I’VE been working for COCO for five years now, initially as a volunteer and more recently as part time communications and development officer.

I’ve just returned from my first overseas trip to Tanzania on behalf of the charity, where a lot of COCO’s work is done, and it’s been truly enlightening.

Ours is a small charity that has been involved in more than 50 projects many thousands of miles away from the North-East since its inception. In that context, transparency about how we invest our funds and operate on the ground is crucial in securing the support of the many individuals and organisations who have now helped us to raise more than £4m since COCO was founded.

We have just celebrated this brilliant fundraising milestone at an event kindly hosted by Muckle LLP and were able to showcase to backers from around the region how money has been invested over the years.

COCO prides itself on being able to demonstrate the positive results of our work, both in statistics and through first-hand testimony of those people who have benefitted. I’m honoured to play a role in communicating the transformational impact of what we do.

While I have never had any doubt that what our team does is helping many young people in East Africa access vital education, this trip was my first opportunity to witness it first-hand.

I can now give personal testimony that the work COCO is doing is making an enormous difference to thousands of young people and their families.

While I was in Tanzania, I spent most of my time with staff from Hoja Project, COCO’s main implementation partner there. Hoja and COCO have teamed up on many diverse projects which have provided sustainable sources of quality education to children living in poor and marginalised communities in southern Tanzania and the difference that work is making in the region is incredible.

I was so inspired by many of the people that I met who are working extremely hard to improve not only their own situation, but also that of others around them. All of the projects were initially set up by the communities themselves, and Hoja Project and COCO are simply supporting what they are already doing, using past experience and knowledge to support the organisations and make them as successful as possible.

I visited a number of projects during my visit including SHIKUWATA, an organisation set up by 71-year-old Margaret to break down stigma and provide education for disabled children who previously hadn’t had these opportunities.

It was also a privilege to visit Kids are Kings Nursery which was set up by Malaika, another truly inspirational woman. She saw that many children were unprepared for primary school, as families could not afford to send their children to nursery. Kids are Kings teaches in English to ensure all children have a quality pre-school education.

While in Tanzania, I got to see how the small loans scheme, now called Hoja SACCOS, operates on the ground. Community members or groups come to the cooperative to take out a loan to set up a small business, and they then repay their loan in instalments with a small percentage of interest to cover the costs of the two members of staff employed there. The programme has reached most of the villages in the area, helping about 7,000 community members to increase their income by setting up a small business. As a result, parents can now afford to send their children to secondary school, and can contribute more in terms of school fees.

Underpinning the success of many of the education projects I witnessed during my visit is sustainable agriculture training. All of the schools and communities that have received training have massively increased their income, moving from living in poverty to being able to send their children to school, eat healthier meals, and pay for healthcare.

One of the most inspiring communities I met during my visit was at Kigonsera where an organisation called WAMATA had received the training and as a result, a group of HIV positive women, who could not previously afford treatment, were all becoming much happier and healthier thanks to the increased income and constant supply of fresh food.

I returned from Africa with a much deeper understanding of how vital access to a quality education is increasing life chances, and how COCO is helping to make that possible in some of the poorest areas of East Africa. Case studies like WAMATA, SHIKUWATA and the Kids are Kings Nursery give COCO absolutely invaluable – and robust – evidence to present to stakeholders on all sides. For me in my specific role, they provide brilliant human stories that I will now use in all of our communications activity to persuade businesses and individuals to continue supporting COCO and make sure that the £4m milestone is followed by another very soon.

*COCO is based in Newcastle and was founded in 2000 by Steve Cram and Major Jim Panton. To find out more visit www.coco.org.uk