Newsletter for MS-Tanzania

For MS partners and development workers in Tanzania.

July 2004

Editor: Information worker Michael Bech
Editor-in-chief: Director Finn Petersen

Closing time

Already now you can feel the pressure ease on the streets of Dar es Salaam in rush-hour. As all the schools are closed there’s no long car lines with impatient drivers in the morning trying to get into the big city.

Tanzania is preparing for the winter. And the winter in Tanzania is the time for the leave, so people are now getting prepared for the ‘safari’ - and to closed or empty offices. MS-Tanzania will not be closed for the winter, but a lot of people from the country office will be on vacation the coming two months.

News from the director

In June a meeting was organised by MS-Tanzania, SNV, Concern and ActionAid with participants from national organisations, international organisations, representatives from the Vice-Presidents office and international donors. The purpose of this meeting was to generate a general appreciation of the concept of working in partnerships with national CSO’s to achieve diverse development goals, especially among donors. The four organising organisations hope that the first meeting created enough interest for us to meet twice a year and discuss issues of common concern and strengthening the liaisons between the different entities.

On a personally note, I will be going on my annually leave 19^th July and be back in the office 16^th August with my batteries fully charged. So to all of you, having vacation now and in the near future enjoy it and we will meet later and exchange vacation stories.

New head of International Department

Bente Topsøe-Jensen has her first day on the job today (1^st July) as International Director at MS in Denmark.

Bente Topsøe-Jensen's e-mail address will be btopsoe@ms.dk

A good link

A good and informative website addressing reproductive health and lifestyle issues in general is now accessible. The interactive bilingual website (English and Kiswahili) can be found on http://www.chezasalama.com

The site was launched by the deputy Minister for Health on 27^th April and a lot of local and international media has been interested in the new initiative. Amongst other things the website has a section with the whole ‘sexual alphabet’ from A to Z.

PAB-meeting

The second PAB-meeting of the year is taking place at the country office 1^st and 2^nd July. On the agenda will – amongst other things - be fundraising strategies, the new MShikamano meeting and the intercultural cooperation guidelines.

DW’s grounded

Right now MS-Tanzania is experiencing problems getting work permits in the districts of the new partnerships.

For two of the development workers the obstacles mean that they are now ‘grounded’ and for the time being not able to work with their partners. Jesper Bosse Joensson from CORDS in Arusha and Michael Lund Soerensen from UVUKI in Kibaha will have to wait for their working permits before they can start working again.

Out and around the CO

The programme officer Joan Lohay will be visiting partners around Bagamoyo and Dar es Salaam in part of the coming month. Another part will be spent on leave from 6^th July to 19^th July.

As per 6^th July 2004 Sued Ntambwe has been employed as our new administrative officer. Sued Ntambwe is 30 years and has been working as ‘Country Office Accountant’ for Care International Tanzania in Dar es Salaam. Before he joined Care International he worked first as field accountant and later as assistant programme area accountant for Plan International in Morogoro.

We welcome Sued in our MS-CO Team!

Financial Course

End July a financial course for the accountants of all our partner organisations will be arranged in Dar es Salaam. The purpose of the course is to train the accountants in the new ‘Financial Management System’, especially within budgeting and accounting of MS Funds. Invitation will be sent out as soon as possible.

Contact for the Newsletter: michael_bech@net.dialog.dk – mobile 0744 - 87 40 80