Alumni References: Kate Greaves: eatmorestrawberries@hotmail.com
Diana Kirby: a@kirbya.fsnet.co.uk
Rebecca Di Sunno: rdisunno@optonline.net
Description: The Moshi Disabled Network (MDN-Pride) is a Kilimanjaro region NGO, owned and operated by local workers with disabilities and their advocates. The group runs a rehabilitation aids and small crafts workshop located within the municipal region of Moshi.
The primary aim of “MDN-Pride” is for the workers with disabilities and their families to learn to help themselves become more independent with activities of daily living. As well, the group educates family members and community members about the challenges faced by those living with physical challenges, to alleviate the stigma associated with having disabilities. The Hesperian Foundation lay health manuals serve as a guide for its members while they learn how to help themselves and their community (1).
The group meets in a temporary place on the property of an engineering shop. The group is currently trying to find a more permanent location, as the space has been donated to the group for just a year.
Background: Proposed and implemented in 2004-2005 by Dayna Lorraine Wolfe,M.D., an American specialist in Cross Cultural Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Dr Wolfe was selected to be a University of Minnesota Center for Human Rights Fellow for 2004. The fellowship project proposal goal was to facilitate community integration and development via improved mobility for women with disabilities.
There is a stigma in Tanzanian culture about people with disabilities, and many families hide children who may be physically disabled. The group provides outreach and services to about 20 disabled people in their homes in Rau Village. In light of these cultural attitudes, as well as the fact that there are no other organizations providing this type of support, it is likely to infer that there are more people in the Moshi area in need of these services.
The group has no professional teaching support, so teaching of skills will be provided by the disabled group members. However, there are 2 non-disabled volunteers who work 5 mornings a week, and one disabled member who works with them.
Business philosophy: Sustainable self-help and community integration for people with disabilities. This business welcomes assistance and friendship from any volunteer wishing to align with the workers in achieving its mission, but it is not dependent upon their presence for successful operations. The hope is that by empowering people with physical challenges, they will improve their social-economic condition as well as providing an example to other disabled people in the area. Meetings are held with the elders of the village, and the group holds talks in schools and health centers.
The members of the group make products such as rain sticks, paintings, arm cycles, clothes, embroidery, handbags, woodwork, mats, and shoes. The proceeds of the sales contribute to the purchase of sugar, rice and clothing to bring to the villages when the group does home visits. The group welcomes volunteers who can look for new markets for them to sell these products, and think of new products that can be made with local materials such as banana skins, beans and wood.
Management Roles and Responsibilities:
There are currently 3 people in the group with management roles. These are:
Nicksibo Kiputa – Marketing Manager
Grace Japhet Makanyaga – Supervisor and bookkeeper
Kawawa Salim – Carpenter and Resource Manager
Nicksibo is responsible for marketing and sales of the items. In addition, he makes recommendations on the price of each item based upon the time and materials used to make the item. He is a talented painter and he also promotes the organization in the Moshi area.
Mama Grace is responsible for making sure that the workers are aware of the objectives of the project and of what is expected of them in the group. She keeps records on the attendance and accounts for the group, and also informs the group members of health and safety issues for their work.
Kawawa is responsible for providing the correct materials to make the handicrafts. He is a carpenter and a welder by trade, and he was not born disabled, rather he became disabled later in life. He has many skills and is willing to share them with others.
Membership qualifications:
• Tanzanian residents with physical, sensory, or cognitive disabilities
• Non-disabled advocates who demonstrate a significant commitment towards serving the above population, and bring a skill which is needed to advance the aims of the business
• Local business operators who donate their time or materials to the business
Volunteers needed to assist with immediate development in the following areas:
• Computer training (word processing, graphics, data entry, accounting, internet use)
• Leadership training
• Material management (elementary properties, handling and care of materials used by workers)
• Training of lay health workers to provide home health services to local citizens with disabilities
• Continue building community grass roots liaison/mentor program with TATCOT (Tanzanian Training Center for Orthopedic Technologists)
• Micro business management, sustainability, and ethics
• Bring new ideas for crafting of locally marketable and sustainable products
• Physiotherapists can help those with physical challenges to do exercises and stretches
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5 comments:
“Moshi Disability Network is run by a lady called Mama Grace. A mother of four or five and a grandmother to two, she was a volunteer here and was loved dearly by everyone. The purpose of the charity was to help the local disabled population in any way possible. Mama Grace would visit the sick in their homes and give out food and clothes parcels when she could. The money for the food and clothes was generated by the community.
