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Noam Chomsky, writer, political commentator and linguist wrote to us to say he is happy to learn about TFS and sends a message of support to their our birthday celebrations.

"The rise of grass-roots solidarity organizations has been one of the most exciting developments of recent years, with great promise for the future, for both South and North. The work that TFS has been doing is a particularly inspiring example, and should be a wonderful model for others."

On September 11th Tools For Solidarity celebrated 20 years of collecting tools in Belfast & were joined by guests from Tools For Self Reliance,  Small Industries Development Organisation (Tanzania), TFSR Cymru, African Liberation Support Campaign (London) and ex volunteers from Europe. It was a celebration exploring the past and the future. The event  examined the global economic environment and held a stimulating debate with over 100 people in a community centre on "Aid is effective in alleviating poverty in Africa. Argue for against". Over 120 people came to the TFS workshop for a buffet and special tool themed birthday cake (all prepared by our volunteers). There was lots of fun meeting old friends and making new ones.  New murals were painted about debt slavery and African artisans, TFS launched a website, held an "it's a knockout" tournament and showed visitors the nature surrounding Belfast. Finally "Talking Drums" from Zimbabwe/Belfast & EWF from Belfast got most of the guests grooving on the dance floor in the Crescent Arts Centre at one of the best gig in Belfast in years.

The following is an overview of the last 20 years of TFS from their newsletter Solidarity.

Some milestones on the TFS road!

It was 20 years ago today Sgt Pepper taught the band to play....Well here we are 20 years after fixing up our first hammer, celebrating all those glorious years of collecting & repairing tools in Belfast!

It all began, back in the mists of time, in 1984. Stephen reports to his brother John about TFSR activities in Cardiff, Wales. John & Thomas, start to collect tools door to door in Belfast. "Any old iron!","Bring out your dead!" They have successful results. Tools collected were sent to Ewarts youth training project on the Crumlin Rd (now Dunnes supermarket) to be refurbished. They were then shipped out to Ulster Cares projects in Somalia & Sudan. Some tools were repaired in Newington St backyard. The first workcamp takes place in 1985 in Newington St in Belfast thru' International Voluntary Service (IVS) & Service Civil International (SCI). This was the first of over 30 workcamps (including 3 teenage camps) thru SCI and QISP (Quaker International Social Projects). They mostly took place in Belfast but there were others in Dublin, Roscommon, Port Laoise, Derry & Berlin.

In 1986 the Belfast group joins Tools For Self Reliance (TFSR) and starts refurbishing tools in a semi derelict building opposite Manny's chip shop on the Antrim Road The room we have is like a fortress with a steel door and steel shutters bolted to the window. The floor sags in the middle so tools are stored around the walls! The first shipment of tools is destined for Nicaragua but the final preparation for this shipment is an all night affair. During the mid-80's a number of kits were sent to Nicaragua to support the co-op movement and the efforts of the Sandinista revolution which put ordinary people's needs before the profits of US dominated corporations. In 1989 the mayor of Bluefields in Nicaragua, Johnny Hogdson, visited Belfast and told how a ship with tools from TFSR (including a Belfast kit) arrived just days after the devastating hurricane Joan. The tools enabled them to rebuild their fishing boats & houses.

Occasional tool collecting weekends are organised in Bangor, Holywood and Derry when we are joined by members of the IVS local group. The group meets on a part-time basis but is continually in search of permanent premises & a neutral venue for both catholics & protestants. In 1989 we meet on Monday evenings in a derelict building (now Northern Visions) owned by the Belfast Centre for the Unemployed. We follow this with chips in Bridge St & pints at Maddens. Friendships are formed while we dream and plot for the future. We move to the top floor (attic) of IVS. (for those who think we have it tough now with no lift, being on the 3rd floor was something else!) In 1990, with key members of the group in the Pacific or Berlin the group survives on tenderhooks.

