A brick-making machine is among the life-changing donations a group of volunteers from a Summerland-based non-profit organization will distribute later this month in Tanzania.
Three people from The One Person Project left Wednesday for the Kahama District, a mainly rural area home to about one million people in the East African country.
Once there, the volunteers will be distributing the contents of a shipping container that’s packed with donations, including a high-compression brick machine designed and built by Lawrence Slind, Bill Lauritzen and Ron Ryde.
Ryde will oversee setup of the machine at an orphanage, where it will be used to help build a home at the site and later to produce revenue for the orphanage by selling bricks to the community.
“At this stage in life, my wife and I feel it is time to share what we have been blessed with. I pray that the brick machine will be a huge benefit to the project’s work in Africa and to those who use it,” Ryde said in a press release.
The One Person Project raised $30,000 to help fund construction of the orphanage for 18 children, and is seeking donations to help it add room for 30 more kids.
Other donations in the 12-metre shipping container include 54 boxes of dehydrated soup and 20 boxes of dehydrated apples from the Penticton and North Okanagan Valley Gleaners.
“This is our fourth container and we couldn’t have achieved what we have without the help of people here in the Okanagan,” said Brenda Lowe, president and co-founder of the project.
Formed in 2007, The One Person Project has focused efforts on a single community in Tanzania that creates a direct link between the Okanagan and Africa. More information on the group and the donation process can be found online at www.theonepersonproject.org.