The organization met in an old run down yard. A local artist paints for the network and give some of his profits to Mama Grace for her to buy food and the like for the disabled.
One of the previous volunteers had written to local restaurants asking if they could help out donating left over food to be distributed but there had been no response. Perhaps this is one example of how the disabled, (along with sufferers of AIDS) are ostracized and segregated from the community. We had said that we would recommend to CCS volunteers any restaurant that did take part in the project.
My role here was to help the local artist with his paintings, for example putting spots on giraffes or coloring stuff in. This was really a job for an artist but as there was no one volunteering for that week I was just helping out until the new volunteer got there. Also I accompanied Mama Grace on the home visits on two occasions. The majority of the Disabled had not been born disabled. Many had been pulled out with forceps at birth or suffered long tem mobility problems due to malaria.
One lady had even been treated when she had had malaria but the drugs hadn’t work so she was left disabled. It was frustrating to see because some of these disabled people had they been in England or a more affluent country than Tanzania at least, they would have been healthy. Mama Grace and I went to visit them and tried to comfort them and take note of their most pressing needs. Whether or not Mama Grace will have yet been able to help them with these needs unfortunately I do not know.”
The Moshi Disabled Network is an organization started in 2004 dedicated to improving the equality of life for residents of the Moshi District who suffer from a physical or sensory disability.
The aim of the network is to provide assistance to the disabled in a manner that increases their productivity, mobility and independence. Three main activities are carried out in pursuit of this aim:
• Physiotherapy and mobility.
• Education of members and their families.
• Revenue generating projects to assist members and their families with nutrition, medical care and education.
GET INVOLVED
There are different ways to become involved in the Moshi Disabled Network.
• As a member – if you or a member of your family have a physical or sensory disability.
• As and advocate – if you would like to help the disabled of Moshi. Help can take many forms: home care, physiotherapy, selling products, education and others.
MOSHI DISABLED NETWORK
PO BOX 1655
Moshi, Tanzania
Contact:
Grace Makanyaga
0786 826 201
Email:
moshi_disabled_network@hotmail.com
You can also visit our workshop on Kaunda Street, in the back of Kinabo Engineering in downtown Moshi.
Improving the equality of life for the disabled of the Moshi Region
DATABASE TEMPLATE
Moshi Disabled Network Database
NAME FEMALE / MALE
DATE OF BIRTH
ADDRESS
NEXT OF KIN
________________________________________________________________________
PRESENTING CONDITION
HISTORY OF CONDITION
PAST MEDICAL HISTORY
GENERAL HEALTH (hospital admissions etc)
MEDICATIONS
FUNCTIONAL ACTIVITIES
Sitting Balance:
Standing Balance:
Mobility:
Other:
Additional Aids (walking aids, standing frames, wheelchair):
COMMUNICATION
Speech:
Hearing:
Sight:
Communication aids (communication boards)
Other (lack of insight, unable to comprehend information etc)
SOCIAL HISTORY
Family Situation:
Care provider:
Personal Hygiene:
Level of Education:
Other
GOALS
What would you like to achieve? (Functionally, socially etc)
Identifiable needs from additional assessment
Created…..
Date…..
CONTINUATION SHEET Jina/Name
Tarehe/ Date
Sign
Articles of Association
Name: Moshi Disabled Network (MDN)
“Live, Learn, Love”
“ishi, Jifunze, upendo”
Logo “Giraffe in Wheelchair” by Nicksibo
Preamble: Moshi Disabled Network was initiated for the sole purpose of increasing the equality of life for the disabled. Owned and operated by local residences with disabilities, and their advocates, in an effort to learn how best to help themselves.
Founded in October 2004, by Dayna Wolfe, M.D. based on the Hesperian Foundation lay health manuals that serve as a guide for its members and advocates.
Head Office: Kaunda Street
Moshi, Tanzania
Address: P.O. Box 1655
Moshi, Tanzania
Goals: The goal is to establish a model that aligns resources and expertise of Moshi Disabled Network and the community to provide training and services to disabled individuals through a creative network of renewable resources.
