Visit Report – Kilema July 2026

Dear friends of the P.A.P.A. Bridge,

We were back in the village of Kilema to visit and coach our project. This time we were from the 2nd. July to 5. July on site, and would like to share our experiences with you.

 

Summary

As always, we were warmly welcomed and had intensive discussions with all involved. We spent two full days in the vocational school and held an advisory board meeting under the leadership of the chairman Mr. Gasper Njuu. The main challenge for us is that we have to find a new director who will keep us sustainable, and we can then build a strong management team around him. And beyond that, of course, we have to drive production activities into profitability.

 

 

 

Director Situation and the management team

The current situation is characterized by the fact that we currently do not have a permanent director; because our last director, Mr. Hubert Makundi, had given up his interim role at the end of 2025 and has retired. Since then, thankfully, Father Aidan has taken over the role of director – but only temporarily. Thus, the current efforts are running very strongly towards recruiting a new A-player, which we can hire as director. We assume that this process will now take a few months.

At the same time, we were not inactive, but have already expanded the management team with a production manager and an engineer for water production. This is already a good partial success for the future. In addition, we are doing well, because the new presence of Pastor Josef Windisch in the village of Kilema, who left the parish of Fernitz-Kalsdorf in Austria, now gives us new opportunities. He has now taken over the role of Father Aidan’s director since the beginning of August until we find a new local director, which we can then build up accordingly.

 

The ongoing school operation

All students who competed passed the last final exams of the VETA in December 2025, which is gratifying. However, as far as the number of students is concerned, we have unfortunately fallen back again, namely to 194 students. Therefore, there must be an offensive to inspire more young people for our vocational school, so that we can raise the number of students back to 300 – this brings us a better utilization of the school campus, more school fees, and thus an easier financing of the current operation. To make this possible, the attractiveness of our school must be significantly increased in order to have a competitive advantage in competition with the public vocational schools. In fact, the public vocational schools do not charge school fees, which puts our school under some pressure. So it is now necessary to develop our vocational school in Kilema outstandingly, so that our reputation increases strongly, and the parents want to send their children to us first of all. As far as the teaching staff is concerned, we are satisfied, but not yet excellently positioned. That is why we must continue to bring very good teachers to our school – unfortunately, the very good teachers are recruited by the government to teach in their schools, because much more salary is paid there!

 

Finances

We receive the production financial figures of the vocational school once a quarter and the annual financial statements once a year. These financial statements for the year 2025 are now available and were intensively discussed at the Advisory Board meeting. It shows with revenues of approx. EUR 180.000,- a zero result. Of the income, about 50% come from our PAPA-Bridge organization as donations. With this we see that the school is still very dependent on our support. The financial figures in the field of production show quarterly sales in Q1/2026 of only EUR 13,000. And that with a loss in the result. This is how we see that production activity has continued to decline, and continues to be a great concern for our project. The main reasons for this are that water production has come to a standstill due to machine damage, and we have not had a production manager to date.

 

We explain which measures we are now taking to ramp up our production activities in the explanations of the individual departments.

 

Departments & Business Development Center (BDC)

The new manager, who has been hired as sales and production manager, will now bring a breath of fresh air. His name is Charles, and I was able to convince myself of his commitment and his good work. Likewise, from now on, Pastor Josef Windisch, our deputy chairman, will coach the management team on site and focus specifically on the resumption of professional production.

 

We want to show you the most important measures here:

 

 

Mason training and brick production

There has been little change here since our last visit. Positively, it should be mentioned that the quality of our produced bricks has increased, and the trust of our customers in our bricks is now ok again. The current production capacity is dzt. 700 bricks per day, but deliveries fluctuate greatly seasonally. In strong months we sell more than 10,000 pieces, and in some months almost nothing. Our new goal in this department is now to better absorb seasonal fluctuations and provide more money for material and pre-production. The main challenge in this department is certainly not the production itself, but the competitiveness in the market and the achievement of new customer layers, in combination with the seasonal fluctuations.

 

Locksmith and metal processing

Also for this area we can report that the quality of the products produced has increased. The main reason for this is that we replaced the teacher to bring more experience to the team. The new teacher is already close to retirement, but can bring a lot of experience, especially in this phase of school development. In the long term, of course, we will have to look for a younger successor.

