There is a celebration going on right now. The villagers of Toloha, Tanzania are filled with hope because you are here visiting this website. We are thrilled with them that you are interested in Toloha Partnership! Read about all the amazing things that are happening in Toloha and here in the USA as we partner with the people of the village to make their lives better in so many ways! We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments on the blog.
Posted by tolohapartnership on Aug 14, 2013 in Clean Water, Praise Report, Program Update, Written by Daniel | 0 comments
My trip to Toloha Village this year was quite different than any other trip I have ever made to Tanzania. This trip made me feel more optimistic, encouraged and excited. It brought back all the memories of my vision for my people: To bring them clean water, build a clinic, church, and orphanage, advance education, and make sanitation improvements.
Also, this was the first time I was joined by my Christian brothers from the USA who have a strong desire to help my people in the village. They have made a commitment to initiate a long-term partnership with the villagers. They are joining me to share the burden that I have been carrying for almost 12 years now.
When we arrived at the village, the whole village was shaken and almost everyone came out to meet us. The people in the village were happy to see me back home again, and even more excited that I was not alone. The villagers were anxious, happy, and eager to meet these Americans who made the journey with me because our USA team had spoken with many of the villagers prior to our trip on conference calls from the USA. They knew of our desire to help them.
The welcome smiles in some of the photos can justify my words. The village had organized cooks and donated food, goats, sheep and so many more things that I don’t have time to mention them all here. To me, it was a joyous day in the village. In fact, I couldn’t believe that it was really happening! I wanted to cry, but I refrained from bursting into tears. In our culture, we are taught to be strong in many situations so not to show weaknesses and that it is culturally unacceptable to cry in public. I thanked everyone who came to meet us. It was such a strong and energetic welcome. I will never forget this day as long as I live.
Some of the villagers told me, “Now, Daniel, we have believed that you have not forgotten us and your village. We hope many young men and women from the village who live in town and in cities in Tanzania or outside the country will follow your footsteps.”
One older gentleman in the village said to me, “Daniel, it is better if God takes me home first and lets you live longer to help the people in the villages across this country.”
What amazing stories from the villagers! Now, I see the rainbow of hope coming up from far beyond the clouds. I pray to God that everyone in the village can live to see this rainbow of hope. The hope of getting clean water in the village, the hope of bringing revival to the village, the hope of a better future for everyone in the village, and this hope will shine like a morning star from Toloha village – the Kilimanjaro region – to other villages in Tanzania and across Africa.
May God make it happen someday!
“Kumbuka Kijijini”
Remember the Village
Daniel Makoko is native to Toloha Village and now lives in Greenville, North Carolina. He arrived in North Carolina 12 years ago and began telling the story of his village. Read more of his story
here and
here.
Posted by tolohapartnership on Aug 6, 2013 in Clean Water, Trips to Toloha, Written by Josh | 0 comments
Why is it that people go on mission trips? Some might say that it is because they want to experience another culture so that they can develop a more realistic understanding of how the rest of the world lives. Others may say their main purpose is to assist our fellow man in his struggles and eventually religiously convert him. I have struggled with this question for a while now and have mulled it over every summer for the past three years. I was raised with a heart to serve and believe that as a follower of Jesus, I am called to serve others for my whole life. Prior to my trip to Tanzania this past June, I thought that I had a basic idea of how most mission trips work. I thought that a good group of Christians would travel to wherever, whether down the street or across the world, and that they would partner with another good group of Christians and help to aid them in whatever way possible. The group might minister to people in their village or provide them with resources they were incapable of obtaining. That kind of mission work really is the most common and well known to me, and I perceived it was what the majority of mission work entailed. I knew that this was not the only way mission work was done, but the other way seemed fairly far-fetched to me and pretty obsolete, at least at the time.
This other way was the kind of missions you would only hear about at large conferences and on television. It was someone, or group of people, targeting a primarily unreached people group in order to aid them in some way and eventually convert them to Christ. Prior to this trip, I had been to the Dominican Republic a couple of times and had participated in numerous service projects in the United States, so I assumed that I had a pretty good feel for the mission field as I had seen many different scenarios play out in different kinds of situations. Before this trip our knowledge about Toloha village was pretty minimal. We had one real source of information on life in the village and, therefore, had very little to base our preconceptions of the conditions in which we were about to be immersed. Consequently, as I prepared, I fell back on previous experience to guide my preconception and didn’t think much of it.
