Progress for Senior Homes as charity status confirmed

The volunteers of Tanzanian Heavenly Homes are always busy, particularly as their annual trip to Mto Wa Mbu gets closer, and this year there is a significant development on the formal side of the organisation.

Tanzanian Heavenly Homes was founded by John McCauley in 2012, and it has developed into Senior Hope, which works directly with older people in Tanzania who have no one to look after them.

John and volunteer colleagues have, finally, have a long application process, officially received their charity number.

“We got it on March 25 after four years of looking for it,” he said. “A local barrister did all the paperwork for me because it was so much and I wouldn’t understand it.

“He did it for us for free, thank God, because his daughter was with us in Tanzania two years ago, and they were very impressed by what we do.

“It was his thing to get the charity regulator number for us, so we’re now a fully registered charity.”

They’re still going through the process of applying for tax relief forms but according to John, that part is more straightforward.

Carmel’s spinathon

Carmel Byrne has been a volunteer for Tanzanian Heavenly Homes since 2023. This month she is hosting a Spinathon on April 11 to raise funds for this year’s journey to Tanzania.

“We just decided we’d do something different,” said Carmel. “Last year we had the coffee morning, so this year I decided to make it a more fun event.

“We will try to do a 12-hour spinathon and the idea would be to spin for hope – basically spin for Tanzania.”

Carmel has been a part of the volunteer trip to Mto Wa Mbu in Tanzania twice before, in 2023 and 2025, and is preparing for her third visit.

Her fundraiser and others organised by other volunteers around Mullingar raise money for the supplies that the charity delivers to elderly residents in Tanzania and for the maintenance of the Senior Hope residences.

The spinathon “will run from 10 to 4”, said Carmel. “I have 12 people lined up to come and do the spinathon so I’m looking forward to it.

The participants will do 45 minutes to an hour each. There will be a bucket collection for those who want to donate, and a card machine for those with no cash.

Tanzania has a strong tourism industry thanks to the Serengeti and safaris and Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. It also has a long coastline and plentiful natural resources, but there is a problem with economic inequality.

As Carmel puts it: “The rich are very rich and the poor are very poor.”

Tanzanian Heavenly Homes is unique in the fight against poverty thanks to the focus on the older members of the local population.

“They’re elderly people in a home where they’re taken off the street and given dignity and hope in their final years of life. They’re welcomed there, given three meals a day.

“To be involved in that, to see that up and running, see what the people of Mullingar did for that charity, and the fact that they have donated to it and kept it going is fantastic.”

Carmel and John have been friends for 10 years. Through hearing John speak about the work he and his fellow volunteers were doing for this community, she wanted to be a part of it.

“I wanted to go see it for myself, and when John said he goes over with the group every year, I was interested. A lot of times the main focus is on the children and orphanages and that kind of thing. John has called them (the elderly) the forgotten elders, but they’re not forgotten when John’s over there.”

The volunteers do food deliveries throughout Mto Wa Mbu, including to those living in the mountains and those with disabilities.

“They buy clothes for the people who are living up in the mountains on the outskirts of the village. We go out to them, two or three days of a food run while we’re out there and we’d get them beans, rice, maize, and cooking oil.

“They’re very genuine people, they’re so grateful for the little things, just a bucket of rice and they’re amazed.”

Such poverty in a relatively wealthy country, begs the question why such inequality is allowed. “I think it’s government related,” Carmel mused. “I think there would be quite a lot of corruption.

“It is all down to the government, you see it with the food runs, a government official comes with us and dictates who’s entitled to what.

“We have to follow his jurisdiction, we’re in his territory, so we do as he says.

“You accept it for what it is, you accept that it’s there, that’s the way it is.

“John has stuck with it through thick and thin and if they refuse something, he would fight with them on it until he got what he wanted.”

The spinathon is on April 11 at Kinnegad Plaza, who Carmel expressed her gratitude to, as well as Coralstown/Kinnegad GFC, who have provided her with bikes for the day.