About Us

Toawema is a monthly prize draw website, set up to help people in Tanzania access education and medical assistance.

Toawema is a combination of two swahili words: toa, meaning give or yield and wema, meaning well. It is pronounced To (as in toffee) a (apple) we (as in went) ma (as in maria).

Based in Glasgow, the dedicated mother and son team Safia and Brian McNicoll are focused on providing a wide range of prizes to suit all our members.

If you win something you would rather swap contact us and we will put the details on the swap page. Since we started in November 2008, there has been just one swap request. Our Members are always keen find out if they have won one of the prizes such as: £1000.00, concert tickets, TVs, laptops, beauty treatments, helicopter rides, jewellery and much more.

Would you like to become a partner? Contact us and we will get back to you at your convenience.

The United Republic of Tanzania is in East Africa. It covers an area of 945,203 sq km making it almost 4 times the size of UK and includes the islands of Mafia. Pemba and Zanzibar. Prior to the union with Zanzibar it was known as Tanganyika.

Tanzania's eastern border lies on the Indian Ocean. Countries on it's other borders are Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique. The lowest point is the Indian Ocean at 0m and the highest point is Mt Kilimanjaro at 5,895m

Dar es Salaam is now the commercial capital.

Dodoma has been the capital since 1973 and houses the country's Parliament

map courtesy of http://www.tanzaniaodyssey.com

Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world. In 2008 the populaion stood at 40,213,162. Life expectancy at birth is 50 years compared to 79 in the UK. The economy is largely based on agriculture.

Most people face a daily struggle to feed themselves and their families with 35% living below the poverty line.

There are more than 126 ethnic groups each having their own language. Kiswahili (Swahili) is the national language. The best known of the tribes are the Masai who continue with a way of life that has changed very little. This photograph of a Masai Warrior was taken over 40 years ago.


Tourism is an improtant source of revenue. Tanzania is a beautiful and varied country from the temperate northern highlands, to the coastal areas and to the islands. It is well worth a visit. It has many ecologically significant wildlife parks, including Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro Crater. The Serengeti National Park is situated in the north of the country.The Selous Game Reserve and Mikumi National Park in the south and Gombe National Park in the west.

Olduvai gorge is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world and is commonly referred to as the cradle of mankind. It is the site of the most important hominid finds by Louis and Mary Leaky. Mary Leaky found the remains of Australopithecus boisei who inhabited the area 1.75 million years ago. Other finds include Paranthropus bosei from around 2.6 million years ago and homo habilis from around 2.5 million years ago.

The wish to find a sustainable means of helping people started when I visited Tanzania after an absence of over 30 years. I had lost touch with my family when I was 12 years old. Family is central part of life, the extended family forms an essential support network as a social security system does not exist.

In the intervening years since I left Tanzania, life has become more difficult for the people I came into contact with. For many there is no running water, electricity and even in cities the latrine is a hole in the ground outside.

We have set this website up to provide a sustainable means of raising funds to help people in Tanzania. We would like to do this by the providing access to secondary education. This is the key to people improving their lives and the lives of those in their communities.

This picture was taken a few years ago, most of the older children have not completed a secondary school education and only a couple of the younger children will get the chance to go to secondary school unless we can provide the means for them to attend.

Since the abolition of primary school fees in 2000 the enrolment level has increased from 22% in 2002 to 97% presently. Only 30% of primary school leavers attend secondary school as this is not free. An education gives people a chance to enhance their lives and that of their community. We would like to sponsor children in Tanzania to continue their education, therefore empowering them to help themselves and their communities.

People need to stay healthy to be able to care for their families and their communities. Access to medical assistance is a challenge for a majority of people. This is can be due to distance but more often because they cannot afford to pay for treatment. Toawema seeks to have funds available for people to be able to access simple medical care.

Malaria is the biggest killer of children who survive the neonatal period. This is a preventable disease with medication and prevention through the use of mosquito nets. The main cause of deaths in adults is AIDS/HIV leaving many children orphaned to take care of themselves and any younger sibblings.

Tanzania does not have a cervical cancer screening program. The death rate in the Uk from cervical cancer was 3.7 per 100,000 compared to 5-15 per 100,000 in developing countries (1). Most women have to rely on radio therapy alone as it is provided free by the state. They are unable to afford very expensive chemotherapy. The program to vaccinate young girls against HPV (human papilloma virus) is well under way in the UK and cervical screening figures have increased dramatically since Jade Goody bravely brought the issue to our attention, via television and the written media (2). The vaccination licensed in Tanzania but is not widely available.

While a cervical screening program is beyond our reach for the immediate future, we would like to start in a very small way by helping people to access simple medical treatment that is otherwise beyond their means.

Please join toawema.co.uk. Membership will entitle you to entry into 12 monthly draws for your annual membership for a fee of just £10.00 and it will make a tremendous difference to the lives of children and their families.

Thank you for your assistance.

You can find further information from:

(1) Nursing times.net (2) Guardian.co.uk (Thursday 22nd october 2009) Lonely Planet /Tanzania Ifrc.org www.cia.gov Answers.com