Well, not only was I wrong, but I was actually visualizing the opposite of the circumstances in which I found myself. I was expecting to be greeted by a large body of Christians, eager to welcome fellow Christians into their village and church body. In fact we were met by a hearty group of extremely grateful people, the vast majority of which were not Christians.
Throughout our time in the village, I was filled with an overwhelming sense of thirst coming from the villagers. As we surveyed the water system, people approached us thanking and begging us to repair their water line. I saw their thirst for useable clean water so that they could support their struggling families and just survive. We not only heard stories but also saw with our own eyes people sabotaging the existing system that had been put in during the 1950’s. People hacked the pipes with machetes to divert it and dammed up the source of the water with cement and dirt. I saw their thirst for a solution.
But, despite the hundreds of examples of physical thirst that I saw, their thirst for something more than water was what struck me like those machetes hacking up the pipes. I saw a thirst for someone to care about them when adults and children alike would constantly barrage me with their stories of anything from their last trip to the market to their dream of obtaining an education and making it to America. I saw a thirst for knowledge, when person after person, young and old, would approach us and ask about the surveying technology, how it worked and what it did. Finally, I saw a thirst for a purpose. These people want a reason to live; many of them spend all of their time trying to find a way to make any kind of money so they can provide for their family while others, most of the women and girls, simply worked and worried day after day to get “clean-enough”water. They are stuck in a continuous generational and circumstantial cycle of living just to get by, and they yearn for more than that, much more.
The villagers knew that we, the Americans, may be able to quench their physical thirsts, but they were unsure whether or not we could satisfy their thirst for the other intangible things. They seemed to pursue the answer to that question but came up short. Unfortunately, the other team members and I could not sit down and listen to every story, show every eager villager how we worked the GPS system, or provide those with the deepest thirst a purpose to live. This lack of provision on our part hurt me deeply because I knew that no matter how long we stayed and how much time or effort we gave, the end result of the problem would always churn out the same solution, disappointment.
After thinking this new experience through, I came to a realization that had been lurking in the back of my mind for years and was hard to accept but blatantly obvious and easy to understand. What these people needed, far more than water, was Jesus. They needed the water of life to quench all the thirsts that had accumulated in their society and lives for generations, and without intervention, for generations to come. It was the answer that always seemed so stereotypical to me living in a Christian bubble where I was surrounded by Christian customs and beliefs. I had become so numb to being a Christian in a herd of other like Christians that this obvious answer, which was previously just a reflex of my Christian background, came to real life. I was so comfortable in the middle of this herd that targeted the few outside non-Christians for conversion that it took me being immersed in a culture that was completely dominated by Muslims, pagans, and worshippers of dark magic to realize the real solution to the conundrum.
When the Toloha Partnership was established, we yearned to bring the Gospel to the people of Toloha, but the complexity and challenge of the water problem caused us to spend most of our efforts on the logistics of a water system and preventing disease and thirst. As we evolve and expand this partnership, I see it absolutely essential to incorporate a full missionary crusade to share and spread the good news of Jesus Christ to these people. This trip has revealed an entirely different dimension of the Great Commission to me. When you go to a place like Toloha and see thousands of people from every generation who have been living their lives with a misconception of Christianity, or very possibly no concept of the transforming power of Christ at all, and then realize that this village surely will continue to contain people with no hope for eternal life, it makes you fully comprehend what exactly Jesus meant when he spoke those words…”Go and make disciples of all nations…” There is no tomorrow for these people. Another group of Christians almost certainly will not be coming to spread the Word of God if we do not.
The situation is dire and is more than meets the eye. I went on this mission trip expecting to return with the same feeling that I had upon returning from every other mission trip. Instead, I have experienced a real problem that I did not perceive before but one that needs to be addressed collectively and passionately by the people involved in the church and in the Toloha Partnership. We need not take this lightly because there is no passing it on to the next guy. I believe we have been chosen by God to aid these people and that their eternal lives may rest in our willingness to be obedient to God’s cry for His people in Toloha.
Once again God has rocked my world by allowing me to experience His marvelous kingdom and by providing me with a whole new perspective on missions and the Great Commission. Summed up: While comfort is appealing, its end leaves you lacking in knowledge and intended blessingsaffecting you, and those you encounter, eternally.
Josh serves as our Team Videographer and also assists in the engineering and planning aspects of our water project. He graduated from Arendell Parrott Academy in 2013 and will be pursuing a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University starting this Fall. His mother, Diane, is one of the first Toloha Partnership team members to share in Daniel’s vision for Toloha.
