Over the years the Arusha Committee has engaged in many exchanges and official visits.  The former President of Tanzania, Mr. Benjamine Mkapa, and his wife visited Durham in 2005.   Mayor Bill Bell visited Arusha in 2008. 

The Arusha Committee’s HALO PROJECT sent 280,000 meals to Arusha, Tanzania in March 2008.  In partnership with STOP HUNGER NOW, the Triangle Park Chapter of The Links, Inc., and various other charities, the FDA approved dehydrated food provided a daily meal to over a quarter of a million orphans, AIDS victims, school children and women.  The 46,000 pounds of food was distributed throughout the 17 districts in Arusha. From this colossal initiative many families will have sufficient food for over a year.  The Arusha Committee will continue to support the need for food in Africa.

2009 is the third year we have collaborated with Christ Church Anglican Diocesan headquarters.  Mrs. Martha Makundi, (wife of Bishop Simon Makundi of the Kilimanjaro Dioceses), and her Mothers Union at Christ Church, have outfitted 20 orphans for uniforms, sweaters, socks and shoes and school supplies with the sponsorship money of 20 families here in Durham. Each sponsor has contributed $80.00 per year for a child, with whom they communicate through the school.  The children must wear uniforms in order to attend public school in Tanzania. 

The Arusha Committee in partnership with the Triangle Park Chapter of The Links, Inc. are assisting AIDS mothers in Arusha to establish a cottage industry to sew school uniforms.  This small group of mothers, who have AIDS and no means of livelihood, will use the sewing machines and fabric, provided by LINKS, to make and sell affordable school uniforms. Currently the uniforms are made in India at higher prices, so this project will enable more students to attend school.  This was an idea which came from a few people from The Friends of Arusha (our counterpart organization in Arusha ) and a few members of our Sister Cities of Durham, Arusha Committee at a meeting in Arusha a year ago.  If we raise the money here, Friends of Arusha, there, will carry out the plan.  This is quite a commitment on their part as well. The L.I.N.K.S.  Research Triangle Chapter will conduct three fundraisers this year. 

In 2004, two educators (a school principal and an art teacher) from Arusha came to Durham to participate in a Literacy Through Photography (LTP) workshop through the Duke Documentary Studies Department under Ms. Wendy Ewald.  The Arusha Committee of Sister Cities of Durham had initiated the collaboration and made all the arrangements for the one-week workshop.  It was so successful that in 2006, the director, Ms. Katie Hyde and the founder of the LTP program, Wendy Ewald, traveled to Arusha to conduct a ten day workshop with 60 Arusha teachers, funded by the Sister Cities of Durham and Duke  University. Again, the program was so successful in the Arusha school system that in 2008,  Duke  Engage funded LTP to return to Arusha for a two month program with eight Duke students to work with the whole school system, teachers and students. 

In 2009, Duke Exchange further expanded the program  with eight more Duke students.  Duke and LTP have taken this program to levels of profession expertise beyond our help.  We are very happy to have been the starters of such an innovative creative learning tool for our children in Arusha.  And we are happy that under Duke Documentary Studies and Duke Engage, so many Arusha teachers can use these methods of Learning Through Photography and art integrating skills into most subjects in the official school curriculum. 

In the late 1990s, we collaborated with Friends of Arusha to bring two students each summer to work as part of the summer staff at Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center.  We made arrangements with Ridgecrest by helping to secure visas, planned travel and short stays in Durham while Friends of Arusha chose the students, secured airline tickets, and saw to arrangements there.  We did this for four years.  The student’s work paid for most of their airfare.  It was a win –win program.

At the same time, we developed a plan with The N.C. Outward Bound School to take a student from each of our four Sister Cities for a 10 day expedition.  We did this for four years. Three out of five of our Arusha students were chosen to take advantage of the opportunity.  This was made possible by Ridgecrest who let them go from their program for 10 days to attend the Outward Bound School.

Of the five students who came to Durham and Ridgecrest, we arranged for four students  to attend college at Durham Technical Community College by inviting them to come to Ridgecrest for a second year and by working with the school’s  recommendations for college entrance.

The Arusha Committee of SCD and the Tanzanian community here collaborated to support all four of these students at attend DTCC for a year.  If they wanted to continue their education, they would have to get a job to support themselves after the first year.  They did.  Three of them have completed their degrees and two are in post graduate degrees.  They all have plans to return to Arusha.  They are a wonderfully smart and determined group of young people!

Trees for Arusha is a collaborative long-range project between the Arusha Committee of SCD and the Friends of Arusha, a not- for-profit organization similar to SCD that has established a nursery that helps citizens of Arusha by providing them with fruit tree seedlings and assisting them with proper planting and maintenance techniques. The FOA have chosen school children as the primary recipients of the seedlings in order to give them, the leaders of tomorrow, first hand experiences in the benefits of restoring and maintaining beautiful, green environments.

The Arusha Committee will continue to work with our Friends of Arusha to develop sustainable service projects that benefit the well-being  of our Arusha neighbors.