Ascension partners with two sister parishes in the Usa River region of Tanzania outside of the city of Arusha. We share in the lives of the congregations through regular communication and prayer requests. Our desire is to promote our relationship with our brothers and sisters by exchanging delegates from the respective congregations every two years.
Tanzania Partnership Events
2019 Visit of Tanzania Delegation – The Greater Milwaukee Synod has invited a delegation of 19 Tanzanians from the Meru Diocese to visit us from October 8-22. Four of those delegates are guests of Ascension.
2018 Mission Trip – The last week of July and the first week of August was a historic time for Ascension. Seven Ascension members along with seven members of St. Luke’s went to Tanzania.
Mt. Meru Coffee Project: Doing Justice Never Tasted So Good
1. The Mt. Meru Coffee Project (MMCP) is part of the faith- based relationship which started in 1996 between the Diocese of Meru of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT) and the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA).
2. The MMCP originated 3 years later, in 1999, when a small coffee farmer said to a visiting Milwaukee Pastor: “We grow coffee; you drink coffee; would you buy your coffee from us?”
3. The MMCP’s mission is to develop and grow justice-based relationships, building on fair trade practices between the Meru coffee growers and U.S. coffee consumers.
4. The Project has sought to follow the pricing and practices of established Fair Trade programs. It began paying the farmers $2/lb for their green coffee at a time when the market price was less than $1/pound. When the market price rose to $2.50/lb, the Project paid the farmers $2.80/lb. Today, the Project is paying farmers $2.20/lb compared to a market price of $1.50/lb.
5. The premium price paid by the MMCP has benefited other farmers as well because other coffee buyers have had to raise their prices to remain competitive.
6. The justice-based pricing has enabled the farmers to support their families, send their children to school, access healthcare, sustain and improve their farms, and support their local cooperatives, villages and churches.
7. In 2001, the Project started working with about 200 small farmers (having less than three acres of land) and imported coffee for the first time. Today, the Project works with over 2,000 small coffee farmers.
8. The Project has imported, roasted, packaged and distribut- ed an average of 8 to 12 tons of coffee per year, totaling over 100 tons from 2001 through 2013.
9. The greater portion of the coffee is being sold through churches within the Greater Milwaukee Synod. Coffee is also being sold to other churches of other denominations and lo- cations outside of the Synod and to coffee shops, restaurants, and private label coffee roasters.
10. Both regular and decaf coffee is available in whole bean, drip grind, perk grind, and green (unroasted) form. Four flavored regular and decaf coffees are also available in drip grind. Single cup servings (K-cups) of regular coffee will be available in April.
11. Although the MMCP does not directly fund Meru-Mil- waukee Partnership activities, it is the single largest project of the Partnership. It involves 75-80 churches within the Synod and helps create awareness and support for other projects within the Diocese of Meru, such as: a hospital and clinic, schools and scholarship programs, hunger relief and water supply programs, and parish-to-parish partnering.
12. Our ongoing purchase of Mt. Meru Coffee is the single most important way in which we can grow the relationships of this Project, supporting thousands of small family farmers in Tanzania.
Nkoaranga Hospital
Nkoaranga Hospital is performing over twenty orthopedic surgeries a month without an x-ray machine! The good news is that a team of German doctors has promised, through the Rotary Club Germany, that they will receive the budget needed to buy the x-ray machine. However, there will be extra costs and unforeseen costs, such as buying power protection materials, preparation of the room for installation, transporting the machine, and final installation. The Greater Milwaukee Synod Meru Committee has agreed to raise the money for this project. If you are interested in this important endeavor, contact Shirley Wehmeier or Sarah Aparicio, pwehmeier@wi.rr.com or weh22@hotmail.com.
Tanzania Water Project
Did you know that Ascension, along with other congregations in the Greater Milwaukee Synod, supports the Tanzania Water Project? Like many poor nations around the world, Tanzania suffers from serious issues involving safe water. In a nation where one third of the country is arid to semi-arid, it is very difficult for people to find access to clean, sanitary water if they don’t live near one of the three major lakes that border the country. As a result, Tanzania’s ground water is the major source of water for the nation’s people; however, it’s not always clean. Many of these ground water wells are located near or next to toxic drainage systems, which leak into the fresh ground water and contaminate it. Consequently, Tanzanians turn to surface water which contains things like bacteria or human waste; and people have no choice but to drink from, bathe in, or wash their clothes in these areas. According to the Tanzania national website, water-borne illnesses, such as malaria and cholera account for over half of the diseases affecting the population, because people don’t have access to sanitary options.
In a household where money is scarce, daughters and mothers have to spend several hours each day walking to get water from pumps and they run the risk of being attacked or raped. Young girls often drop out of school in order to collect the water that is needed for the family. The Water Project works with the Tanzanian people to provide safe and clean water so that the families have this life sustaining resource.
We’d love to hear from you and answer any additional questions you have.