Posted by tolohapartnership on Jul 31, 2013 in Clean Water, Fundraising, Get involved, Praise Report, Written by Katie | 0 comments
Passion, determination and generosity along with child-like faith can do BIG things!
This year the volunteers from Vacation Bible School (VBS) at Grace Fellowship Church in Kinston, NC graciously adopted Toloha Partnership as their mission with 100% of the offering going to support our cause.
During the week of VBS, the children were encouraged to bring in change and any money they could raise in order to help the village of Toloha gain access to clean water and the Gospel.
One of the focuses of VBS was missions and I was blessed to be a part of the “Missions” corner. We began the week by talking about different missions – missions your parent’s give you (i.e. clean your room), secret missions, as well as the mission that Jesus gave us right before He ascended to heaven. This mission, or commission, as we often call it is found in Matthew 28:19-20.
“Therefore GO and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Basically we are to tell everyone, everywhere that Jesus loves them!
On day one, we began with a little object lesson – The children were all seated on our pretend “airplane” and I asked one child to leave the room.
The other children were all given a chocolate chip cookie representing God’s love.
But we had one cookie left – it was meant for the child who was no longer in the room.
The kids tried to get her to come back in the room without leaving the room themselves.
They tried yelling, hiding and then yelling even louder, but it just wouldn’t work.
They finally concluded they must leave the room and GO and find their friend and TELL her that Jesus loves her (give her the cookie).
What a neat picture – in order to fulfill the mission Jesus has given us we must GO and tell others the good news!
On day two, we boarded our airplane and took off for Toloha, Tanzania! We “met” (via a photograph at this point) a new friend named Daniel and discovered what the village looks like, what kind of animals are around, and 2 issues that Toloha is facing.
We learned that the people are in need of clean water and that they don’t know Jesus loves them.
The kids were given a chance to pick up (or try to pick up) 5 gallons of water. This is the approximate amount a woman carries in the developing world and is equivalent to 40lbs!
The children also learned that many women carry the water on their heads – the kids tried to do this too!
On the third day, we recycled an empty water bottle into a reminder to pray for the village of Toloha. The students filled a water bottle with dirty water and decorated a label that simply said “Toloha.” The kids were challenged to place their bottle of water in their house to remind them to pray for the people in the village.
For the next two days, we focused on other missionaries that were sent out by Grace Fellowship – Randy and Janet Adams in Taiwan and Chris and Carrie Himes who are leaving next month to minister with South American Mission (SAM) in Recife, Brazil. Although, we were not actively teaching about Toloha for the last few days of VBS, the children constantly had their new friend, Daniel, and his village on their minds.
Not only did these kids go home and ask their parent’s for money, they got creative and did everything they could think of to raise money and awareness for Toloha.
There were lemonade/cookie stands all over Kinston!
Some kids made crafts and sold them while others went door-to-door selling baked goods and telling people about the village of Toloha.
Still others did extra chores around the house to earn a little extra cash.
There was a friendly competition between the girls and the boys to raise the most money.
It was a back and forth all week, and by day four, the kids had raised an astounding $575.61!
I was amazed when I saw this number!
84 kids had raised over $500 and still had another day to go!
On the final day kids brought in their final offerings and joyfully placed them in the offering bucket. Little did the kids know that later that day, they would have the chance to meet Daniel in person during the closing ceremony. When he entered the sanctuary, there was a roar in the crowd amongst the kids, parents and volunteers.
Excitement remained high as we all waited to hear the grand total…and find out if the girls or the boys had raised more money! The stakes were high – if the girls raised more they got to throw water balloons at the guy leaders and if the boys won, they got to throw water balloons at the girl leaders!
When the total flashed on the screen, I couldn’t believe my eyes!
The children had raised a $1378.33!
The girls barely beat the boys, but after a total like that it was decided that everyone got to throw water balloons. The guys, including Daniel, lined up and were pelted with water balloons as kids and adults alike laughed and were filled with joy at what the Lord did through the passionate hearts of 84 children!
Our team at Toloha Partnership was so amazed at and inspired by these children. They taught us that with faith, all things are possible. They also showed us that a little determination and work can reap rewards beyond our imagination. This was an amazing boost for us as we head into our fundraising in the next few months. Please join us as we work to raise the money needed to bring the people of Toloha clean water!
Posted by tolohapartnership on Jul 26, 2013 in Fundraising, Get involved | 0 comments
We have Toloha Partnership Tshirts available!
Please contact us here if you are interested in placing an order. We have children’s sizes through XXXL available.
