Every meeting opens new doors!

As the Maasai Maserati parked at the schoolyard of Mwhako Primary School, we were greeted by head teacher Mr Edward Mokiwa. Mr Mokiwa tested Mrs Zainab Nanyaro's HiLight for a few days, as he - as most people in the area - lack electricity in his home where he lives with wife and 3 children.

- We have electrical grid in the area, but it is too expensive to connect it to our house. Kerosene is the only option, but it is expensive. As a teacher, I need to prepare my lessons at night, which requires working in the light from a kerosene lamp. If the families had access to HiLight, children could study at night and the teachers could start evening classes in the schools.

Another meeting participant, mr Abraham T. Khatib, added such;
- This product does not only solve the problem of fuel cost or mobile phone charging - it would also save us from burnings and health problems. The injuries and smoke from the fumes is a common problem but not clearly pronounced, people don't see a link to the use of kerosene! Tanga town has about 1,200 teachers, and the Tanga region about 8,000 teachers. Imagine that all teachers could get one HiLight each; that would make a huge difference in our communities!
Well, actually, I think you should meet with the Regional Administration Secretary to discuss this possibility.

So off we went! Mr Tikhatib quickly rescheduled his morning meetings, we got his bike into our car and drove off towards Tanga to talk with the RAS, Regional Administrative Secretary, responsible for the day-to-day management of the regions affairs. He was not in, but we were lucky enough to meet Mrs Monica Kinala, Assistant Administrative Secretary of Land & Infrastructure, and Mr Julias Mhanusi, Regional Educational, Health & Social Welfare Officer. After explaining our sudden appearance, we introduced our ideas around a common project directed towards teachers. Monica liked our product, despite having electricity at home:
- How many of these do you have here? Can I buy it?

After discussing our thoughts on a common project, we were directed even higher.
- You should talk directly to the City Directors, and the ministries of Education and Health in Dar es Salaam.

This fits well with our travel plans, as we are heading for Dar es Salaam tomorrow!

We had earlier on planned to meet up with BRAC a microfinance organisation with its offices in the region. Our attempts never succeeded depite visiting the office premise some 3 times to find no one.

We headed back to proceed with more meeting at TICC in the remaing part of the day....