Thame Rotary need your old tools for Africa

THE Rotary Club of Thame is asking local people to check their sheds and lofts for old or unwanted tools to help people in Africa get a ‘leg-up’ to self-employment.

Reconditioned sewing machines helped thousands of African workers like Susan to become more self reliant. Photo: courtesy of TFSR

The tools can be taken to the main car park in Thame, near Montesson Square, near the Market House, on Saturday, May 12, from 9am to 1pm.

Every year the Rotary Club of Thame runs a collection point for unwanted tools. These are then taken to ‘Tools for Self Reliance’ (TFSR) collection centre in Southampton. Here they will be refurbished by the charity and sent to NGO’s in Africa. The NGOs then distribute them FREE to men and women to help them to obtain work.

All the tools sent to Africa are used to provide training and to equip trainees with their own start-up kits to set up their own businesses after completing training, not only in their chosen trade, but in business management, financial, and life skills.

One such trainee is Susan Anena who is 32, and lives a few miles outside Kitgum Town, Uganda. She started her primary education, but this was disrupted by the civil war and Susan was forced to go into a camp. In 2007 she was abducted on her way to school by rebels and kept captive for six years. She was subjected to abuse, which resulted in her becoming pregnant and having a child. Thankfully she managed to escape, but returned home to find that her father had been shot during the war and was paralysed on one side. Just a couple of years after her return, Susan’s mother died from malaria.

In 2017, she joined a Tools for Self Reliance project run in partnership with a local organisation, Green Ribbon Foundation of Uganda. Throughout the training Susan learned how to make women’s and men’s clothing, alongside receiving business and life skills training. The counselling sessions she had helped her to cope with the trauma she experienced during her abduction. She has now graduated and has learnt a practical skill that will help her become self reliant and support her child and her family. Susan plans to set up her own tailoring business, using the tools she was equipped with when she graduated.

Susan said: “I want to be the best tailor in this sub county. After I fully acquire this skill, it will be mine forever. I want to give the community my very best.”

Items that would be very welcome at the Thame collection point include sewing machines, tools for plumbing, carpentry, metalworking, building, bicycle repairs, shoe repairs and car repairs. Unfortunately, no garden tools will be be accepted.

For more information, visit www.thame.rotary1090.org or www.facebook.com/thamerotary

Rotary International was funded in 1905 in Chicago and is now one of the largest international service organisation with 1.2 million professional men and women as members. There are 33,000 clubs in 200 countries and geographical areas. Rotary Clubs are open to men and women who want to use their experience for the benefit of others. Rotary initiates local and global projects to promote world understanding and peace and improve conditions for people of all ages and cultures. For more information, visit www.thame.rotary1090.org