Kimbilio Community and Lights

Building Kimbilio community is proceeding and the guardian house is almost ready and Ukumbi is rising up. We involved people in Aalto University created a movie to show how the electrification would be possible for coming Kimbilio Shelters. This is at this phase a preliminary step to start negotiations with people responsible for Kimbilio - Shelter for Tanzanian women and especially first through Irja, we warmly thank all help she has given us so far. The community and its people will make things happen and to meet their real needs is the target for all who will help this dream of Ruth to come true.

This is our story told by Mbwana, a little Tanzanian boy.

http://youtu.be/w-ya2rpFF_M

 Tanzanian women working for Kimbilio.

My Dream

Ruth Mmari tells about her dream in Swahili in next video. This dream includes Kimbilio houses for Tanzanian women to have a trustful place for them and their children to recover and to have a caring environment. This community has also a village house, named Ukumbi, which is already rising up. Ukumbi is for the whole community but also for popular celebrations like weddings, birthdays, confirmations, baptisms, retirement, anniversaries, graduations; non-church related seminars and meetings, and with fees coming from these activities Kimbilio houses can have extra fundings. Ruth's dream includes also Matron's house, the Matron answers to the Director of the Women and Children’s Department, The Matron is held responsible for the daily operation of Kimbilio House and the community hall (Ukumbi) activities, for the properties, funds, accounting, publicity, marketing and rental of the party space and calendar, collecting of fees, etc.

 My Dream

Building, Hard Work

Building a house need hard work and strong men, when everything is constructed by your own hands. These Tanzanian men are strong and happy builders, and wise. They are providing a shelter for Tanzanian women and we can support them by prayers.

This man has a 25 kg brick in his hands.

Kimbilio Proceeding

The vision is proceeding: the guardian's house under construction by strong local men and the water tank. These are needed first before Ukumbi (community hall). This program is for all women who need Kimbilio, a haven, in their life not only for christians, we all are neighbors to each other and can take care of each other, everyone in her or his place.

Kimbilio Program in Morogoro

Kimbilio Program has started for Women 's shelter and Education Center. Why? Ruth Mmari saw as working for women and children in Morogoro Evangelical Lutheran Church, many drawbacks and miseries among women due to old traditions like female circumcisions, family violence, subjugations, and other mishandling and inhuman behaviors. It is also difficult for girls to go to the school, because they are needed for household-work. With the support of Finnish Lempäälä congregation and YMCA Kimbilio Program was able to start and Ruth Mmari could see her dream come true.

Lempäälä YMCA promised to build a Ukumbi (community hall), a house for a guard, one Kimbilio shelter, a house for a housekeeper. So Kimbilio program involves a complex of buildings. The vision started broadening and the whole education center is planned to be built. Lempäälä congregation promised to support Kimbilio Program for three years. Ruth Mmari and Irja Aro-Heinilä in next foto.

Jakob Moreto, Bishop for Morogoro Diocese, visited Lempäälä congregation in autumn 2012 and provided all his support for Kimbilio Program. This program has started from the needs of local people living in Morogoro and Ruth Mmari has been their voice. Kimbilio program is local people's effort and they have collected fundings for the drawings and calculations of buildings in Morogoro Diocese and acquired building materials, they have discussed and communicated about this program in many situations. This Kimbilio program is strongly based on local needs and opinions, local people are going to be used for building Kimbilio complex of houses, and local material and knowledge are also going to be used whenever possible.

The marriage couple Aro-Heinilä Irja and Veikko are responsible for communication in Finland and both of them are speaking Swahili. Veikko has experiences of constructions of buildings like churches and water systems in Kenya and Tanzania.

Kimbilio Shelter in Morogoro

Kimbilio in Swahili means shelter, haven. The idea to start building Kimbilo House, a safe haven for abused women Tanzanian women, was a dream of Ruth Mmari working for children and women in Evangelical Lutheran Church in Morogoro Diocese in Tanzania. She visited Lempäälä congregation in Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church in Autumn 2011 and inspired Finnish people for her dream. Finnish YMCA took this program and the local partner is Diocese Morogoro's work among Tanzanian women. This shelter should be finished in 2014.

This vision and project is soundly based in a grassroots movement. The need for the house has arisen from discussion and conversations held among women of the diocese over the course of many years. By their own initiative, architectural plans were drawn for the centre, women have raised money to start building - having purchase thousands of bricks in order to start construction, the vision was shared within the diocese as well as with international partners.
Ukumbi (community hall) is rising up in the same site and this will be ready in spring 2013. Running women's shelter will need resources and the plan is to get incomes by renting this Ukumbi. Also an education center and a school is intended to be built.

Tanzania, in Swahili Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania, is located in East Africa and its population is 46.22 million in 2011, capital city Dodoma and largest city Dar es Salaam. It is a peaceful country having a tropical climate and good natural resources.