1% = 100%

Twój 1% procent podatku dochodowego za 2015 roku przekazany Fundacji Kiabakari (www.kiabakari.org) to 100% pewność, że nasze dzieci otrzymają porządne wykształcenie i będą mogły przygotowywać się do dorosłego życia pełnego nadziei na spełnienie ich marzeń w pięknej, nowoczesnej i dobrze wyposażonej szkole w misji w Kiabakari.

Polish Taxpayers / Friends Of Kiabakari - With Your 1% Of 2016 Tax We Can Finish The School In Kiabakari

My dear Friends of Kiabakari, we have been toiling hard to complete the construction of the primary school in my mission for the past nine years. With your generous 1% of 2016 tax we can finish this job once and for all!

Come on! Let's do it! We can make it happen!

Please, Polish speakers - Listen to the radio spot prepared for Foundation Kiabakari for the sake of "2016 1% of tax campaign".

Check this out on Chirbit

New Arrivals To Our Health Center In Kiabakari

Thank you Mons. Jan for your kind donation to our health center in Kiabakari which allowed us to purchase a line of much needed lab equipment for - among others - the antibiogram tests. On behalf of the benefactor this morning I have handed the gifts over to the manager of the health center and the lab technician. The gift consists of micropipette, digital colorimeter, digital thermal incubator, autoclav, water bath machine, digital scale for reagents and tissues, plus other small items. The list of lab services on offer in our health facility has gained yet another valuable item.

Yes, We Could And We Did!

What has happened in the past four months (September-December 2014) since I came back from my extended holidays-medical checkup, borders on a genuine miracle category. Yes, putting aside apparent God's Providence and blessings, it is an outcome of joined efforts of so many friends of Kiabakari and of our development push for the betterment of the education of our little ones in Kiabakari.

Firstly - all those who presented me with various gifts during my silver jubilee of priesthood celebrations in 2013 - both in Europe and in Tanzania. These gifts helped me to buy three plots and offer compensation for three families adjacent to our primary school for the purpose of the construction of the new wing. The cost of this exercise was 6,000 Euros.

Secondly - my relatives and personal friends in Poland, Austria and Ireland, parochial communities where I was invited for mission awareness Sundays and fundraisers (Chochołów, Puławy, Krowodrza, Św. Szczepan, Św. Kazimierz, Św. Karol Boromeusz, NSPJ os. Teatralne in Nowa Huta, Siepraw, Ogrodzieniec, Św. Jan Kanty - os. Widok, Biały Prądnik), bank donations from many known and unknown to me persons, Foundation Kiabakari online fundraisers for the construction of the new wing and for the textbooks for standard five students, Makulatura na Misje team at St. Kazimierz home parish in Krakow and the last but not least corporate donor - Murapol S.A. from Bielsko-Biała, Poland, school construction fund of parents of our students in Kiabakari (they donated altogether 200$) - we were able to reach the goal for the end of 2014 - the construction of the new wing for standard 5,6,7 classrooms and computer lab, the finishing and furnishing of standard 5 and six classrooms (the standard six finishing is underway at the moment) and the textbooks for standard 5 students. The total value of the entire project so far exceeds 75,000$.

Yes, we could and we did!

I am so proud and grateful to all of you who helped us in small and big ways. Here are some images of this story:

Volunteering in Kiabakari - North American Chapter

I ask all my friends to have a kind look at the website/blog below (click on the caption below the picture to access the blog) and help if possible this young brave lady who dreams about sharing with us in Kiabakari her time, talents and professional knowledge she has acquired through her studies. She will be the very first North American volunteer in Kiabakari. Keeping my spiritual fingers crossed for our future guest! Welcome to Kiabakari, Emily!

Click here

PayPal

You may have noticed a new addition to this blog - on the right sidebar, just at the top of it. The donation button from PayPal. Some of my readers have been asking me how I can cope running this blog knowing the internet data packages charges in Tanzania and elsewhere. They suggested to place the donation button in the blog so people can donate a bit to help me to make ends meet. Moreover, I would like to use donations to enable volunteers coming to Kiabakari to have free wifi by purchasing a mobile wifi router which are now available in Tanzania and keep it running by purchasing voucher cards to top up credit in the router. So, if you feel giving us a hand in this, you are very welcome. I will appreciate greatly your kind support.