Posted by tolohapartnership on Jul 15, 2013 in Clean Water, Praise Report, Program Update, Trips to Toloha, written by Lindsay | 0 comments
It has been an amazing month for the Toloha Partnership! We had our first team trip to Toloha and everyone will be back in the states this week. Our Assessment team came back at the end of June and Daniel comes back today! We also had our first fund-raising and awareness initiative in partnership with the Erasing the Lines (ETL) annual event in Kinston! (Read about ETL here.) Plus, we have t-shirts!
We have so much exciting news and we will be blogging about it all right here. There’s so much to share that we almost don’t know where to start, so this is a little teaser of what’s to come.
There is a lot of teamwork going on right now! Currently our engineering team is getting bids for the pipeline that will be used to distribute our water source, and they are organizing all of the research and information from their trip to get a finalized design for the clean water project. Our fundraising team is planning an exciting fundraising and awareness events for this Fall and Spring in Kinston and Greenville. We also have Tanzanian-made merchandise to sell along with our very own Toloha Partnership t-shirts that made their debut at ETL. Photos coming soon!
We will need lots of volunteers for fundraising events, so if you are interested, please contact us here.
I am putting together a very informative e-newsletter with all of the details for our clean water project and prayer requests. So if you haven’t yet, please sign up for the e-newsletter here.
In the meantime, here are some images from the team trip to Toloha taken by our Team Videographer, Joshua Spear and some images I took from Erasing the Lines. There are soooo many more photos that we will be sharing along with some blog posts from our Assessment team so make sure to check back soon!
Thank you so much for your support! God is doing amazing things in Toloha and here in the USA to show us his love in miraculous ways.
Toloha, Tanzania
Erasing the Lines, Kinston, NC, USA
Posted by tolohapartnership on Jun 19, 2013 in Clean Water, Fundraising, Get involved, Praise Report, Program Update, Trips to Toloha, Written by Katie | 0 comments
Toloha Partnership has been given the incredible opportunity of partnering with Son Set Ministries for one of their annual camps, Erasing the Lines (ETL). ETL is a week in which middle school and high school students from local churches in Eastern NC gather to spend the week serving and showing Jesus to the community. This week (July 17-21) ETL is celebrating their 10th year with over 165 students participating.
When the students arrive they are broken into small groups (mixed ages/genders/churches) of about 10 students with a college or young adult leader. Groups are assigned varying work projects each morning and afternoon. Toloha Partnership is leading one of those work projects — we are leading the “water walk” this week!
You may be thinking, what is a water walk? I am glad you asked! The concept is very simple but the results are enormous. Groups are educated about the water situation in much of the developing world and then they are issued a challenge. Students are challenged to take a walk in the shoes of women and children who walk miles each day to gather life’s basic necessity – water.
It looks a little something like this:
Students fill up water jugs
Students carry the water back to Rochelle Middle School (2.4 miles) where the camp is based.
Along the way students have an opportunity to raise awareness by sharing with others what they are doing and why they are doing it. The students get it — they share about the need for physical water to flow as well as the living water of Jesus Christ. In Toloha, TZ, 56% of the Pare people claim Islam while 40% claim Christianity.
Someone has graciously agreed to donate $1 to Toloha Partnership for each gallon of water the students tote back to Rochelle. Each group is challenged to bring back at least 25 gallons – the groups from Tuesday exceeded this toting 33.4 and 35.5 gallons! That is a lot of water…especially when it weighs ~8 pounds per gallon!
It is certainly hard work but when these students hear that people are walking 6+ miles to gather dirty water, nothing will stop them from doing what they can to be a part of the solution.
This is just the start — check back for updates and more pictures later this week!
Posted by tolohapartnership on Jun 14, 2013 in Clean Water, Praise Report, Program Update, Trips to Toloha, Written by Katie | 0 comments
Sunday was an incredible and much anticipated day! It was a day the Toloha Partnership team has anxiously awaited and a day Daniel has been longing for almost 12 years! It was the day the first team departed from Kinston, NC to travel to Toloha Village in Tanzania to begin, what we hope to be, a long-term partnership.
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Perry, Daniel, Josh and Burt |
The Assessment Team consists of Daniel Makoko (native of Toloha Village), Burt Rudolph (project engineer) and team members Perry Rudolph and Joshua Spear.
Sunday night at 11:25 pm the team flew out of Washington, DC to Istanbul,Turkey and then onto Dar es Salaam, the capital city of Tanzania.