We move to Diarmuid's family's garden shed (no insulation or oil heater!) & then to a larger home, a large disused garage in Salisbury Ave. We now meet every Sunday afternoon but we seem to spend almost as much time fixing the leaky roof as fixing tools. We have no van and collect tools by bicycle, even once using a supermarket trolley. We collect wood from skips to build boxes for shipping. The group lacks experience in repairing tools (we were all clumsy with tools in the beginning!) & has little access to finance. But with dedication & persistence & help from other organisations we start to get skilled & tooled up and increase the number of tools sent & start to organise events across Ireland. There are weekend exchanges in Dublin, Belfast, Strangford, a workcamp in Derry. In 1991, a steering committee is set up to seek permanent premises & funding. We have discussions with TFSR who advise us to set up an independent organisation so that we can develop "tools" throughout Ireland. We formulate the constitution of the new organisation.

In June 1992, Tools For Solidarity is born. We produce a business plan, a development plan & after many fights a logo (thanks Tara). We get professional! We start to raise funds with benefit gigs, pub quizs, jumble sales, raffles & sponsored cycles to Strangford & back. These were a lot of "craic", with the beauty of the lough and the birdlife, the wind always against us but then the comfort of hot homemade soup & wine at Mark & Jacko's.

In 1993, Stephen visits the Iringa region of Tanzania and makes contact with the local Small Industries Development Organisation (SIDO) office. He is taken to schools & blacksmiths all in need of tools. At one school, Tanangozi, one plane is shared by 29 carpentry pupils. We get successful with a large grant from the Tudor trust which arrived on 1st of April. In early 1994 TFS moves into an old government training scheme workshop (Woodvale YTP) in the old Edenderry linen mill. Work commences on installing sinks, widening doors, fitting new locks, painting walls & erecting shelving. Work not possible without t....s!

In May 1994, the TFS workshop is officially opened by Maire Gribbon of War on Want. A kit of tools for the Malangali forestry project in Tanzania (where John worked as a water engineer) is handed over to Concern for delivery to Tanzania. Next our first international long term volunteer (LTV) arrives, Dunja, from Finland. The IRA declares a ceasefire (& later the loyalists) & the future is looking more rosy all round. There had been an assassination attempt on a security guard at Edenderry mill just after TFS opened. The peace process starts (prosperity process for some!) Appropriately, our first EIRENE volunteer, Martin, arrives in 1995 to do peace (civil) service here instead of military service in Germany. They are followed by generations of bright-eyed & bushy-tailed EVS (European voluntary service) EIRENE & later Step x Step volunteers. We also commence a supported volunteer programme for people with special needs. Over the years we have provided work placements for teenagers excluded from the school system, residents of day centres & hospitals & people who are not able to work in conventional workplaces due to stress or injury. For some it was the highlight of their week, they were being creative with their hands & directly benefiting people in far away lands. They could meet new people to share their jokes & smiles. We had partnerships with Mourne Grange Camphill community, NICOD (now Cedar Foundation), Give & Take scheme, Northside project, Dolphin Initiative, Loughshore project, Everton & Island day centres, New Horizons, Accept & Emmaus Liberty.

In 1994 local groups of TFS start in Dublin, Kilkeel, Strangford, Draperstown, then in 1998, Coleraine. Groups almost start in Galway & Leitrim.

We formalise our first partnership with SIDO Iringa and start to send out tools to training centres, blacksmiths and youth & women's groups. We continue to share the containers which TFSR sends out and moral and practical support. In Oct 1994, an Irish contingent helps TFSR celebrate their half millionth tool in Birmingham.

There was always more to TFS than sending out tools. We seek to question what we do and work with others to challenge the injustices that our sisters and brothers face in Africa & the wasteful, destructive & unequal growth pattern of our society and globe. In Sept 1994 we took part in protests in Dublin & Belfast at the 50th birthday of the World Bank.

In 1995 we send 367 tools to a permaculture project in Uganda, SASO (Sustainable Agricultural Support for Orphans)

In 1996, we have our first African volunteer, Joe, from Ghana for 6 weeks. In 1996, the first sewing machine is repaired in our workshop and in 1997 we start a campaign to collect these machines firstly with an Ulster TV advert and then a joint campaign with War on Want's network of shops. In 1996, N.Ireland Railways start to produce mini anvils for TFS from disused sections of track in their Belfast engineering workshops.

