from England when he came to Kindwitwi 1963. During this time he was in his work of serving the Christians of Utete as one of Masasi Mtwara area where he was serving as Priest. Father Robin Lamburn found leprosy patients when he was passing on the road of Da ..read more

The Kindwitwi Kindergarten has 61 children at the moment, 33 boys and 28 girls.  All children that attend the Kindergarten are children from Kindwitwi Leprosy patients and their families. They go to Kindergarten from 2 years old, and then join Primary school when they are 6 or 7 years old. Mothers of these children are happy because they get time to do other things like fetching water, digging and even going to their fields, so they are thanking donors for their assistance. At the Kindergarten we have two teachers and one cook, all of which is made possible because of donations from RLT ..read more