KILIMANJARO – More than 50 region volunteer leaders; chairpersons and secretaries from across Tanzania celebrated UMATI’s 63 years of saving lives withing the hardest to reach areas of the country at its National Council Meeting, on 21st and 22nd of December 2022 in Kilimanjaro.
Mr. Swed T. Swed, UMATI’s Chairperson, warmly welcomed the crowd in the Leopard Hotel conference room and, as an introduction to the IPPF new global strategy, invited the members of the council to “imagine a world where every young person has access to sexual reproductive healthcare and education”.
Speaking with the media, Ms. Suzana Mkanzabi, UMATI’s Executive Director and Secretary of the National Council Meeting said “This meeting aims to review the member association’s achievements and challenges for the ending financial year period, looking at what has transpired during the year in terms of planning and execution. The general assembly’s role is basically to review and approve UMATI’s strategic plan for the coming financial year.”
She said, “Since our focus is more on young people, we put youth at the center of our interventions because, we believe that if you want to create solutions for young people’s challenges, you must involve the youth.”
The 2022 general assembly came with many great news for UMATI and one of them was the unqualified audit report from the external auditor NEXIA SJ Tanzania. This was the first time in more than three years. When presenting the audit report, the external auditor representative commended the support provided by the UMATI team that contributed to simplifying the auditor’s work, she also gave accolades to the new leadership under Ms. Suzana Mkanzabi.
“As parents of four daughters, the rights of females are at the heart of our family’s values, and imparting to our girls a strong, confident sense of what they need and what they deserve – it’s everything, and the same values sit at the core of Jhpiego’s mission,” added Shawn, the prolific filmmaker of the multi-Oscar-nominated “Arrival,” hit movies “Free Guy,” “The Adam Project,” the highly anticipated “Deadpool 3,” and the award-winning Netflix series “Stranger Things.” “It means so much to us that you’ve shown up for us and more importantly for Jhpiego.”
The two days meeting had presentations from the chairperson on the board of directors’ report, executive director who did a program and financial performance report, head of finance presented on funding projection for year 2023 and the information technology officer who did a presentation on an online volunteer membership system.
In presenting about performance and new funding opportunities, Ms. Suzana spoke about the importance of trust within the organization and from the outside world – “trust is built for many reasons and for a long time but it takes a slightest mishap to ruin it. Therefore, it is imperative that we observe our conducts and doings, it concerns all of us; the new partnerships that we are building are a result of positive gesture of trust from our current and new partners.”
In closing his remarks, the chairperson Mr. Swed T. Swed thanked the members of the General Assembly and management for their support of UMATI cause, saying, “You have been a great contributor in supporting UMATI’s work and for coming together here these two days to reflect on what we have been able to do and learn throughout the entire 2022 year and what we are expecting as the member association in our financial year 2023. I’m so thankful to each of you for sharing your time, expertise and compassion with us, and it is my hope that in the next general assembly, we will have more members.”
