In October I made my second visit to the little Tanzanian village that has been linked with the Minchinhampton-Nkokoto Charity for nearly 30 years.

Nkokoto is 18 hours west of Dar es Salaam by coach. Half the distance is covered on earth roads. Twelve months had past since my last visit to Nkokoto. In many ways that first visit overwhelmed me.

There seemed to me so many challenges –

So no cooker, no running water, no fridge, no lights, no TV, no radio, and often no door, no windows, no door, grass roof. With few people earning enough money to pay taxes the Government has limited funds to redistribute wealth. People live day to day. I was told if I bought a cow and gave it to a family they would sell it immediately to buy food. The smiling faces and colourful clothes usually mask a life of extreme hardship, and immense resilience and fortitude.

The inadequate water supplies and poor water quality, health issues, hygiene issues in the dispensary, insufficient resources for education. Then there is the AIDS epidemic and its ramifications on family economics, destitution for tiny children and the elderly, poverty, poor crop yields, and the negligible infrastructures, ranging from no electricity to arduous methods of transport and communication.