To increase the disabled individuals earning potential creating economic independence.
To increase mobility of the disabled, thereby elevating their visibility as productive members of their community.
To provide information and training that can be difficult to obtain elsewhere to increase productivity.
Increased personal empowerment through a network of like people, who wish to learn and increase their independence.
Objectives: To provide assistance to the disabled in a manner that increases productivity, mobility, and independence.
Mission Statement: Moshi Disabled Network is an independent, user led organization that is committed to assist the underserved disabled and their families through a network of pooled renewable resources.
Vision Statement: To actively reach out to the disabled and their families in a way that successfully integrates the disable individual back into the community through a network of available resources and training.
Membership: Any residents of the Moshi District with physical or sensory disability regardless of gender, age, religious belief, or sexual orientation who suffer from a disability that keeps them from participating in normal daily activities.
Conditions: Members are to comply with all agreed upon terms and conditions of the Moshi Disabled Network organization. Failure to do so may result in cancellation of membership, at which time, all unused resources and materials granted by the organization should be returned.
Reinstatement of a revoked membership may be granted by a unanimous vote of the Advisory Board.
Advisory Board: Board members are to be nominated and elected with a majority consensus at Moshi Disabled Network’s annual meeting. Any citizen age 18 or older of the Moshi District is eligible to participate. A board member is elected for one year with a three-term maximum.
The Advisory Board will have no less than three posts and should always maintain an odd number of participants to avoid impasses. Dayna Wolfe, M.D. and founder of Moshi Disabled Network has been invited to serve as an advisor to the board, as a non-voting member.
Advisory Board will convene as needed, but no less than once every three months (quarterly).
Advisory Board has responsibility to oversee the activities of Moshi Disabled Network.
The Advisory Board is required to review all financial records and productivity on a quarterly basis.
Organizational: Moshi Disabled Network consists of all volunteers that include an Advisory Board (5), Participating Members (16), and Management (3) positions held by residences of Moshi District.
Executive Director/Bookkeeper: Responsible for the day-to-day operation and production. They are to ensure participants pursue the goals and objectives of the organization. This position also requires traveling to the member’s homes that are unable to reach Moshi Disabled Network headquarters.
It is the Executive Director’s responsibility to keep detailed and accurate records of all monetary transactions. Dual custody and receipt procedures have been implemented. Financial records and inventory to be audited on a quarterly base by the Advisory Board.
Marketing Manager: Creates and revises marketing strategies that effectively competed in surrounding markets and is dependant upon current production and the cost to manufacture.
Materials Specialist: Maintains appropriate levels of materials on site for production of goods and services; and is responsible to procure best possible pricing for materials.
Additional non-management support comes from volunteers of disabled families and their advocates, as well as, local businesses, charities and international organizations.
Source of Income: Membership fees to be determined by the newly elected advisory board in collaboration with the District Office of Registration.
Income is derived from the net proceeds of goods sold and manufactured by Moshi Disabled Network. Revenues help to purchase additional materials to make products, making it a self-stainable organization. Current product list:
Beaded Jewelry
Tinga Tinga Paintings
Pillow Cases
Handbags
Rainstick
Balls
Donation of labor is supplied by the disabled, their families, staff and volunteers. Other revenues include donation of goods and monetary gifts.
The Moshi Disabled Network headquarters is located at a rent-free space generously donated by Kinabo Engineering.
Dissolution
of MDN: The dissolution of Moshi Disabled Network requires a unanimous board approval. At which time a committee formed by the membership will convene to make further recommendations before action to dissolve is taken; creating the possibility to form a new Advisory Board.
Addendum
Current Staff:
Grace Japhet Makanyaga, Executive Director/Bookkeeper
Mrs. Makanyaga comes to Moshi Disabled Network with over ten years experience as a bookkeeper and supervisor. She is trained in health and safety and has proven to be a highly effective production manager. During Mrs. Makanyaga time with Moshi Disabled Network she has successfully training and worked with a variety of volunteers from around the world. In addition, Mrs. Makanyaka is highly skilled in counseling families with disabilities.