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Perry and Josh on board the flight headed for Istanbul, Turkey |
After many flights and hopefully a lot of sleep, the team arrived safely in Dar es Salaam. The team spent a few days meeting with potential partners in the capital city and then traveled toward the village (10 hours + from the capital city). On Thursday the team arrived in Toloha Village and were greeted with a joyous welcome from the villagers!
That is all the information I have for now but I can’t wait to get more updates, details and pictures. I will post as soon as I hear more!
Please continue to pray for the following:
- Strong relationships with the community leaders/members
- Relationships with the local church in Toloha
- Water project logistics (surveying, water tests, water committees)
- For Jesus to shine brightly through the team members as they interact with the locals
- Energy and health
Posted by tolohapartnership on Jun 9, 2013 in Clean Water, Praise Report, Program Update, Trips to Toloha, Written by Katie | 0 comments
Last May we began meeting and actively seeking God’s face for how we could be a part of Daniel’s story and a part of what the Lord is doing in Toloha, TZ. Now, just over a year since those prayer meetings, we are thrilled that an Assessment Team of four is leaving TOMORROW (Sunday June, 9th 2013) to go to Daniel’s home village of Toloha, TZ!
I think these words from Daniel truly sum up our team’s sentiments:
“Oh my Lord, it is real now! I did not believe if someday this would happen. A hope for getting clean water to my people in the village — I will always adore You (God) and testify to Your power before Your people wherever I go and you will always be my God.”
The Lord has been so sweet and so very present throughout this past year. I would love to share all the ways we’ve seen the Lord and how He has truly led us step by step to get us to this point (maybe in a future blog post)! A year ago we thought we’d drill a couple of boreholes and the village would have clean water within the year. Now we are looking at repairing a mountain spring gravity feed system which is an extensive undertaking but one we know the Lord will see to the end.
There have been many times that it would have been easiest to give up, throw in the towel and believe it couldn’t be done. But, the Lord keeps showing up — over and over and over again. There is no denying that He has been the one leading this adventure and we can’t wait to see where He leads next.
Will you be praying for our team as they travel? Here are a few specific things you can be praying for over the next two weeks:
- Safe travels, on-time flights, checked baggage to make it to TZ, accommodations and travel while in country
- Productive meetings/favor with government officials, non-governmental organizations (similar to non profits here in the USA), village leaders and village committees
- Health, good rest and energy
- Opportunities to share Jesus/encourage the church
- God’s leading/wisdom/discernment
We hope to post multiple times over the coming weeks as we hear news from the team in Tanzania! Please please please be praying!
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21
Posted by tolohapartnership on May 24, 2013 in Daniel's stories, Written by Daniel | 0 comments
As a young man, Daniel felt a deep obligation to help his mother and father who were continuing to struggle in the Toloha village in Tanzania. After Daniel completed his secondary education, his brother encouraged him to pursue a job and send money home rather than returning to the village. Daniel started working at Mkwaja Ranch for a prominent British family and quickly earned the respect of his boss. Daniel was a valued and trusted employee and was promoted and transferred several times.
During that time, some of Daniel’s friends decided to apply for the Diversity Visa Lottery. The Diversity Visa Lottery is a program sponsored through the US Government, which offers 55,000 permanent residence US visas yearly to individuals from countries with low US immigration. Daniel did not know much about the program but filled out the application along with his friends and sent it in with no real hope of anything more.
Over a year later Daniel received a very large packet in the mail from the New Hampshire Visa Center. Daniel immediately opened it and tried to read it but he had very poor English so he was not able to understand it. A friend read it to him and he realized it was a chance to go to the USA!
Even with this amazing opportunity before him, the requirements for a visa still seemed impossible for Daniel. His friends did not think he was going to be able to make it happen. And he didn’t – God did! There were visa fees, a medical exam and a large sum of money that had to be paid in order for him to attain the visa. The other option was to find a sponsor – someone in the USA to agree to help him financially if needed. Daniel did not know anyone in the USA. He tried desperately to locate a sponsor but he had no contacts in the USA to aide him. It was discouraging, but he just could not let himself give up.
With the visa application deadline only a few months away, Daniel was in town working when he ran into the brother of his friend Joshua, who Daniel knew in high school. The brother told Daniel that Joshua was in the USA! The brother was in a hurry and quickly wrote down Joshua’s email address for Daniel and then ran off. The Internet was not available in many places, so while in town, Daniel took the opportunity to send Joshua an email. He told Joshua about his opportunity to come to the USA, but described all the obstacles he was facing – they money it required and leaving his wife and child in Tanzania. Joshua responded and said he would help find a sponsor for Daniel. Within a few weeks, Joshua had found Daniel a sponsor in the United States!
