Dear Supporters,
Welcome to our Autumn newsletter.
We have lots of exciting news to share and some big things to celebrate with you all.
Firstly a big thank you to everyone who participated in Miles for Mango Tree earlier in the Spring. We are so grateful to everyone who joined in this epic virtual challenge that raised over £30,000 towards our educational legacy work in Africa.
We are also delighted to let you all know that we have secured two new exciting partnerships that will enable us to support the continued delivery of our education work and, in doing so, ensure that all those children and young people orphaned by the HIV pandemic, are able to complete their full educational journeys. The Organisation of Matumaini Communities (OMC) will be delivering our orphan education programme in Tanzania, and Kids Club Kampala (UK), will become our new UK partner, formally taking on the administration of our overseas programmes from April 2025, to ensure the future legacy of TMT’s work in East Africa.
Lasting, we are extremely excited to announce that fabulous UK actress, Jennifer Saunders will be presenting our BBC Radio 4 Appeal this winter! We are very much looking forward to working with Jennifer over the coming weeks to develop our appeal that will highlight the importance of girls’ empowerment through education, and profile TMT Kenya’s gender development work.
You can read more about these exciting collaborations, and catch up on all our news, in the articles below.
Many thanks, as always, for everyone’s support and generosity,

Emily Wilder
UK Director of Operations
Willie and Gail receive the Times Sternberg Active Live Award
We’re proud to share that The Mango Tree charity’s founders, William and Gail Fulton, received a Times Sternberg Active Live Award at Downing Street on April 18th. The award was given in recognition of their dedicated work supporting access to education for children and young people in East Africa, who lost one or both their parents due to HIV/AIDS.

The award also included a financial award, that William and Gail have generously gifted to our Miles to Mango Tree sponsored event!
Miles for Mango Success
We are delighted to have exceeded our goal to raise £30,000 across 3 months over the spring. Over 80 wonderful people signed up to cycle, run, walk and row in our fantastic virtual African challenge to hand over the baton to The Mango Tree’s programme partners. All-in-all we travelled over 32,745 km and raised £30,200!

Thank you to everyone who participated in this event – as our final fundraising challenge, every kilometre you travelled and every pound you raised made this event a success.
And a special thanks to Gary Green, Nic Merrett, Nick Bailey and Harry Fox for their incredible sporting efforts, and to Sulney Fields for providing £10,000 of matched funding.
Securing our legacy
We are happy to announce that Kids Club Kampala will be formally partnering with The Mango Tree Kenya as we prepare to handover the baton in March 2025. This combination of expertise, resources, and on-the-ground presence will help us to honour our promise to support the delivery of The Mango Tree Kenya’s comprehensive programmes and services that address the diverse needs of vulnerable children in the Homabay County, in western Kenya.

The Mango Tree Girls School drama club took part in the zonal drama festivals and achieved remarkable success. The students delivered captivating performances that earned the school recognition and praise. Their dedication, teamwork, and artistic talents showcased the school’s commitment to holistic education, nurturing artistic talent and creativity as well as academic success.

Kids Club Kampala is an award-winning, community-based charity supporting vulnerable children in Uganda. The organisation has an excellent track-record, a great leadership team, and a comprehensive understanding of the landscape for children and their families in Africa.
BBC Radio 4 Appeal


The Mango Tree UK and our partners are all extremely excited to share that Jennifer Saunders has very kindly agreed to present our BBC Radio 4 Appeal at the end of December this year! We will be working with Jennifer to develop the script for our appeal over the coming weeks so that we can use this fantastic opportunity to highlight the importance of girls’ empowerment through education in Africa.
We will be in touch again with more information about this Radio 4 Appeal broadcast and how you can support our final national fundraising appeal in early December.
“Habari” from Tanzania

In July and August this year, Emily spent 6 weeks in Tanzania visiting our partners, filming interviews with those orphans who were supported in the early days, and collecting case studies for our final annual report. These alumni now work in a range of different professions all over Tanzania and Emily felt privileged to be able to meet up with them and their families, spend time with them at their homes and work places.
Partnership Diocese of Morogoro
As part of her trip she conducted an organisational assessment of our new partner, Organisation of Matumaini Communities (OMC), who will help us deliver our legacy of educational support to the remaining registered orphans in Tanzania. Through this new partnership with The Mango Tree and Kids Club Kampala, OMC will take on Kyela Orphan Support Programme (KOSP) in Tanzania, supporting the remaining 289 registered orphaned young people who we are still sponsoring in secondary school, college and university.

The Organisation for Matumaini Communities (OMC), under the Anglican Diocese of Morogoro, has an excellent history of programme delivery, a strong reputation in the community and is on track to become self-sustainable in the next three years.
Farijika cafe open for business

The Tanzania Deaf Skills Forum (TDSF) team are all delighted to have launched their new community cafe, Farijika, which officially opened for business in Mbeya town this summer! Emily visited the cafe, which opened in Mwanjela market in June, to enjoy a delicious lunch and catch up with the team. Farijika has quickly developed an growing number of regular customers from the local area, and has already got a good reputation for serving great Swahili food. TDSF are also happy to report that the cafe is offering employment opportunities to deaf people who studied catering courses at Mbeya’s Vocational Training College. The Mango Tree UK will be providing TDSF with one final grant this year to help the team boost their business into 2025.
The Mango Tree Kenya Graduation

At the end of August, our founders William and Gail Fulton attended The Mango Tree Kenya’s student graduation ceremony where 82 sponsored students celebrated their academic achievements. Since 2023 we are proud to share that a total of 108 graduates have now completed their courses in many different disciplines and now have qualifications that will provide them opportunities for employment in a diverse range of professions.
Handing Over
This year’s graduation ceremony was a chance for TMT UK founders, William and Gail, to celebrate 18 years of partnership with TMT Kenya and reflect on their legacy of an amazing community-based orphan care education and land-based livelihoods programme.
Kids Club Kampala’s Interim CEO, Jo Black, and Trustee, Paul Moore also visited TMT Kenya to see TMT’s projects, meet and talk to to TMT sponsored students, and join in with the graduation and handover celebrations.

From Orphan to Inspiration
The third of seven siblings living in Kobuya village, western Kenya, Paul lost his father to HIV/AIDS when he was in primary school. Vulnerable with no relatives to turn to, TMT Kenya registered Paul into our education support programme in his final year in primary school and enabled him to continue his education journey. Paul excelled academically and earned a diploma in medical laboratory studies from Kisii National Training Institute in 2017. After graduation, he secured a job in a hospital and later opened his medical clinic, becoming a breadwinner for his family and supporting his four orphaned nephews.

Paul’s journey had led him to become a pastor, farmer, community leader, a father and an adoptive father to a girl who he is supporting through her education. Emphasising the importance of compassion and giving back, Paul attributes his success to the holistic training and love he received from The Mango Tree, which inspired him to support others in need.
“The Mango Tree taught me that true success is measured by the lives you touch”
Paul Okombo, 2023

The Mango Tree UK is delighted to share our successful application to Baillie Gifford International, which is administered by Foundation Scotland. This grant will support the Our Lives Our Land programme in Homabay, Kenya. This land-based livelihoods project provides smallholders and fishing communities with access to new technology, farm inputs and information that will measurably support them in improving soil condition, reducing erosion, promoting biodiversity and minimising land degradation. Our community-based model is designed to break people’s dependency on external aid and support their transition out of extreme poverty and in to climate-resilient livelihoods.