The Arusha Plaster House

Hello Blogland,
Today’s blog is something that is near and dear to my heart – and for that reason it is being simulcast on both my blog and on a page of its own on my website. I’ve never wanted to use my blog as a pulpit or a means to bombard you with my ideological point of view, but this is something that I feel is really important. Have a read, go to my website and look at www.adventureskope.com/plasterhouse and have a think. If you want to join in and help out, let me know and we can make it happen.

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The Arusha Plaster House
In October 2007 my wife Sophie and I traveled to the African nation of Tanzania. We were there to experience the wilderness, the people and the sites of Africa. If only we’d have known what an impact visiting this region of the earth would have on our lives.

Sarah Wallis is a lifelong friend of Sophie’s. The two of them grew up as neighbors in suburban Melbourne, Australia. As adults the wanderlust of travel infected them both and while Sophie journeyed to Canada and eventually to New Zealand, Sarah went to Africa. As a trained Occupational Therapist, Sarah’s skills were a hot commodity in the developing nation of Tanzania. It was five years ago that she first moved to Arusha, and her impact on the city has been extraordinary.


Sarah is spearheading a project called The Arusha Plaster House, through the Selian Lutheran Hospital and we want to help her as much as we can. Life in Tanzania is hard, especially for children. The houses are mud huts called bomas where an open fire in the centre serves as both furnace and stove for the family and animals that call the boma home. Children are often injured by this cooking fire. As infants they stumble into the flames and sustain horrific burns for which there is little nearby treatment. So often times a burn to the foot will heal in such a way that the skin contracts bringing the toes to near the shin and making it almost impossible for the child to walk.

In the third world not being able to fend for yourself is often a death sentence. If you can’t help with the cattle, fetch water or tend the crops then you are a burden on the family and children like this are often abandoned. But there is hope – aid agencies from the west have set up hospitals that perform plastic surgeries and fix these injuries. Not to mention cleft pallets and other afflictions that would be easily fixed in the west.



But there is a limitation to this help and that comes in the form of bed space. After a surgery the young patients need a place to recover, get physical therapy and be monitored while they are bound in plaster. At the moment they stay in the hospital or in the rehab center. But this clog of patients severely limits the number of surgeries that can be done. No beds equals no surgeries.


This is where the plaster house comes in. It is going to be a place where the children can recover from their surgeries, get better and then enter the rehab center when they are ready. This simple intermediate step will change the lives of countless children. When Sophie and I were in Arusha we had the opportunity to meet these kids, and despite the tough life that they’ve been through, they were more alive then any group of people I have ever met. To us they appear to have nothing, only the filthy clothes on their backs. But the reality is that they have people who care for them so they are rich beyond their dreams. Where once they may have been abandoned to suffer alone, now they have a place to go so that they can have a chance at a real life. You can tell by their smiles that they know how luck they really are.

So what can you do? The Plaster House isn’t going to build itself. It isn’t funded by the government and doesn’t have any corporate benefactors. It also isn’t corrupt, tangled in bureaucracy and political ideologies. This is just good people helping people who need a hand. They need funding from like minded caring individuals like yourselves.

The Arusha Plaster House is our charity of choice and we would be honored if you would join us in donating to this inspirational project – together we really can make a difference.
To donate you can either send us a cheque or arrange a bank transfer. We will gladly make sure that it gets to Sarah in Tanzania and she will ensure that your donation helps out the kids.

Thank you from both Sophie, myself, Sarah and all the kids – we all appreciate whatever help you can give.
Scott Kennedy
July 2008.