Our aim is to work with the people of Tanzania to create sustainable employment by providing vocational and English training.

Trade Aid also encourage local enterprise and support the community in the conservation of historic buildings.

In 1996 after Trade Aid Chairman Brian Currie visited Mikindani, Trade Aid began the process of renovating the historic German Boma built in Mikindani 1895.

The purpose was to create jobs, and to promote sustainable employment by providing training opportunities in Mikindani.

Trade Aid, directed by a local committee in Mikindani, transformed The Old Boma into a fully functioning vocational training hotel. Trade Aid hopes that through tourism, sustainable jobs can be created.

Trade Aid Tanzania Charitable Trust was founded in 2000 and operates from Base House in Mikindani, Southern Tanzania. Trade Aid Tanzania is the operating arm of Trade Aid UK in Tanzania and is vital to delivering effective and targeted programmes in Tanzania.

Trade Aid Tanzania has its own board of Trustees and is managed and led by a local team on the ground and is entirely staffed by local people from the community of Mikindani-Mtwara.

Like many towns throughout Tanzania, Mikindani suffers from poor access to education, chronic unemployment, poverty and a reliance on subsistence farming.

Until the rise of Mtwara in the 1950’s, Mikindani was one of the central hubs in Southern Tanzania with a rich history of Makonde, Arabic, Swahili, Portuguese and later, German influences. As businesses moved to the newly created town, Mikindani suffered as jobs and business crumbled.

Though it may lack business opportunities, what Mikindani does have is a rich vibrant history and a beautiful coastal landscape full of heritage and culture which fills its population with pride and hope.

Tourism offers the opportunity to create jobs and infrastructure, but it must be done sustainably. Working closely with the local community and directed by their needs, Trade Aid focus on vocational education, conservation and gender equality.

The Mikindani local committee was established at the very beginning of Trade Aid’s activities in Tanzania and is arguably the most important arm of Trade Aid.

The Mikindani local committee is comprised of local leaders, religious leaders from all creeds and important members of local government in Mikindani. Their role is to advise on the needs of Mikindani, where Trade Aid should target their work and how Trade Aid should approach its role in Mikindani.

The local committee have been vital in gaining Mikindani conservation status as well as marketing and encouraging vocational education throughout Tanzania and teaching the importance of learning. Their cultural and historical expertise is also vital – in fact Trade Aid could not carry out its work without the role of The Mikindani local committee.