Nicksibo Kiputa, Marketing Manager
Mr. Kiputa supports Moshi Disabled Network through his expertise in marketing and sales promotion. He is also an asset in the pricing and profitability of the organization. Mr. Kiputa is a contributor to the financial well being through his donation of 100% of the profit from small paintings.
Kawawa Salim, Materials Specialist
Mr. Salim is a carpenter and a welder by trade, prior to becoming disabled himself. He continues to work and be productive making him a viable asset to the community. Experienced in purchasing of materials has been with MDN since inception. Mr. Salim is an exemplary example of MDN mission.
Current Membership:
1. Janeth Leon Kisima
2. Isdory Peter
3. Aidan Shayo
4. Filbert Felix
5. Josephina Colmani
6. Magreth Simoni
7. Aloyce Mreme
8. Zenans Peter
9. 9. Magreth Stephen
10. 10.Olympia Dominick
11. 11. Danieli S. Komu
12. 12. Hawa Hamadi
13. 13. Kawawa Salimu
14. 14. Mustapha Idi
15. 15. Mohamedi Ramadhani
16. 16. Catherine Shayo
Financial and Asset Information
Bank: Nelson Mandela Branch Bank
Account Balance: Tsh 66,000
Inventory and Goods for Sale: TSh 300,000
Additional finance and accounting information available upon request.
Minutes of th first Meeting to start a network
18 January 2006
Subject: Formation of the new Nongovernmental Organization.
Attending: Grace Japhet
Fulgence Msaki
Kawawa Salin
Nicksibo Kiputa
Mustapha Idi
Mohamedi Ramadhani
Moses Polepole * by telephone
Diana Rummel * as facilitator
The purpose of this meeting was to collectively agree on the guidelines to form a new nongovernmental organization known as Moshi Disabled Network. The articles of association were drafted and reviewed prior to the meeting.
After a brief introduction and an overview of the focus, the meeting began with Fulgence Msaki interpreting the details of the name, preamble, location, and address of the new association. It was agreed upon as written and passed unanimously.
The meeting proceeded to review the structure of the organization and after extensive explanation and discussion it was decided to elect an advisory board of directors in which an Executive Director would report. The existing staff members would remain the same and volunteers would be considered staff. While some staff are considered members, not all staff are disabled, therefore serve in a voluntarily capacity. This motion was made and passed unanimously by all in attendance.
Next on the agenda was the determination of time any one person may serve on the advisory board. The original draft indicated that a board member serve a three year term with a two term maximum; however, the majority agreed on a revision to the article reducing a board member’s term to one-year with a three-term maximum. This change passed with a unanimous vote by all in attendance.
It was also agreed that the Advisory Board will maintain a minimum of three members and they must be at least eighteen years of age, and must live in the Moshi District. The Advisory Board is to meet regularly at a minimum of once every three months.
Kawawa Salim nominated Fulgence Msaki to start the nominations of the first official advisory board. Also nominated and approved were Moses Polepole, Mr. Kinabo, Janeth Kisima and Mustapha Idi. All those nominated were unanimously elected by the voting membership.
With the board in place it was recommended that Dr. Dayna Wolfe, founder, be invited to serve as an honorary non-voting board member. At the time the minutes were written no response for the request had been received from Dr. Wolfe.
The goals, objectives and mission statement were approved as submitted without revision, along with the vision statement. This subject matter had been previously outline at the time Moshi Disabled Network was formed in 2004.
Membership was discussed and it was determined that the organization would not be capable of managing those people disabled from mental illness. The focus of this organization was to be limited to those with physical or sensory disabilities.
A motion was made to change the name and responsibility of the supervisor and bookkeeper to be the “Executive Director” in order to standardize the organization with other NGO. This motion was approved unanimously.
The final business for formation was to discuss the dissolution of Moshi Disabled Network. It was determined that if the Advisory Board elected to dissolve the NGO a special committee selected from the membership would be formed in order to review the current status of Moshi Disabled Network. The committee will then have the final authority to decide whether to dissolve Moshi Disabled Network or elect a new board in order to continue the organization.
As part of this meeting current Moshi Disable Network discussed current business, which included an agreement to join the Tahea Network in order to add a distribution center for the selling of goods. All in attendance passed this unanimously.
It was agreed that the submission for registration should be given as soon as possible.
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