Bubblegum Bangers 2010 is not a commercial project. All the organisation and sponsorship to put on the 2010 event is provided free of charge. This is to enable us to pass on every penny raised by this years event to The Tumaini Fund, which is a Guernsey based charity run by Dr Susan Wilson. ‘’Tumaini’’ is the Swahili word for ‘’Hope,’’ and Dr Wilson’s team are seeking to alleviate the terrible suffering of the Aids widows and orphans in Kagera, the North-West province of Tanzania. There are thought to be 200,000 orphans in this region that are desperate for help. Visit: http://www.bubblegumbangers.org/charity/
Tanzania is one of the 10 poorest countries in the world, and Kagera is an area the size of Northern Ireland. Travel is very difficult, and villages are isolated. It is one of the poorest regions in Tanzania, where life expectancy is only 43 years and HIV carriage is at approx 28%, meaning perhaps 1 in 3 mothers give birth to an HIV positive baby. A subsistence farmer will only earn in the region of £55 per year, with which to support 6-8 family members, and with so much disease and death, children often become the head of the family at a very young age.
Breaking the cycle of poverty
The Tumaini Fund helps families and children of all ages in many ways, including currently supporting approx 10,000 orphans with food and clothing, of which 3000 now attend Government Secondary School which only costs £35 per year, but most families can’t afford it (Only 7% of children currently attend). Education is in most cases the only way for a child to break the cycle and escape a hand to mouth existence and a very bleak future.
This opportunity of education not only changes the children’s lives forever and pulls them out of the uncertainty and degradation of subsistence farming, but can help lift a whole family out of poverty!
Dr Susan Wilson and her team at The Tumaini Fund take no wages, travel at their own expense, and any vital equipment such as laptops are donated to ensure that all the money raised is spent in Kagera. They use 7 local workers in Kagera to carry out the project alongside 70 local parish-workers.