This Article was written by Jo Whiting, originally written on July 19.
Bwana Yesu Asifiwe! God is good, all the time; all the time, God is good!
For this issue of our report from Tanzania, we thought you might be interested in just what we do for Bega Kwa Bega (BKB) during our eight weeks here. Please see the Tidings from the past two weeks for background on what BKB is and does.
As volunteer office coordinators for BKB, we undertake four primary tasks:
Banking. Many dollars come into BKB—from SPAS, from the 75+ US churches with partner parishes here in the Iringa Diocese, from individual donors, from fees for traveling groups, from BKB affiliates (more on those next week), etc. All those dollars must be sent to Tanzania, exchanged into Tanzanian shillings, and then distributed to the appropriate bank account of the school with scholarship students, or the vendor building a church or a school or a dispensary or digging a well, or the hospital providing surgical and maternity services, or the safari camp or hotel or transportation provider for visitors from America. Our part in this process is to receive written requests for funds to be paid, to assure that the requestor has adequate funds on account, and then to arrange payment to the school, vendor, or other entity. Until just a very few years ago, these payments had to be done in person at the various banks—and in cash. Now the banks have instituted electronic payments systems that work for most accounts, which has made this all work much more efficiently. We still must satisfy the accounting gods, however, so we keep daily disbursement sheets and make sure there is adequate documentation for all payments we make.
Hosting guests. As the representatives of SPAS BKB on the ground here, we are fortunate to host the groups that come from the US while we are here. For the most part, these are groups from the churches in Minnesota with partner parishes here. The group sizes generally range from six to ten. Although the group itineraries are planned ahead of their travels here, we greet the groups upon arrival, answer questions about their plans and about where to shop and about how to get around town, escort them to the diocese headquarters for an orientation session on what the diocese here does, provide funds from their travel accounts as necessary—and sometimes see to medical or other situations that come up.
School visits. Twice a year, in January and July, BKB visits each of the six secondary schools owned by the diocese and attended by most of the 1100+ scholarship students supported by BKB. School years here start in January, take a long break in June, and then start a second term in July. BKB staff and volunteers visit the schools to make sure that students for whom scholarships are being paid are really in school. We travel to the schools (all of which are quite far from town)and call each student by name, and then take pictures of the students organized by their home parishes. Then we come back to the office, determine how much is to be paid to each school for the scholarship students enrolled there, and send the appropriate amount to the account of each school. The amount to be paid for each student differs, so this takes a considerable amount of time, both in travel and accounting.
Congregation/parish liaisons. At times we host Zoom meetings between a US congregation and a Tanzanian parish, or visit a project sponsored by a US congregation to check on progress, or deliver gifts sent by a US partner.
Of course there are any number of other tasks we do while we are here. We have even done some contract reviews and some human resources consulting. Our days are filled and we feel so grateful for our friendships here, for the small contributions we feel we can make to the important work of the SPAS partnership with the Iringa Diocese through BKB, and for our chance to share this all with you at home.
Russ and Jo