Athenry News & Views Spring 2026

Spring 2026

This building is open to all and is used as a resting space for men as they traverse the plains on foot, and women and children who carry water. • Sent a 40 foot container of hospital beds, equipment, medicines, books and more, to Simanjiro • Partnered with the medical faculty Galway University for student placement. 6 final year medical students went on placement to assist in the hospital and the remote outstations for mother and baby clinics. • Set up a poultry demonstration unit and taught students how to rear and present them for family nutrition and for market 2010 - 2020 Projects Commenced the building of an essential 26 bed hospital ward Provided community milling facilities in 3 areas Provided sanitary facilities for existing hospital Partnered with nursing faculty Galway University and student nurse placement commenced and continues 2012 Built a school for young children in an outstation and we mean OUT– Lenjani 2013 Built a residential home – Nazareth House for 24 street children with full facilities and adjacent to a primary school with a guarantee of education for the children 2015 –2017 Commenced the construction of hospital theatre. Constructed a community centre in Loswaki Lenaitunyo pre-school was built for 70 children 2018 Equipped the newly completed hospital theatre with the basics for life saving treatments such as caesarean sections, to prevent needless deaths of mothers and babies 2019 – 2020 On-going support to get hospital and theatre fully functional and support for our schools In the Covid years, no travel was possible but we kept up support for the on-going projects. Electricity In 2019, four volunteers from Athenry were there in Simanjiro when the almost unimaginable happened – electricity poles were delivered and arrived on the mission compound, offering hope for better times ahead. Pole, pole (pronounced polay), is a way of life, meaning go slowly and unhurriedly. That’s how it is. It took several years before the connection to the grid

finally happened and while supply is sketchy enough, it is enormously beneficial and facilitated many developments. In conjunction with Galway University nursing faculty, on-line training and up-skilling of Simanjiro health staff is conducted regularly. The Partnership funded the necessary technology to enable this training. Consolidation is our aim for the immediate future and by that we mean, maintaining what we have done to make our projects stable and enduring. The Benefits of Partnership for Athenry Parish It exposes people, young and not so young, to a totally different culture It gives a true opportunity to count our blessings Students get enhanced experience in Simanjiro – they are alert to the fact that death comes quickly there We can learn from the people in Simanjiro too. No one knows everything and no one knows nothing. People learn that commercialism and consumerism are hollow pleasures and learn the difference between want and need People respect water as liquid gold and have new awareness of the fragility of the environment It gives the opportunity to reflect on the fact that we, Irish, are among the richest people in the world and Tanzanians are among the poorest. Our consumerism with the rest of the wealthy world is using the resources of children, who are not yet born. Quotation from Pope Francis: Rivers do not drink their own water; trees do not eat their own fruit; the sun does not shine on itself, and flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature. We are all born to help each other. No matter how difficult it is ….Life is good when you are happy; but much better when others are happy because of you. Project selection criteria Athenry Simanjiro Partnership has successfully implemented a development programme with an array of building, support and refurbishment projects. To date, they been delivered on target in terms of time and budget, using a simple but effective strategy. 1. Each proposal must describe the project, as precisely as possible, while presenting the benefits for a specific community and the costs involved.. 2. A realistic timescale involved for each phase of the development must be given, knowing, as we do, that

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