A delegation of seven people from Summerland will be in Kahama, Tanzania this month to bring donations and provide assistance.
Brenda Lowe, president and founder of the One Person Project and organizer of the trip, said a container of items collected from Summerland and the South Okanagan has already been sent to Tanzania.
The container is traveling overland to Kahama and will be set up in the hospital compound next to the last one shipped by the project.
It is about 2.5 by three by 12 metres and is filled with hospital equipment, teacher resource materials, text and library books, sports uniforms and equipment, sustainable business items and bins of items that will be given to vulnerable families.
The team this year consists of Dr. Glen Burgoyne; psychologist Nancy Comeau; registered nurses Twyla Burgoyne, Pene Berthelson, LeAnne Davies and Anna Toon, as well as Lowe.
The medical team will be teaching at the hospital and Lowe will be overseeing the emptying and distribution of the container contents.
The hospital in Kahama has one doctor to serve a population of one million people.
For Lowe, this is the seventh trip she is making to Kahama.
Lowe said interest in the One Person Project has been growing.
“We’re doing really well and it’s getting better all the time,” she said.
She added that the delegates are all paying their own travel costs. Fundraising from the One Person Project is not used to cover travel expenses.
Summerland and Kahama have a Friendship City agreement in place.
Since 2007, the One Person Project has provided more than $400,000 worth of resources and equipment to families and organizations in Kahama and the Muhanga region of Rwanda.
“What makes us so successful is that we go every year,” Lowe said.
More information on the project and a link to a blog on the trip can be found online at theonepersonproject.org.