Crafting a business plan

(CNN) -- Lizzie Cameron is in Musoma, Tanzania working with the Musoma Engineering Project.

The Musoma Engineering Project is the only charity of its kind in the region and aims to provide teaching and support for local disabled children and teenagers.

With the project Lizzie will be helping the teachers teach skills like woodworking, leatherwork and dressmaking. Follow her experiences in her blogs and video diaries.

March 31, 2008
Over the last few weeks we've seen some really encouraging progress at LVDC (Lake Victoria Disability Centre). Firstly, we have a new volunteer called Josee with us from England. She's been here for a few weeks now and Dennis and I have found it great having the extra support in the workshop.

She's been helping me with the proposals and contacting prospective donors. We've also been looking at new products we can make with the students to try and get more money coming into the centre.

Musoma has started attracting more and more tourists because of its close proximity to the Serengeti and the language school that is based here. Unfortunately, there are no shops selling gifts that people would like to buy when on holiday.

We've started making bags, purses, cards, soft toys, etc. that we will sell at our workshop as well as in popular hotels around Musoma and the Serengeti area. When I go home I'm also keen to find shops that will sell them for us.

We've had no trouble finding material to make the accessories out of; all the shops here sell beautiful material called "kitenge." The colors and patterns of the material are really vibrant and there are hundreds of different styles, so I'm sure people will really like our products.

We have also been encouraged by a meeting with a Tanzanian country representative. Ulla acts for an Irish organization called "Children in Crossfire." We told her about our plans for the centre and discussed possible areas of collaboration.

She has lived in Tanzania for 13 years and really felt, as we do, that children with disabilities and their parents need to be educated about their rights and systems established for discussing with the government how these rights can be accessed. We talked about sending our staff on training schemes, capacity building and advocacy work.

We are very keen to get involved in the advocacy work. Coming from Britain, a country where public services for disabled people are in place, makes the lack of support here all the more apparent.

In the next few months, we hope to establish an outreach program where parents of children with severe disabilities can access information and support for their children. E-mail to a friend