News

June 2026

Blackboards, chalk and erasers for all 8 classrooms at Yamba Primary School. Thanks to Deltec Citimail Limited for this initiative and funding to cover all costs, including transport from Dar es Salaam.

May 2026

2 May 2026 – Celebrating Village Africa’s 20th Birthday! We are so proud of what has been achieved over the past 20 years & want to celebrate two decades of dedication, hard work and commitment. We would like to thank all staff, volunteers and supporters for their loyalty to the project. We have put together a little video to showcase some of the achievements from 2006-2026. Thank you for being part of this incredible journey. We hope you enjoy watching and listening.

Thank You Video from Yamba – We would also like to share this video made by Maiko Paulo, a Manager at Vyaadahikana Village Africa Tanzania. Maiko comes from Yamba and is passionate about helping his own village. He is well known to many Village Africa volunteers and visitors. Maiko initiated and kindly put together this video with sound from Yamba on behalf of the community to say thank you.

Good News – Village Africa’s New Ambulance Appeal has now reached £52,396 (61% of the £85,000 target). Many thanks to all who have contributed once or more often. All supporters, please help by fund raising or donating. https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/Village-Africa-New-Ambulance-Appeal

Baby David named after Karen Nivala’s father. Karen was a Village Africa teaching volunteer in Yamba. What a lovely way to remember a volunteer and her family. The boy was born after an emergency trip in Village Africa’s ambulance from Yamba to Magoma Health Centre. He is called David Apolnerius and his mother is Lucy Elias Mpemba from the village.

Coin collection in aid of Village Africa. Pupils at the Bishops’ C of E and R C Primary School in Chelmsford gathered coins to fill a large map of Africa in their playground. Village Africa is their global focus and they enjoy learning about Yamba and fundraising to help the children and other villagers. Many thanks to the pupils and their families for their generosity. Rebecca Tarplett, former Village Africa teaching volunteer in Yamba, kindly made the introduction to this school in Essex, UK.

April 2026

Village Africa’s ambulance service – Baby boy born after an emergency trip. Lucia Ludovick from Yamba was referred from Milingano Health Centre to Magoma. The baby is called Goodluck Isic. Many thanks to all Village Africa donors who made this journey possible.

Suitcases (for storing clothes and personal possessions at home) and umbrellas for Simba Club primary school pupils. Houses in Yamba have limited furniture. The cases will be used to protect personal belongings from dust, insects, rodents etc. Villagers often store their maize crop in the rafters which, unfortunately, can attract rats. Rats also eat clothes, plastic, soap etc! Thank you to their Village Africa Simba Club donors for their on-going assistance.

Knitted sweaters and hats for the newest babies in Yamba. Thank you to those in the UK who knitted and posted them.

March 2026

Coffee seedlings and fertiliser for Yamba. The seedlings were kindly donated by the Tanzania Coffee Research Institute (TaCRI) in Moshi, Kilimanjaro Region and the fertiliser and transport from Moshi to Yamba for both was generously funded by Village Africa donors in the UK. Five farmers are setting up demonstration farms to see how viable it is to grow coffee in the village. They all attended a coffee growing course at TaCRI first. They will use two methods (fertiliser and organic farming) to compare. Organic coffee beans fetch a higher price at market.

February 2026

Congratulations to the Campbell Family for successfully completing its challenge to walk the Malvern Hill end to end in aid of the Village Africa New Ambulance Appeal.

Sean writes

“Challenge complete! Thanks so much for all of the donations and support! We started just after 07:30 in the morning and finished the trail in around 5 hours 45 minutes, Jenny, Primrose and Dylan did amazing! The weather was fantastic bright sunshine but still fairly cold on the tops which kept us cool.”

Village Africa thanks Sean, Jenny, Primrose and Dylan for taking on this physically challenging 9.3 mile trail on Valentine’s Day and for their phenomenal fund raising. Many thanks to all who supported them and contributed.

https://www.justgiving.com/page/campbellmalvernvillageafrica

Baby Ben named after Ben Phillips who visited Yamba last year with his mother Fiona Phillips who is a past Village Africa volunteer.

New school uniforms – Primary school pupils in Village Africa’s Simba Club were measured by local tailors. Here is Yuliana Andrea with tailor Veronica Patrick – both from Yamba.

Hygiene kits distributed to primary school pupils in Village Africa’s Simba Club. (Love the little face behind the tree!) The kit included a toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, 2 hand soaps, 2 bars of laundry soap, a bucket, shoe polish and 2 pairs of socks. Thank you to all the sponsors in Village Africa’s Simba Club for their on-going kindness that supplied these and other essential educational and health items.

Tools given to 5 farmers preparing coffee-growing demonstration farms in Yamba. The tools were ropes, special scissors for coffee, shovels, rakes and tape measures. Many thanks to the UK donors.

Photo (left to right) – Mariana Gaudence, Peter Joseph and Zakia Yahaya

January 2026

Village Africa was able to fund different projects at Yamba Primary School, Yamba Dispensary and Mzizma due to a very generous donation from Deltec Citimail.

Yamba Primary School

The following work was completed

Repairing a classroom where a tree had destroyed the roof
Mending classroom floors
Painting 8 classrooms inside and outside plus rooves
Repairing 3 cupboards and 3 desks
Varnishing 3 cupboards and 69 desks.

A desktop computer and printer were also donated to Yamba Primary School before the renovation work. We hope the teachers and pupils will enjoy their new learning environment.

New Equipment

A sterilising machine and gas cylinder were donated to Yamba Dispensary. This machine will help to ensure that reusable medical devices are safe to use on patients, preventing the spread of infections.

A 1000 litre water tank was bought and installed at the Dispensary.

Electricity

Electricity has been installed at Vyaadahikana Village Africa Tanzania’s visitor area called Mzizma in the houses, kitchen, toilets, bathrooms and stores.

Congratulations to Sarah Mayne, Village Africa’s Chair (pictured centre), who won the Individual Volunteer Award at the Lloyd’s Market Charity Awards for her work with Village Africa. The Award came with a large donation to Village Africa. Thank you to the Lloyd’s of London Foundation for its generosity.

Thank you to Waterlooville Baptist Church for choosing Village Africa as one of its two Christmas charities 2025. We are extremely grateful for the generous donations to the Village Africa New Ambulance Appeal.

Good luck to 5 Yamba boys who have just started university to read the following:

Anthony Edmund – Bachelor of Arts with Education, University of Dar es Salaam
Richard Daniel – Bachelor of Arts with Education, St Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUTI) in Mwanza
Onesmo Richard, Bachelor of Arts with Education, Mwenge Catholic University (MWECAU) in Moshi
Peter Richard, Bachelor of Science with Applied Biology, Mwenge Catholic University (MWECAU) in Moshi
Moses Francis, Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, University of Dar es Salaam.