Tanzania

Bordered by seven African countries and the Indian Ocean, Tanzania is famous for Africa’s highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro and national parks such as the Serengeti and Ngorongoro – vast areas across which millions of zebra, wildebeest and antelope trek on an annual migration to Kenya’s Masai Mara. Half the country’s employed population works in agriculture, with coffee Tanzania’s largest export crop – Arusha and Moshi are two main coffee growing regions. Swahili is the national language.

Taking development to the next level

Juma Kittyler, a Tanzanian who was introduced to rugby while working as a chef, went on to represent his country in several international fixtures. Inspired by rugby and its values he established a non-profit organisation, Tanzania Rugby Development (TRD) to use rugby as a tool to empower underprivileged children. BPF has supported Juma’s work through volunteer engagement, provision of sports equipment and grants through the Ed Cooper Memorial Fund. The family of Ed Cooper – a British student and keen rugby player who tragically died in 2016 just days after starting university – donates funds raised to this initiative.

Today, Juma’s work is being adopted by the wider BPF family as we utilise additional grant funding from two further committed BPF donors, to register BPF Tanzania as a local NGO and optimise the existing development program, enabling Juma to build on his work of exposing more than 3,000 children to the sport and instilling the values of teamwork, respect and discipline into every player. We’re recruiting and training new staff to join the program and better support the delivery of regular sessions and tournaments.