George Otte
| Year Joined MKLM: 2008 Country: Tanzania City: Mwanza Focus: Education Project(s): Huruma School for Children with Disabilities, Assistant Director People Served: 43 students and 12 teachers in a community of 15,000 |
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Project Goal(s): Help children with disabilities acquire education and life skills to allow them to live as contributing members of their society.
Personal Data
After a 34 year career as a Civil/ Sanitary Engineer, George Otte decided to join MKLM in 2008. Like his wife, fellow MKLM missioner, Michele, George had spent years volunteering to serve his community.
Parishioners of St. Raymond Church, Menlo Park, in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the couple volunteered with Worldwide Marriage Encounter (WME). WME is a workshop organization that helps couples strengthen their marriage through their faith. George was also very active with Boy Scouts.
George earned two Civil / Sanitary Engineering degrees from the University of California: a Bachelor of Science, at Berkeley, and a Master of Science, at Davis.
Current Ministry
In Mwanza, Tanzania, lack of adequate of health care, especially prenatal and early childhood care, poor nutrition, inadequate sanitation, and lack of access to clean water contribute to the high number of children with disabilities. In the Tanzanian culture, disabled children are often neglected and even shunned by their families and society. Children with disabilities of any sort are not admitted into the overcrowded public school system. MKLM missioner Bertha Haas co-founded Hurama School for Children with Disabilities to address the needs of disabled children in Mwanza. It is at Huruma that George serves in mission, assisting Huruma’s Director to provide vision, leadership, and skills development, and to attain financial resources.
In addition to responding to the daily needs of the children, including their physical therapy, health care, nutrition, and education, Huruma provides a support network for parents and caretakers of children with disabilities. By approaching all angles of the children’s development, the children have the opportunity to gain dignity and the respect of their community.
Huruma has led several initiatives to ensure its long-term sustainability. First, Huruma began a training program for its teachers. Because the Tanzanian school system suffers a shortage of teachers, materials, and resources, much of education is rote learning and enhanced teaching methods are unknown. Huruma mentors its teachers in newly adopted teaching methods that also appropriate and tailored for disabled children. Second, the school’s leaders established an independent board of directors and helped the school gain the recognition of the government. Third, the financial resources and funding methods created are fiscally prudent and self-sustaining.
George helps implement the work skills program by purchasing tools, providing safe and secure storage for those valuable resources, mentoring a Tanzanian teacher in the methods of performing and teaching woodworking, drainage construction, and landscaping, and by teaching the children.
Practically, the program allows the children a means by which to function independently. Spiritually, the children gain a sense of pride and dignity.
Besides his ministry with Huruma, George also works to resolve some of the water crises that the Diocese faces. This year he reviewed the water systems at six schools and identified potential improvement projects. The work has also included identifying ways to improve and optimize rainfall harvesting systems. The work has included supporting grant applications.
The diocesan schools are often dependent on rainfall harvesting for their water supply. In other cases their use of boreholes is limited due to the expense of pumping and the reliability of the electrical supply system. It is often necessary for the students to carry water from supplies that are up to a kilometer away for their needs.
In addition to this he has assisted in the Caritas management of the UN World Food Program (WFP) – Food For Assets Project. This work has included technical support of the construction and rehabilitation of 12 dams, as well as distribution of 800 metric tons of food that is used as payment for the work performed.Significant parts of the Archdiocese are subject to draught and lack of crop production on an annual basis. The WFP is providing food for work building projects that will improve the agricultural systems and relieve some of the starvation. Through Caritas administration of the program essentially all of the supplied food is going to the intended needy people and is not diverted for personal gain.
