Tanzania Report

Posted: March 8, 2011 2:15 pm / By Keep Me Inspired Team

Tanzania Report
Follow the trail of KMI’s Rachel Parsonage and Charlotte Leonard as they departed London’s Terminal 5 and headed to Africa for a week of exploration, adventure and excitement. The trip was filled with highs and lows – seeing the water tanks in all their glory and meeting the Oxfam team who work so effortlessly on the project and importantly the school kids the project is benefiting. Rachel and Charlotte were also witnessed a third world country; a real eye opener; a place so far removed from our own comfortable surroundings. A life changing, emotional and honest account of what life is like for the people of Tanzania.

Interesting Facts on Tanzania
Tanzania is a fairly stable country in terms of government. The current ruling party is supported but opposition is building. Although Tanzania remains out of the headlines in terms of famine and poverty, there is still a real problem within the remote and rural areas. The population of Tanzania has doubled in the last 20 years, only 12% have access to a bank account but half own a mobile phone!

Oxfam have created a National Change Strategy for Tanzania – the ten year programme started in 2007 and is broken down into the following initiatives:

Economic Justice – a person’s right to earn a living, strengthening land rights, encouraging use of value chains (getting more out of the products you produce) .
Gender Justice – equal opportunities, developing women’s leadership and economic strength, reducing domestic violence.
Social Justice – making government accountable, public spending tracking, building capacity of local citizenship.

Projects are actually based around working within an area for a set period of time to improve facilities and attitudes and allow the local community to continue the work once Oxfam leave.

Oxfam GB work directly with NGO’s (non-governmental organisations) at the community level, it will be NGO’s who build the rainwater tanks, working with local builders and contractors. Oxfam steers the strategy.

At a local level the initiatives cover a variety of activities – for example livestock & agricultural partnerships, water and sanitation in primary schools and education partnerships.

36% of the population still lives on below $1.00 per day
Only 40% of rural community have three meals per day
Agriculture employs 80% of the Tanzanian workforce but only 10% of the landscape is arable

Rural communities often have plots of land and the days are spent farming. The pastoralists make their livelihood from cattle, rather than crops. They have a house and are not nomadic in their living habits but walk and wander with their cattle allowing them to graze, there are no defined boundaries like a farmstead.

Women in rural areas are not well respected and the Oxfam programmes are focusing on equality and better conditions. In many rural communities like the Masai, women are not supposed to own cattle or livestock so Oxfam are working on the ground through local NGO’s to modernise local opinions. Rights to Ownership programmes are now allowing women to have small livestock such as goats and sheep, these can support a new start. By taking the livestock to market they are able to breed and grow their flock, as well as selling meat and milk, this is an example of a value chain.

It’s hard to imagine but the rural communities live and conduct themselves very much in their own way, most have their own dialect, beliefs and laws.

Shinyanga – Oxfam GB
Our key hosts were Wilfred Mwita – Programme Manager for Education and William Chipeta – Programme Officer for Education

Education and Sanitation programmes go hand in hand. Oxfam’s educational focus is on teacher training and maximising their skills and the facilities available to them. Due to the rapid increase in population many teachers at primary level with diplomas were moved up to teach secondary education. This left a shortage of well educated primary teachers reducing the quality of primary education. Through the use of mentors and the teacher resource centres, Oxfam are introducing improved teaching techniques to engage the students and encourage participation. This is not easy with average class sizes ranging from 60-100 pupils in rural areas and shortages of classrooms and basic equipment. Although teacher numbers are slowly recovering, there is still a real lack of applicants. Parents have to pay for uniforms, any commuting costs and the cost of time not spent tending to the land or cattle.

There are now five new teacher training centres in Shinyanga plus seven renovated centres.

180 schools
Pupils per school can range from 100 to 1000 plus.
Approx 2000 teachers
300 trained to date as part of the mentor programme
170 mentors who “pool” to train others in the field

Oxfam’s partnerships with Water & Sanitation in Shinyanga has generated:

40 rainwater tanks
38 Shallow Wells
30 Drop Hose pipes
40 Latrines

Our Oxfam Team are based in an area called Mikocheni in Dar es Salaam. Here Rachel and Charlotte met with:
Monica Gorman – Country Director based in Tanzania since 2009
Jane Lonsdale – Governance Director based in Tanzania since 2009
Silas Liakasi – Senior Programme Manager
Rose Kibe – Fundraising & Communications Organiser
Mary Sogo – Educations Programme Manager