On Monday, March 19^th, a 29-seat Mercedes bus arrived at WIA’s door.  The generous gift came from Mr. Henry Carter from Dublin, Ireland.  Mr. Carter, a strong supporter of WIA, donated the bus to be used to transport the children WIA sponsors to attend primary and nursery school, as well as taking home based care patients to the hospital when needed.

The bus had arrived to the port in Dar-es-Salaam in July 2006, but was not delivered to Arusha until March 2007 due to bureaucratic processing issues and storage fees.  We are happy to announce its arrival and are excited to begin using the thoughtful gift.

WIA is now looking to raise the funds to register the vehicle, pay for inspection, repair the bus, and purchase 1-year of insurance.  WIA is hoping to rent out the bus to local hotels and NGOs on a part-time basis to pay for on-going maintenance, petrol, and a driver, but needs a grant of 1,500,000 TSH (1,200 USD) to pay for the initial expenses in order to begin renting it out.  If you are interested in donating funds towards this cause, please email womeninaction2001@yahoo.com.  WIA hopes to have the bus fully financially sustainable by the beginning of the school year in 2008 to be available for the school children’s transportation.