Touchdown

Finally, after a couple of months of communication, paperwork and pushing through bureaucracy and unexpected twists and turns on the way, the first container with donated goods for our health center, pre and primary schools and for our neighbors - Resurrection Sisters at Chief Wanzagi Girls' Secondary School - has touched down in Kiabakari this morning. The offloading work went smoothly and things are securely stored for the time being as we finalize the development projects and make space for the equipment to be placed where it should be.

Gratitude to God Almighty for His blessing and Providence, thanks to Resurrection Sisters in Melbourne, Australia, in particular, Sister Hermina, and to all people of good will involved in the whole process in Australia, my friends in Dar es Salaam who helped with clearing process and finding the solid transporter, my classmate in Austria who donated two thirds of the money needed for the payments in clearing and forwarding process and to all who prayed for the safe journey and arrival of the container to Kiabakari. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart! Certainly, the donated items will help us immensely in providing better healthcare and education at grassroots level in rural Tanzania. 

Meanwhile In Mwibagi

The reconstruction of the church destroyed in thunderstorm and twister nine days ago has begun (reinforced concrete beam ready, preparations of roof beams underway). Due to the help from our member of parliament, Hon. Nimrod Mkono, who donated roof sheets, timber and nails for roof work, and the contribution from other source, we will be able to finish the job in short time and bless anew the church on Sept 29, the Solemnity of Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Patron Saints of Mwibagi church.

Four Pillars

Just came back from the Holy Mass at Sisters' convent. After breakfast, I asked the local superior to sign the contract drawn between Ad Gentes agency of Polish Episcopal Conference and Blessed John Paul II Center for Education and Formation, on behalf of the Center. When I was in Poland in April this year, I went to Ad Gentes office in Warsaw and applied for funding for breakfasts for students of our pre-school and primary school for the period of two years, plus funds for salaries of two workers (a cook and a janitor) for two years as well...

Let The Roller-skates Roll!

The wait for the charity challenge 'Roller-skates Without Borders' start is over. Kamil, the hero of the challenge is on his way to Zittau, the departure point on his journey map. Last minute preparations are almost over as well. We, in Kiabakari, are ready as well. I will be sending daily dispatches from Kiabakari, reporting on what has been going on on each given day during the duration of the challenge, enriched with pictures from our daily life in the parish and our institutions. You may follow the daily report from the route of the challenge along with my reports and pictures by clicking on the link of the official blog of the challenge - here. Let the roller-skates roll! Please, continue to spread the word on the challenge, support it if you can by kind donations and help us to improve the quality and broader spectrum of medical services offered in our health center in Kiabakari! Together we can make a difference!

The Official Opening Of The New Delivery Unit

Yesterday we held a simple function of the official opening of the new delivery unit in our health center in Kiabakari. The modern equipment was donated free of charge by the Polish Foreign Ministry through the embassy in Nairobi in Kenya. We hosted the representative of the Polish ambassador in Kenya, Miss Joanna Popławska, who officiated the opening and received the project report. The photos from the occasion can be seen here. We are very grateful to the Polish government for this wonderful gift who certainly will improve the mother and child healthcare in Kiabakari and the whole Mara Region. Thank you!

Altar Servers Happy Day

Indeed, a very happy day for my altar servers who received a wonderful gift from parents of our German volunteers who visited Kiabakari recently and brought a lot of things for the school, health center and also for the parish. We are very grateful to them and their friends in Germany who magnanimously donated all these valuable gifts. Thank you, Denise and Thomas, our volunteers in Kiabakari, for spreading the word and involving your families and friends in caring for Kiabakari.

Fencing Off

For a long time my sisters have been complaining that some of the local people come after school hours to pre-school and devastate the playground. They managed already to cut off one of the swing, steal bolts and nuts, wood planks and wreak havoc on the playground area in general...

Memory Is Our Homeland

The story of my acquaintance with Jonathan Durand, the filmmaker and producer of "Memory is our Homeland" movie is simply amazing. When Jonathan was googling the internet at the end of September 2010 in search for documents, photos and news on Polish Second World War refugees in Africa (among whom his own Grandmother was), he came across my post on Tengeru in this blog and later he found out that on the same day he was reading the post, I was landing in Montreal where he lived. He told me later on when we met for the first time there in Montreal and made preliminary plans how to help him in achieving his goal of producing the movie, he almost spilt his coffee on his macbook when he discovered I was there, a few clicks away from him...