In 1997 we take part at TFSR in the 'Cutting Edge" conference of tool sending organisations and partner organisations across the African continent. All the African organisations ask us to lobby our governments to end the debt crisis which is crippling their public services. TFS joins Jubilee 2000 coalition towards this end. In May 1997, Hamish & Corina (from TFSR) make a field trip to Tanzania to hold discussions with SIDO Iringa & look at the impact of tool sending. They explore setting up a new partnership with Iramba District Council, in the poorest region of Tanzania, where there are frequent food shortages. They are told quality tools are "gold dust" in Tanzania. They are given the red carpet treatment everywhere they go & presented with a goat by one project (which received TFSR tools). Iramba DC wanted tools to try & keep young people in the villages active during the dry season & prevent them migrating to the cities in search of illusory jobs. Blacksmiths want tools to repair farm machinery, make household implements & more tools. They are touched by people's stories of grinding hardship & poverty. For many life is just about survival. With tools they can get an income to buy essentials like food & medicine. After the trip a partnership is formalised with Iramba DC and we send out 2 big shipments in 1997 & 1999. We also start funding SIDO for transport & admin costs of assessing groups on our behalf.

In August, Mary Robinson, president of the Irish Rep invites TFS volunteers for an audience in her Dublin palace, then Jim Rodgers, deputy lord mayor of Belfast city council visits TFS workshop. In December, George Foulkes, under Secretary of State for Development in British government visits TFS workshop. TFS hobnobbing with all these bigwigs generates much media coverage. TFS is now planning workshops on the moon, there's no stopping us!

Finally in 1997, Ruska/Roisin, the first TFS baby, is born to TFS volunteers, Dave & Kirsti who head off to Finland to make another new baby, SAHA (a new tools organisation).

In 1998, TFS volunteers join TFSR to take part in a human chain symbolising chains of debt & slavery around the G8 summit in Birmingham. In Belfast TFS gets active with other development organisations like the One World Centre to form CADA (Coalition of Aid & Development Agencies) to lobby government. TFS volunteers were also busy in 1998 with weekly protests at Shell petrol station on the Ormeau Rd (now closed!) to highlight Shell's & Nigerian government's brutality towards the Ogoni people and their environment. There were also monthly reclaim the streets bike demos around the city centre, "save the bicycle process". In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement was signed by the politicians & voted on at a referendum by the people. It seemed like the start of a new era. But like many other summers that summer there was not peace on the streets of north Belfast with riots associated with Drumcree. Cars & buses burn, petrol bombs & plastic bullets fly. Despite this TFS continued their traditional route to the workshop to participate in the ancient rituals of their forefathers, de-rusting and tool sharpening & wearing the customary blue overalls.

In 1999 we are successful thru the efforts of the Dublin group in securing Irish government funding. Queen's university agriculture department donates an air extractor & we build a seperate "playroom" for our machinery. In June 1999 we celebrate the 5th anniversary of the workshop with 2 visitors from Tanzania, Ladislau Magai, co-ordinator of SIDO tool sending programme and Joseph Mashinji of Lakezone blacksmiths. They are presented with 39 tool kits for artisans. In the same year Julius Nyerere, founder and first president of Tanzania dies. He was a major inspiration behind the ideas of TFSR & TFS. He was a visionary who tried to make Tanzania a self-reliant, non-aligned, socialist state with subsidised maize, free primary schools & healthcare while at the same time providing support for African liberation movements like the ANC & helping to overthrow the Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin.

In 2000 there is another field trip to Tanzania with Darren & Miguel. There are positive indicators of income improvements by tool recepients & consequent improvements in living standards, increases in services provided, more employees & reduction in rural -urban drift. But before & after the trip there are key changes of personnel in Iramba DC & SIDO Iringa. While the tools have got thru to the recipients, TFS loses confidence in this continuing with the new personnel for different reasons. This is disappointing for TFS & a search starts for new partners.

In 2000 there is the first tools collection on the Isle of Man, a mini-workcamp/festival in the north of the island. TFS takes over a second island! Regular funding is started from the IOM government and regular tool collections are shipped across the Irish Sea to Belfast from the southern civic amenity site thanks to Thurston, Dave & Don. In 2000 we also received a large legacy from a young man who died in an accident & the first of small grants from DFID & the landfill tax credit scheme. It took a long time to get government recognition for our wok. Now in 2004, over two thirds of our annual expenditure is paid by the landfill scheme which is administered by Belfast city council & Bryson House. Finally in 2000 we received the first ever Schumacher (author of "Small is Beautiful" & not the racing driver) award in Ireland.