Now the deadline was less than one month away, so Daniel immediately took the completed paperwork and went to the US Embassy. He didn’t have an appointment, but surprisingly Daniel was allowed to meet with the US consular. Daniel entered the office, and the consular said, “Are you ready to go to the USA?” Daniel stood in awe as the consular stamped his paperwork and handed them back to Daniel. Daniel’s visa was approved for entry to the USA!
Daniel walked out of the embassy with such excitement and disbelief, and then as he was leaving, he heard orders for everyone to immediately leave the US Embassy. The date was September 11, 2001. Daniel later learned about the attack on twin towers in New York City. When Daniel returned home all of his friends were consoling him because they knew he must not have gotten his visa because of the tragedy – but he had… just moments before the tragedy struck!
On November 30, 2001 Daniel left Tanzania for the United States of America! Daniel left his wife and his 2-year-old son in the care of his father and mother in his home village of Toloha. At 4am, Daniel began the 6-hour walk to the nearest town where he caught a bus to Dar es Salam (the capital of TZ). Daniel knew a man named Bernard who was in the United States. Bernard was living in Kinston, NC, and so Daniel traveled directly to Kinston to stay with Bernard.
Once Daniel was settled in the USA he began seeking a way to bring his wife and young son from Tanzania – he had to wait several years for them to have the opportunity to come to the USA, but they are now all together and their family has grown!
While Daniel has continued his education in the medical field here in the USA, he has not given up his passion to continue helping his Village of Toloha, and he continues to have faith that God will do a great work there!
Daniel holds this phrase in his heart, “Kumbuka Kijijini,” which means in Swahili “Remember the Village.”
This has become a slogan for the Toloha Partnership Team as we work to bring hope and a future to the village of Toloha. We are so thankful that God brought Daniel to Kinston, NC and has invited us to show the people of Toloha just how much he loves them.
One of Daniel’s visions is to bring clean water to the 6,000 people in the Toloha Village region. In two weeks, he will embark on a trip back to Toloha with our Program Engineer, Burt Rudolph and an assessment team to plan out the repair of a gravity system that will bring sustainable clean water to the people! We will be sharing more about that trip on the blog next week!
Posted by tolohapartnership on Apr 26, 2013 in Daniel's stories, Written by Daniel | 0 comments
About one month ago, anyone who googled “Toloha” would get nothing from the search engine related to Toloha, Tanzania – not even on Google maps. And now, this www.TolohaPartnership.org is the first or second link leading to the village of Toloha, and our Facebook page is the next – gotta love the world wide web!
Our team would like to take this opportunity to introduce the world to Toloha and share why we love the people there so much.
It all started with Daniel. Daniel’s story is amazing, and there is so much to share that we are going to break it up into parts. Part 1 is all about Daniel’s childhood.
Daniel Makoko was born and raised in Toloha, Tanzania. Toloha is a rural village in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania (near the border of TZ and Kenya). Daniel was the last born in his family with 2 older brothers and an older sister. Daniel’s family raised cattle and crops for a living however when Daniel was very young all 50 of his family’s head of cattle were stolen and never returned. Daniel’s father had no money to replace the cattle so they resorted to farming as their sole livelihood.
By the time Daniel reached the age of 4 or 5, his siblings had all left the village of Toloha for various reasons (education, jobs, etc). Daniel’s mother often left the village for months at a time to visit with his sister in the city, leaving Daniel and his father alone in the village. Daniel was left with responsibilities such as gathering firewood, cooking meals, farming and fetching water all while trying to attend primary school.
“It was difficult to manage school because of food – sometimes I did not get to go to school because of other things I had to do…” commented Daniel. “I grew up a very destitute life, a life where you don’t know if you will get a meal or if you will have a better future or if you will even see tomorrow.”
Daniel knows what it means to be hungry, thirsty, hopeless and without Christ.
Once Daniel completed primary school his brother invited him to move to the city to continue his education. Daniel’s brother paid his school fees but soon Daniel’s brother was transferred to another city for his work. Daniel then had to be enrolled in a boarding school, which was much more expensive. Daniel’s brother continued to pay his school fees although there were times when Daniel was expelled from school because of lack of money. Daniel’s brother always found a way to help Daniel return to school and after overcoming much adversity Daniel completed his secondary education in 1991!
Please look for Part 2 of Daniel’s story soon!