In 2022, VLM began a partnership with the Vincentian Fathers and Daughters of Charity in Tanzania. Six volunteers travelled to Tanzania that year and they have begun fundraising for projects on their return.
The Daughters of Charity that run the St Catherine Laboure School in Masanga have identified a vital need for a school bus for local children who currently walk over 10 kilometres through the Serengeti to attend school. This journey can be treacherous with the constant danger of wild animals and varying weather conditions. Children arrive to the school tired and this impacts on their ability to concentrate on their work and therefore their future opportunities. VLM have taken on the fundraising project of the school bus, which has a cost of €25,000. To donate to this really worthwhile cause please go to School Bus Appeal for St Catherine’s ,Tanzania (gofundme.com). We are very thankful and really appreciate any amount you can give.
Sponsorship of the salary of a teacher for a year at St Catherine Laboure School
VLM is delighted to have partnered with Navillus, a construction company in New York, who are sponsoring the salary of a teacher at the St Catherine Laboure School run by our partners the Daughters of Charity in Tanzania. This is part of Navillus’ extensive social responsibility programme and their very generous donation will help the school continue to provide quality education to local children living in this area of extreme poverty. VLM would like to build more corporate social partnerships, and businesses would have the chance to donate to projects that have a tangible and long-lasting impact on communities. As well as sponsoring the salary of a teacher for a year, we have opportunities to contribute to the building of a centre for a women’s empowerment project or donate towards the purchase of a bus for a rural school. If this fits in with your business mission and values, please get in touch at info@vlm.ie.
Sponsorship of a Medical Student
VLM donors are sponsoring the education and associated living costs of a clinical officer for the hospital run by the Daughters of Charity in Masanga. This will benefit both the individual and their family through the provision of a sustainable livelihood and will benefit the whole community by the better health care they will receive from this additional role within the hospital.
St Raphael’s Garda Credit Union have made a donation of €200 to the Female Genital Mutilation Project in Masanga. The prevalence of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the Mara region of Tanzania is very high at 32% of the female population aged 15-49 years old. nine out of ten women in Tanzania are against the practice but it is culturally entrenched and therefore hard to abolish. The Daughters of Charity in the Masanga run an FGM project that provides a refuge to between five and six hundred girls between November and December, engages families and communities to raise awareness of the harm it causes, and aims to transform the social norms that uphold the practice. A lack of education and poor employment prospects keep women in poverty so the project also has a vocational training centre to help girls learn skills such as sewing that can provide them with a sustainable livelihood.
