On the road in Tanzania

From 23 to 26 July, Dr. John Wesley Kabango, Head of the Africa Department, and Timo Pauler, UEM Executive Secretary for Finance & Administration, visited the UEM office and member churches in North Western Tanzania. First, a visit to the UEM regional office in Dar-es-Salaam was on the agenda. "We are delighted that the UEM regional office in Dar-es-Salaam will continue to merge with the UEM office in Wuppertal thanks to the new administrative and financial guidelines," said UEM Executive Secretary for Finance & Administration, Timo Pauler. On the fringes of these talks there was also a meeting with Pastor David Mushi, who will start his ministry next year as South-North exchange pastor in Siegen-Witgenstein. Martin Ahlhaus, Pastor in charge of the Ministry for Mission, Ecumenism and World Responsibility (Möwe) of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia, who was also in Dar-es-Salaam with a delegation, took part in this conversation. Mushi, who had already learned his first German vocabulary on his smartphone using the language learning app before the planned language course in Dar-es-Salaam began, could already greet and say goodbye to the UEM staff in German.
Next stops on the trip were the Northwest Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT-NWD) in Bukoba and the Karagwe Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT-KAD). In both dioceses, discussions focused on the future support of church-owned universities. The churches have generally played a leading role in Tanzania's education system for many decades, helping to reduce the illiteracy rate and train academics. The Tanzanian state has now passed new laws to adapt and improve the educational level of existing institutions such as schools and universities in general. Although this development is fundamentally positive for the country, this education policy presents the existing institutions with new challenges, especially as the deadlines for introducing improvements are very tight. A collapse of the educational institutions run by churches could have serious regional consequences. The discussions focused on developing solutions and discussing how the VEM community can provide the most meaningful support.
The two UEM employees left from Kigali (Rwanda) on their return journey. Here they took the opportunity to meet the new North South employee David Fechner, who took up his duties as a peace expert in Rwanda at the end of June.
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