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Ministries of Hope with people with disability in rural Tanzania

November 22, 2022

It was an inspiring experience to spend a few days visiting the Methodist Church in Tanzania in the region of Lake Victoria. This is a rural area of mostly subsistence farmers and this year, like most of East Africa, the region has experienced a devastating drought that has meant that crops have not been able to be planted and as a consequence there is a real fear of famine next year.

The Methodist Church of Tanzania is a Synod under the Methodist Church of Kenya. It is centred on the lakeside Magu District of Northern Tanzania, but extends across much of northern Tanzania and as far south as Arusha. The Church has 19 Ministers, 45 Local Preachers and close to 4000 members, mostly scattered across the rural areas of the region. The vision of the MCT is to bring holistic transformation to these rural communities and enhance capacity building for strengthening the church’s presence in the region. It was a privilege to lay the foundation stones for three rural churches during my visit.

Amongst these ministries is a remarkable ministry to people with disabilities, for which MCB were able to source some funding earlier in 2022.  In many African societies, disability is a taboo subject and people with disabilities often face marginalization within their communities and even within their families. The Methodist Church in Tanzania has initiated a project that seeks to:

  • Transform the lives of people with disability by:
  • Changing attitudes within society towards disability through training and working with disabled persons and their families and communities.
  • Providing basic needs for persons with disability to enable them to live.
  • To provide skills and resources to enable persons with disability to establish their own micro-businesses.

Let me introduce some of those who have benefited. (Their pictures and information are shared with permission).

Mariam Emmanuel experiences impaired movement in her hands and feet, and also has a mental health condition. With the contributions provided by the local church, she has been able to develop a small business, the profit of which has enabled her to sustain her own income.

Laurencia Doto has significant hand and shoulder impairment. Since being supported by the local church she has been able to begin a small business selling charcoal and the profit is enabling her to live. She is immensely grateful for the support.

Sophia Bonzare is deeply thankful for all the support that she has been given. She had been having difficulty even getting enough food to eat each day, but with the help provided, she has been able to support herself, start a small vegetable plot and a small business selling fish from the lake. She humbly requests that the support can continue.

Pascal Simon has difficulty walking and has Diabetes.  With the support provided, he is now growing chickens which he is using both to feed himself and to sell for income. This has been life-transforming for him.

The child in the picture, Leokadia, has a mental health condition and is also deaf. With the support provided, her mother Antonia has been able to start purchasing and selling maize to the community and earning a small living to support her daughter. It has transformed both their lives and she is deeply grateful.

Mariam has a speech impairment and had been marginalized by the community. With support given, she has started a charcoal business. She is now able to take care of her child and herself and the attitude of the community towards her has completely changed. Mariam is a faithful Christian and walks 10km to church and back each Sunday in order to join in worship.

Victor, the child in the chair had been excluded from school because he had to be carried everywhere until the church were able to provide a chair for him and offer his family some basic support. Now Victor has been welcomed back into school and his family have started a small business. The challenge for them now is that the only secondary school that can take him is too far to travel to, so the family need to find the means to enable him to board.

The following persons are from another village:

Sophia is immensely grateful to the Church for its support. She has started a fish-selling business in the village and people are viewing her and people with disabilities with different eyes.

Elizabeth says: “The support has really helped me and I thank God that the Church has remembered me. Before, there was nothing I could do, but now I am contributing to the community and am respected by people.”

The mother of Elkana, says their lives have been transformed by the support given for Elkana. The mother, Penda, now sells coffee to make an income and this has been so successful that she wishes to start a small coffee house in the village.

Jessica says that she could not have imagined the blessings that the support would bring her. She has been able to set up a small groundnut business and can now support herself.

Makoyo has started a sugarcane business and has bought seven chickens. He says: “Life has completely changed. Before I was begging, but now I have a life of my own and can take care of myself. People now treat me with respect. I am so grateful for the support.”

All these people speak of the transformation of attitudes within their community and of now being respected in their own right. One young woman said that she no longer has to sit on the floor in a corner when she enters a house, but is given a chair and a place at table with others. This is a direct result of both the training the church has provided to the local communities and to each of the individuals.

It is inspiring to see such missional initiatives being undertaken with minimal resources in communities that struggle to sustain themselves. Please remember the Methodist Church of Tanzania in your prayers.

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