As already mentioned, the locksmith shop produces higher-quality products that resonate with the market. However, the market must first be reopened for this, as the reputation of our delivery quality has not been the best in the past. Now we are confident that with the new teacher we can once again open up new customers with new products. It also goes without saying that the locksmith hardly contributes anything to the operating result of the production – that should of course change again by the end of the year.

 

Joinery

It is pleasing that the carpentry runs so far solidly and constantly. The teaching operation with the teacher works, and in addition, products with good quality are produced. Nevertheless, also the carpentry regarding Scaling not off the spot. It seems that an important machine is missing to be able to make special millings. Likewise, two old machines that we need to repair no longer work. In any case, it is necessary to consider whether we should buy this new machine in order to be able to offer products on the market that customers ask for. And after that, a scaling of production should be possible again.

 

Agriculture and livestock

This course and the associated activities are very important for the region. Because agriculture and livestock farming make much better use of the agricultural resources in the region. Our new building and the associated laboratories and teaching rooms have proven themselves. In addition to the theory, there is practical work on the fields and experimental gardens, as well as a small chicken farm and pig breeding. Newly purchased was an incubator for approx. 300 eggs, which works very well. With this, around 300 chicks can be bred within 21 days, which can then be sold or the own chicken farm can be increased. Incidentally, we have also made a teacher change in this area so that we can create the next growth step.

 

 

Bakery

As already reported several times, the production processes in the bakery run very well. The breads produced also taste excellent! Nevertheless, there is also a big problem in the bakery – that is profitability. Simply put, the purchase prices of the materials have risen sharply, and the sales prices have not increased. Against this background, it is now important for the new production manager Charles to untie this situation, to understand the cost of production exactly, and to tighten the financial controlling for the bakery, in order to then set up the business again. As before, we cannot continue, even if the quality and the output is right. We are optimistic that this situation can be rearranged within the next three months.

 

Water filling

The water filling project has been our biggest worry about the last few months, as production has come to a complete standstill. The reason for this was a defective air compressor, which could not be replaced so quickly. In addition, it was necessary to subject all machines and filters to maintenance and thus to shut down production. As a result, we had to lay off the entire team in this department, then buy the new compressor from India, and then restart the remaining machines. For the first time, we have hired our own engineer as technical manager for water production. His name is Mr. Aristid Njuu, and he has been on board since June. Now we are on the verge of restarting water production, which he must manage. Mr. Aristid has already done a great job on the machines in the last few weeks, so we are very optimistic about the restart.

The next step is now to hire the production team of three employees and a laboratory technician, finally accept the machines and obtain the new certificates. Then nothing stands in the way of restarting production. Production should be at the beginning approx. 2400 pieces of bottles of 0.5L each per day. This at first only with one shift (6 days a week). And if this is stable, the second layer should be ramped up. We keep our fingers crossed for Mr. Aristid!

 

Other departments

The following areas run constantly so far and are supported by us according to needs: electrician course, car service/driving school, tailoring, cooking course/canteen, installer course, IT, tourism course, sales store/wholesale

 

Sponsorship program

Our sponsorship program/Godfather program is running very well. As always, I met all the godchildren at school shortly and took a picture of them. This sponsorship program is an important contribution for the very poor families in the village. Because we also want to give talented children who are penniless the opportunity to learn a valuable profession in our school, and thus get them out of poverty. Currently we have approx. 80 direct school sponsorships running. We have also organized additional pool sponsorships, which are not assigned to a direct child, but benefit the financially weakest students. Thanks at this point to all who support so actively as godparents!

 

 

 

Next steps

Father Aidan will come back to Austria again this year, this time in September. We will then celebrate the PAPA Bridge Africa evening in Kalsdorf together with him. This will be on the 18th. September with Holy Mass in Kalsdorf at 6:00 p.m. and lecture in the parish center Kalsdorf at 7:00 p.m. You are cordially invited to come!

At this point, we would like to thank all the donors and friends of the P.A.P.A. Bridge, who have supported us so actively to this day! And at the same time we want to express our big REQUEST to address as many more people as possible in order to ensure the necessary financial support for the people in need in Kilema – ASANTE SANA!

Best wishes and God’s blessings wish you,

Walter Koch – Chairman
Josef Windisch – Vice President (now residing directly at the project in Tanzania),
Claudia Schanes – sponsorship program,
Father Aidan – Co-founder and Coach in Tanzania
And the entire board of the P.A.P.A-Bridge