Personal testimony - Maximillian Madoro

Country: TANZANIA Name:Maximillian Emmanuel Madoro Date of birth: 23 April 1961 Home address: PO Box 422, Bunda, Nyamuswa Village, Tanzania Since the age of 14 I have been sympathetically concerned about extreme ignorance and poverty in rural Tanzania. When I reached the age of 20 I decided to become a volunteer teacher in my village school where there was not enough teachers. In the year 1983 I was lucky to get sponsorship from Swiss Catholic Priests at the Arusha Diocesan Catholic Seminary where I studied form I to half of form III in 1985 and aimed to become a priest. Unfortunately my schooling had to stop due to ill-health problems. I was ill for 5 years but in 1990 I gradually recovered. Between 1992 and 1995 I worked with the rural cotton grower's society before joining hands with the Polish Catholic priest, late Fr. Karol Szlachta to establish the Nyamuswa Catholic parish and other ten small churches between 1997 and 2002. In the year 2003, I decided to establish a non profit organization known as Zinduka (wake up) Development Initiatives Forum (ZDIF) with a mission of "to improve the living conditions and educate the impoverished people in rural Tanzania". My organization started with only six most vulnerable children including HIV/AIDS orphans who we sponsored to allow them to attend school with provision of all basic school supplies and school fee. From that time up to this moment, Zinduka has sponsored more than 500 students in different primary, secondary, vocational schools and universities within the country. Not only sponsorship, but also Zinduka builds school structures and furniture in collaboration with Project Zawadi Inc - USA, Changamano Onlus - Italy, Parainage Solidarite Afrique/Asie - France and Bunda District Council, Tanzania. Apart from the education program, we also fight against poverty in the area by supporting more than 1800 rural women with provision of small scale loans which enable them to run their own small scale businesses. By supporting these women we believe that the whole families benefit.We started this project in collaboration with the help of the Malaika Project - USA We are also involved in health issues including health education on HIV/AIDS including supporting people living with HIV/AIDS, distributing long lasting insecticide nets through a mobilization group named Nyamuswa Drama Group. We have now started another new program named Zinduka Agricultural Project, which helps small scale farmers to establish their small gardens. We supply them with kick start pumps for irrigation as well as farm inputs, such as insecticide, seeds and fertilizers. This project is supported by "Future In Our Hands - USA" through Mark Baetzhold who introduced Zinduka to FIOH. In 2004, I visited Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands and Belgium in connection with the Esperanto speaking groups where I facilitated a few workshops concerning my organization. In 2006 I visited 11 sates in the USA in connection with Project Zawadi Inc to run workshops on education for impoverished children who seriously lacked educational opportunities. I conducted workshops at the Plymouth University in New Hampshire, Hyatt Education Centre in Boston and other places. We also established a volunteer program which enabled more than 80 foreign volunteers to visit Nyamuswa to volunteer in different activities including construction of school projects, English and computer teaching program, distribution of LLINs, gardening, health issues and microfinance. In association with our contacts abroad, we are now building a web site that will offer some perspectives on the way poor people live and present practical and hopeful ideas for creating a better and fairer world for everyone. The web construction is now underway. Personal Data Wife: Adiliana Ladislaus Mganga Children: Diego, Ulsular, Innocent, Sigbert, Alkuin, Suzy and Allice. I also live with four displaced children who attend school through my own sponsorship. Qualifications: Certificate in Rural Community DevelopmentEmployment; Councilor - Bunda District Council Present organizational post: Executive Director - Zinduka DIF