Letter from the Director

Dear Friends

Re:         Our plans in response to the COVID-19

I hope you all safe and in good health, to me you are all part of the LTT family and your well being is paramount.

I wanted to write to let you know what we are doing both in the UK and in Tanzania in response to the serious, challenging and evolving situation we all find ourselves in with the global pandemic - COVID-19.

LTT’s primary concern is our duty of care towards the health and well-being of the people we work with in Tanzania, our partner organisation and our staff, volunteers and supporters here in the UK. To that extent we have reassured our UK staff and Tanzania colleagues of our commitment to them.

Our UK team have always worked from home and will continue to do so, but we are moving all our external meetings online in order to ensure we can continue to work effectively and efficiently.

The Tanzanian Government Response

The situation in Tanzania is evolving rapidly, as of this morning (27.03.2020), there have been 13 confirmed cases across the country, but none yet reported in Babati. The Government has taken steps to reduce the spread of the virus by closing all schools, banning public events and gatherings, and have improved screening measures at airports for all passengers. In addition, the Government is implementing mandatory quarantine for anyone arriving from high risk countries, even for those without symptoms and whilst it has not been confirmed that the UK is on that list, we believe it will be imminently.

Preparing our team in Tanzania

We are adapting our projects and activities appropriately, including suspending all our community meetings and group training sessions. We have developed information for the team on the virus, current public health advice and social distancing in order to tackle bogus information already circulating on social media sites. We have also developed guidelines with our team for any essential 1:1 activities that may need to take place. These will be under constant review as the situation evolves. We are also supporting our partners (MCDO) to prepare for remote working for when this becomes necessary.

Our expected timelines and reporting

These are unique and evolving circumstances and are going to impact on the project timelines of most of our work. We will of course keep our donors up to date as the situation evolves.

The next few months

This is an challenging time for us all. We are committed to doing everything we can to keep serving the vulnerable communities we work with in Tanzania whilst adapting to ensure the health and safety of our teams and those we work with in Babati.

Many thanks for all your support and understanding.

My colleagues and I sincerely hope you able to keep safe, eat well, stay fit and look after your families, friends and neighbours

Yours sincerely

Julian Page

Director