• News from Pat and Alastair

    Posted on May 4, 2017

    Dear friends, family and all of you other wonderful folks out there who have and or continue to support the efforts of The Hands Across Borders Society, Mama Pat and Ali Baba 

    It has been a very long time since our last update and although we have intended to put this together several times over the past many months we have somehow managed to let it slip through our “things to do” list. Finally the time has come.
    It was over 18 years ago that Pat and I registered HABS in Canada after we realized our commitment to help the people of Zanzibar was moving well beyond just a whim or a desire to spend some time at the beach. The aftermath of that saw us squeezed into a position where we had to make a choice, and a rather big one at that. We had a pretty comfortable life in Victoria but it was becoming increasingly apparent that this was something we would have to give up if we were going to be serious about following our vision.
    So we gave it up and the rest is history and with the amazing help of friends, family and others, we were able to establish the only Chiropractic/Wellness Center in Tanzania and a few years later under Pat’s direction the best Tourism Training Institute in the entire country, and that’s according to the World Bank. What an accomplishment! Since the early days, we have hosted well over 100 international volunteer teachers and practitioners and we are very proud of what has been created here in our little community of Jambiani. We are making a difference here but this has been no easy task and there have been a few times when we felt overwhelmed to the point of wanting to throw in the towel. However, and it seems to be true, that turning your back on people in need when the going gets a bit rough, is not an option. Perseverance and patience are definitely two qualities that one needs to nurture here if you plan to stay for any length of time.
    For sure, the Jambiani Wellness Center and more recently, The Jambiani Tourism Training Institute (JTTI) have evolved enormously since our humble beginnings back in 1999.
    The past few years have become increasingly challenging for HABS, mainly from a sustainability point of view. Although we were keeping our heads above water we could clearly see that it was becoming more costly every year to run all of our programs at maximum capacity with a full complement of students and volunteers. This is probably the biggest challenge for any NGO; how do you provide services for free and yet cover all of the costs associated with doing this. There have been a few moments of trepidation where we were not sure how we would be able to afford to pay our electricity bill but then remarkably someone or some organization would make a donation and that would literally save the day. Pat says we have angels on our shoulders. 

    Some of you will be aware that in 2010, the JTTI was picked by the World Bank to receive support via a local mainland NGO called the Tanzanian Private Sector Foundation (TPSF). This support would come in the form of a grant that would be used to help us build additional training rooms which would also be able to be rented out to tourists during our busy seasons. You can imagine how excited we were when we received this news. The classic win-win scenario where our students would get additional training in housekeeping, reservations, front desk and management and we would get badly needed income that would help to keep the fires burning.

    Construction started on the “Guest House” in 2012 due to funding delays and problems started to emerge almost immediately with the construction company, and within a very short period of time the work ended and everything came to a standstill. I don’t want to go into the actual details of what transpired but it had nothing to do with us and TPSF is now involved in a court case with the original contractor hoping to recoup losses claiming a blatant breach of contract. As is typical here, this case could take years to complete.
    Of course Pat and I went from elation to deflation with this outcome and consequently due to lack of adequate funding, Pat was forced to close the JTTI in 2015, although she did continue with some select trainings. That said, the Wellness Center has not been affected by this outcome and continues to provide services to hundreds of patients each month although we have had to, up until just recently, put the volunteer aspect of this program on hold.

    Not too long ago we did try to raise some funds through a Crowdrise campaign however this was not very successful and we fell well short of the amount we were hoping to generate to get the school back on track. To those who did contribute, thank you so much and be assured that your funds are earmarked to help get the JTTI open again.
    On that note, the “Angels” have been at it again. In 2016, on the recommendation of a friend, Pat managed to make contact with a local Zanzibar foundation called Milele. To our surprise and delight, they agreed to provide the necessary funds to complete the Guest House which had been standing dormant for almost 3 years. Just before Christmas last year, we welcomed our first guests and we are now in the process of marketing the facility and hoping to attract some visitors during our next “High” season coming up in June/July. We are hoping this will be the key to the future sustainability of HABS.

    We and many others have invested a lot of time, money and energy into our work here and we are finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. Of course opening the JTTI again means an enormous increase in work for Pat but she is so dedicated to her students and thrives on seeing them succeed not only academically but in life as well.
    Pat and I would like to take this moment to thank you all for your patience, your love and your support over the past 17 years. Without you, there is no way we would have been able to accomplish all that we have and I know the thousands of patients and hundreds of students appreciate very much the opportunities they have been given as a result of your generosity on whatever level that has been. Don’t give up on us cause we’re not done yet.

    So much love to you all, in all-ways

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