The team have been busy on the worksites as the houses begin to take shape into homes. On Mama Valentina's site, the team arrived on Tuesday, our second day on the worksites, to find the foundations ready to line with rocks and move on to the next stage of the foundations. View of Mount Kilimanjaro on the way to Mama Valentina's site Mama Valentina and her 6 children used to live in a rented house before her husband passed away three years ago. Unable to pay the rent, the family found themselves homeless. A friend kindly opened up their home to provide them…

Our team of volunteers from Babcock International, the first to participate in the Babcock - Vine Trust Volunteering Partnership, landed at Kilimanjaro airport on Saturday evening, tired but estatic to have finally arrived. The team of twenty-six will spend the next 2 weeks supporting local builders in the construction of new homes, and a new life, for 3 families in the Moshi area.  After a quick dinner at our hostel, the team headed to bed, excited to start their adventure. Sunday began with a traditional Tanzanian breakfast of chapati pancakes, egg and plantain bananas. The team then took a stroll around…

The October General Home-Building Expedition team had a busy weekend last week, with an early start to Saturday morning as they continued to work in two separate groups between the homes of Samwel and twins Nora and Dora.  The group at Samwel's site spent the day collecting water for cement mixing,mixing cement and passing buckets of cement to the fundis along with bricks, bricks and more bricks!  The team at Nora and Dora's home started their day by passing buckets of soil to level the foundations in the rooms and then moved on to lift and pass heavy bricks close to the home…

The first week of the October Home-Building Expedition has flown by and the team are making fantastic progress on the worksites. After a half day supporting the fundis, or local builders, on Wednesday morning, the team spent the afternoon playing with the children who stay at Kimashuku Children's Home. Kimashuku was built with support from Vine Trust volunteers between 2011 and 2013 and is always a favourite for new and returning volunteers to visit. After the first week on the worksites, the houses are beginning to take shape. Once the sites have been cleared and the foundations marked out and dug, stones are…

Our October Home-Building Expedition Team left for Moshi, Tanzania early Sunday morning, with Team Leader Wendy already in-country ready to welcome them to Tanzania. Wendy was honoured to be able to attend the home-opening ceremony of Bibi Angus and her grandchildren, whose new home had been constructed with the support of our School Expedition team from West Calder and James Young high schools in June/July earlier this year. The home-building team arrived safely on Sunday evening to be greeted by our Tanzanian coordinators, Ben & Elly, and Wendy. The team took Monday morning to cover some inportant information during their in-country orientation…

(By Dr Julia McLean) I have just returned after working for 2 weeks on Jubilee Hope on Lake Victoria in Tanzania which was an amazing and very rewarding experience. There were 3 doctors (including a very experienced Vine Trust volunteer) and a pharmacist from Scotland and as soon as we arrived we were made to feel very welcome on the boat. Before commencing work, we were given a tour of the boat and an introduction to tropical medicine by Dr Simeon, the national doctor, which proved to be indispensable. On the boat, we consulted upstairs under a canopy. We saw…