4. Overview of Activities during the visit of CHAMAVITA representatives to SPOT Tanzania in The Netherlands

Mrs Imelda Mchome and Hande Mwanjela expressed their thanks to Chamavita members to have selected them to represent Chamavita in the Netherlands. They explained how good the SPOT Tanzania members received them, especially the Kempenaar family: mama Els, Kempenaar, Anton and Marten;

They had an intensive and extensive visit and tour of the country. During the visits two PowerPoint presentations of the activities of CHAMAVITA sine 1996 were being presented to various guests.

Presentation in Dutch was performed by Kees Kempenaar / Els de With and in English by Hande Mwanjela / Imelda Mchome.The presentations were to:

  • private donors
  • At Leimuiden the village of Els and Kempenaar , at Oostzaan- the workplace of Mr. Kempenaar, Enschede and Den Helder organized by Ko and his sons(all members of SOPT Tanzania);
  • Presentations to specifi groups
  • Youngsters and tutors of “Gast aan tafel” Zutphen- this is a special school
  • Pupils and teachers of primary school De Weerklank Alphen aan den Rijn- this is Mama Els School – she teaches here. Mwanjela and Mama Mchome sang a popular Dutch song – “ Brother Joseph”
  • Rotary Club Rijnwoude – this is one of the funders for the rehabilitation of Rangwi – two years back mama Nathan had symbolically received their contribution when she was there
  • Brief talks in Church servies
  • Roman catholicchurch Leimuiden- Mwanjela and Mama Mchome were welcomed by a Kiswahili song. The song was repeated during the service. After the service, church members get together for a talk. Afterwards the church quire sang a goodbye song: Kwa heri, Kwa heri rafiki tutaonana tena. “It was very moving to see the wazungu singing Kiswahili songs”, Mwanjela and mama Mchome commented
  • Dooppsgezinde Kerk Aalsmeer- This mama Els and Kempenaar’ church. Mwanjela participated in a sing quire
  • Protestantse Kerk Leimuiden – This is the church of a fellow who visited Lushoto before the visit to the Netherlands
  • Meeting with possible future cooperation
  • Provincial Waterbedrijf Noord Holland P.W.N at Haarlem with Leo Commandeur and Harry Rolf- the meeting was fruitful. Mr. Harry welcomed the visitors. Coincidentally Mr Rolf was presenting to fellow employees the the development of the Kwemakame research. Thereafter we held discussion with Mr. Rolf and his boss. The discussion was on how CHAMAVITA can cooperate with PWN. We were asked to prepare explanation as to what kind of cooperation we would like to have with them. This was discussed and drafted by Mwanjela and Kempenaar(Mchome was in Germany). As good gesture for good cooperation PWN offered to give CHAMAVITA 5. service water meters. If CHAMAVITA is able to calibrate and use them PWN is willing to give more meters
  • Waterleidingbedrijf Noord Holland Vitens at Leeuwarden.- also CHAMAVITA needs to indicate in which area we can cooperate with this university.
  • Van Hall Lavenstein at Leeuwarden – This is a big institution. It can only cooperate with comparable institutions. Here it was suggested, maybe to ask Tanga Municipal Water Authority to cooperate with Van Hall. CHAMAVITA can cooperate with Van Hall indirectly. We have to approach the Tanga municipality for this.
  • Aqua for All with Dick Bouman and Harry Rolf

After a tour to harvesting sites we had a very brief meeting. It was for less than 10 minutes. The discussion centred on how to finalize the pilots: It was required for up to December 2011

  • A budget
  • Plans
  • Request before deadline of A4A

Mwanjela and Kempenaar have started working on it

Besides presentations the members had tour to various important places, eg, The Future land, DelftUniversity, City of Amsterdam, to wind mills, to meuseum

Lastly we had a winding up meeting with SPOT Tanzania members. This is where we came to know that SPOT in Dutch is CHAMAVITA in Kiswahili. We discussed the future cooperation, we discussed the problem of acquiring a plot for the WSC, Mwanjela presented future projects for CHAMAVITA (it was noted SPOT members would like to have more details on the projects). We then exchanged presents.

The following day we left the country. We were escotted by Els, Kempenaar and Mr. Ko

Prepared by:

Imelda Mchome and Hande Mwanjela

1