Mateves

The village of Mateves is not far beyond the Arusha Airport and actually backs on to the prison. Prisoners can often be seen in their black and white prison garb. These people tend a coffee plantation, a forest block of Grevillea and a vege garden. They never impacted on anything I did but the khaki clad prison guards were well know for their stroppy behavior.

Mateves was the first village we visited but really we did not work there a lot. This was probably not a conscious decision, but perhaps I thought our efforts were better served elsewhere and I did not warm to the village chairman - in the event he was beaten up and thrown out of office.

There was a woman's group there and Hifadhi had assisted them with a village garden and had been trying to get the villagers to plant trees. This was somewhat successful and we added to this through our work.
There was an elderly fellow who lived between the main part of the village and Stephen's compound who we assisted with nursery materials and seed. I was always careful when allocating materials and I found this man and his family to be keen tree planters and environmentally sensitive.
His nursery crop was a failure because his water source was cut by the army. They had set up a water line from the slopes of Mount to the Military Base at Monduli, but many village schemes cut into the line; so the military closed the line and set up another. This was a critical time for my nurseryman and the reason for his crop failure.
I provided him with trees for outplanting and to distribute among those he knew would plant them wisely.

We had not included the primary school among our targeted schools, but when one of the Vols decided he did not want to take up his allocation for assistance for his local school, we used the allocation at Mateves. We supplied Textbooks & Teachers Copies, cupboards to house them, exercise books for the kids, science packs, slates & chalk for the junior classes and teachers tables & chairs.

Later when Joshia had started his Green Arusha Society NGO, I helped him source his first funds for an environmental project at Mateves. This was a success and he retains contact with the villagers today. Green Arusha Society have a website and need more members and funding - help them if you can.