"Simba-Clay" - a pottery for visually impaired persons in Tabora

Each day in Africa die people, especially children because they drink water that is teeming with bacteria. Same in Tanzania. But now there is help: In Tabora, a dusty city in the western country, ceramic water filters are produced and sold for barely 9 Euro since February 2008. And the very special: These filters are manufactured by blind and visually impaired teenagers at "Simba-Clay", a project of the missionary of the holy Franz of Sales. During their three-year apprenticeship they are trained in the production of durables in the traditional way. The third foothold of pottery is the production of bricks which are purchased by larger institutions (hospitals, schools) and which allow for cooking with less wood than it is possible with the normal three-stone-cookers.

The water filter has been tested by a national laboratory in Tanzania and it impressed by its brilliant results: 99.98% of the bacteria are filtered out.

The blind and visually impaired teenagers show that they are able to do something. More than just begging and sitting at home. And they enjoy being aiders instead of always just being takers.

Translated "Simba-Clay" means "sound of lion" and just as strong are the impaired persons made through their work with pottery. Blind, visually impaired and mentally disabled young adults are offered places of employment so that they are no longer an encumbrance to their families by falling through the cracks of unemployment. They are spared the fate of many fellow sufferers which is begging or prostituting themselves to keep themselves alive.

The couple Rainer and Gabi Bacher made this possible. Mr. Bacher himself is blind and as a special education teacher he has wide experience with visually impaired and mentally disabled children. Gabi Bacher studied special education and brought a host of experience through her work with disabled children and pottery. Her one-year internship at a kindergarten in Tanzania affirmed her decision to become active here.

The great co-financing of the Federal Ministry for economic co-operation (BMZ) and many loyal donors have permitted that in the meantime an own building that serves as a pottery factory has been finalized and arranged. Even the construction of a boarding school for female apprentices has already been completed.

Further donations are necessary as the pottery is not able to stand on its own feet, yet.

Password: EAT 05 Tabora

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