In 2001, there is a field trip to Uganda with Stephen, Nancy & Sascha & the foundations of a partnership are laid with ADD (Action on Disability & Development) which provides services and lobbys on behalf of people with disabilities. Back in Belfast there are major disturbances on the TFS doorstep with a loyalist feud on the nearby Shankill Rd, a dispute at the Holy Cross girl's school up the road from TFS & rioting on the Crumlin Rd, Cambrai St (behind TFS workshop) & Limestone Rd (next to our volunteer accommodation in Newington St). Sometimes it feels like a warzone with dozens of army trucks trundling up & down the Crumlin Rd before & after school times. The Unicorn Food Co-op in Manchester funds a sand/gritblaster which proves specially useful in cleaning treadles. Finally Carmel Hanna, minister for higher education in the N.Ireland Executive visits TFS.

In 2002 we celebrate with the 200th tool kit (to Uganda) & hold a party. We select our first development education worker, Popuras from Uganda, but after nearly 10 attempts at getting a visa & funding & lobbying from TFS he is unsuccessful. We re-advertise the position.

In March 2003, 476 tools are sent to St.Joseph's school for hearing impaired in Sierra Leone, which had been ransacked during the civil war. In May 2003 there is a major fire at Edenderry mill. At one point the TFS workshop looked like it was going to be history but luckily there were no injuries to anybody nor damage to our workshop. But we have been left with no lift ever since which means no disabled access & the hefty work of transporting unrefurbished tools up the stairs and refurbished tools down the stairs. In August, TFS reaches the figure of sending 15,000 tools since records began in 1994. But it is more like 20,000 since 1984.

In June 2003 we held a lively discussion on theme of IMF & World Bank wanted for fraud in Belfast Centre for the Unemployed with guest speaker, Explo Nani-Kofi, of ALISC (African Liberation Support Campaign) which TFS had recently affiliated to. In July 2003 we had a visit from Tony Care of TFSR Cymru & Damian Changa, regional manager of SIDO Mwanza. This was followed by shipping of sewing machines & blacksmith's tools to Mwanza. It is now possible that TFS will form a partnership at some stage with SIDO Mwanza. In August we finally appointed our first development education worker, Annie Flynn, from Dublin, who has been updating our educational resources & giving talks to schools, etc. In September TFS took part in the first Irish Social Forum (part of largest ever NGO forum to lobby for another better world against the predominant neo-liberal agenda set by the G8). Also in 2003 we had visits form Keith McHenry, founder of Food Not Bombs & the Green lord mayor of Arcata in California.

In January 2004, TFS Downpatrick opens a new workshop in an old schoolhouse in a beautiful setting next to the cathedral. It now opens 3 days a week and has a supported volunteer programme. In February Betty Wood, mother of John & Stephen died. She brought much inspiration & energy to TFS & her kindness was felt by everyone who met her. In May we commemorated African Liberation Day outside BBC office with the Black Youth Network (see article below). After a review of our involvement in campaigns, in July, we joined the Dublin-based Debt & Development coalition to support their work. Finally in July, TFS purchased the old Emmaus house (spending a large part of our building reserve) and received a mortgage thru Triodos building society. We endeavour to keep the Emmaus spirit of community alive in the "Tools" house. Previously an accommodation shortage limited the number of volunteers we could take. Newington St remains available for extra volunteer accommodation and workcamps.

In 2004 it is no longer as necessary to do door to door collections for tools as people bring them in almost daily & Belfast city council & Bryson House are collecting thru their recycling centres. However, this presents new problems of where to put all these tools! Use of space in a shed lent to us by the Allen family this year offers some temporary relief. There seems to be no shortage of tools in Belfast partly due to the legacy of the shipbuilding industry. Saws that built the Titanic (received in a collection) are displayed in the TFS workshop! The ideas of "tools" have gone overseas with ex volunteers to Freiburg in Germany, Bordeaux in France, etc. We have come along way from the small group of volunteers who met in garages & attics back in the 80's. While our confidence & expertise has increased we have not lost the ideals which attracted us to this practical solidarity work.

check out interview with Hamish from TFS from daaa zine way back in 97

www.toolsforsolidarity.org.co.uk

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