Creating impact
Marianne Neuweiler-Walder is a technical commercial employee at Bühler in Uzwil. In her spare time, she is helping to build and develop an orphanage in Tanzania. The plan is to expand the project with a school, a residential home for the children, a small clinic, and a meeting center for the locals.
Bianca Richle, March 31, 2022
When Marianne Neuweiler’s colleague first told her about her orphanage in Tanzania, she thought, “Another one of those people who wants to fulfill themselves with charitable work.” But in the meantime, Marianne herself hooked on the project. During her vacation in the fall of 2021, she and her partner visited the orphanage in Tanzania, which is currently run as a half-day school. Since then, they have both been committed to it. “I was impressed by how quickly, with the financial support, a ‘ruined building’ was turned into a livable building for the children,” Marianne says. Since then, she has traveled to Tanzania at least once a year, bringing suitcases bursting with children’s clothes, shoes and bouillon from Switzerland – bouillon is particularly expensive in Tanzania and hard to come by. It is easy to get clothing donations in Switzerland, but the transport costs are high. Since additional luggage is expensive, many clothes are also bought locally at clothing markets – with everything else that is needed.
Marianne’s friend Rita Strasser, the president of the association, is a nursing specialist and got to know the owner of the orphanage during a foreign assignment in Tanzania in 2019. It quickly became clear to her that this orphanage needed support, and she founded an association in Switzerland for this purpose. Since then, she diligently collects donations and travels to Tanzania four times a year. She provides medical care for the children, supports the staff in their tasks and continues to drive the project forward. The orphanage can only be run through donations collected by the association. The monthly costs amount to about CHF 800.-
With this amount at least the most necessary things are financed. The orphanage is run by Ishumael Dominick Mollel. He was born and raised in Arusha. “Many children in my neighborhood are socially disadvantaged and never get the opportunity to receive a good education. So, the idea matured to open an orphanage to give the orphans in my area a home and a good education,” he says. He used all his savings to build the house. The orphanage has been operating since 2018 and has an official registration from the government.
Currently, children between the ages of two and six attend school at the orphanage. They are taught for half a day. This also includes nutrition and medical care. The team also organizes clothes or shoes for everyone as needed. Most of the children are orphans or half-orphans and live with relatives or with a parent who is still present. “Since these living situations are usually far from ideal and there is not enough to take care of the children, we want to make it possible for them to live with us,” says Marianne. “The public school system in Tanzania does not provide a good education. We would like to improve this and provide them with a good education with their own school.” To move forward with these plans, the team recently acquired a larger piece of land in the neighborhood. The next step is to build a school and a residential building for the children there. “Many of the children have great potential and we hope to give them a successful future with a good education.”
Would you like to know more about the project in Tanzania?
“There is really a lack of everything here. Often the children only get one hot meal, which we offer at noon. Shoes are sometimes simply cut open at the front when they become too small. The children don’t have any toys,” Marianne says. “The fact that the children nevertheless radiate such joie de vivre and are grateful for every little thing touches me, but also makes me think.” Marianne was also inspired by the story ‘Beanies from USA to Africa’ from the last issue of Mosaic. Since it is often chilly in the morning in Tanzania, beanies are a welcome gift. A colleague of Marianne then offered to knit her beanies as well. These are now ready in Marianne’s packed suitcases. At the moment, Marianne is on her way to Tanzania again.
Are you looking for a meaningful charity you can support? Or do you have your own charity that needs help? Then check out the Gen B charity page on B-World.
Our goal is to drive change by building one global platform where we connect all the charitable activities of our employees and actively support each other. This way we can be even more effective in giving back to the communities that support our business, through sharing best practices and expertise and connecting calls for help with those able to help. This is vital because until the system is fundamentally changed and the world is no longer be ridden with inequality and injustice, we see we must try do all within our means to help, and this platform is here to help this.
Max Vögtli,
Global Generation B Lead
Generation B (Gen B) is a global network of engaged and motivated Bühler employees. We organize events and networking opportunities for our employees so they can get to know employees across business and the world. From there and through Generation B our employees can join or start projects in all kinds of areas they are passionate about; from combatting the climate crisis, to technical challenges, and of course charitable initiatives.
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Uzwil
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