Under The Mango Tree Community enterprise

Sharing the Scottish experience with African villagers

by Alasadair Nicholson MBE MA LLB

INLUMEMo village, Morogoro Region of Tanzania, a boy of around 8 or 9 years of age peeps round a wall and smiles shyly. He wears a ragged t-shirt and obviously is not at school that day. He is one of many in the rural townships here where opportunity is limited and poverty and disadvantage are high.

Elizabeth Marjorie, a retired teacher and stalwart volunteer in the Tanzanian scout movement, who has been campaigning for a community clinic, tells me that many children walk up to 20km each way to go to school and that pregnant woman still die on the earth road as they walk to the nearest health centre.

Due to my background as an independent Community and Social Enterprise consultant with 30 years’ experience in community development and in establishing community enterprises, I am here to provide pro-bono support for RUPA, the Tanzanian Youth NGO, having first come to Tanzania as a volunteer team leader with Raleigh International, teaching enterprise skills to young villagers in 2015.