My Tanzanian Experience

Save the Children is working hard to protect the rights of children. We heard that 67% of boys and 56% of girls are thought to experience some form of physical violence, with the estimated figures for the incidence of sexual violence believed to be well understated. A number of projects have been developed to support the bringing of perpetrators to justice, but of course turning the tide is no easy task. A child friendly court has been set up in accordance with international guidelines; and a One Stop Centre established for the confidential reporting of cases of abuse. We visited these sites, and a Child Rights Centre where young people are encouraged to Speak Out.

No sooner had we swallowed our dinner last night than it was time to get up. Out of the door at 05.30, and off to the airport again. Hard work all this ambassador stuff! Just a short hop across the bay this time, and we were greeted by Mali, the Save the Children operations manager on the islands. A strong character, Mali is a real agent for change. On then to receive a briefing from her team over a shared breakfast. Shocking stats here: 94% of the health budget comes from donors, and 80% of the social budget. A predominantly Muslim community which has strong links to Oman, Zanzibar has both Common Law and Sharia Law. On average, women have 9 children (30% have their first by age 15, 50% by age 18), and men have 2 wives. Save the Children's Health and Nutrition project funds the training of Community Health Volunteers CHV). For our first project visit, we joined a group of local women and their babies listening to a Save-trained advocate the benefits of breast feeding.

Today we had to return to Dar in order to be ready for our visit to the Zanzibar projects on Thursday. Flights were all booked. We were therefore anticipating a leisurely breakfast followed by a return journey of an hour or so to the airport and an easy flight back to base. However, when we got back to the hotel yesterday evening, we were greeted with the news that all Wednesday flights to/from Mbozi had been cancelled. Remember, this is Africa - no spare cash to charter replacement aircraft when something goes wrong! So, our journey planners had managed to book us onto a regional flight from Iringa. Check the map. It looks like a straightforward run on what is a major trunk route. Why then were we being warned to be ready to leave at 7am as we had a 7 hour road journey ahead of us? Well, that's because most of it was off-road! The Government is repairing and strengthening this ageing highway, in what seems like a strangely uncoordinated fashion. For every few yards of lovely new

This final visit of the day was a truly heart-warming one. Women are being helped to take more control over their lives. Not with cash injections, but with financial training to run their own Savings and Loan Clubs. These people would never get credit anywhere else, but through the support provided they have managed to save, borrow, grow and sell their crops and most importantly reinvest in their households - simple things like being able to buy school uniform for the grandchildren, or pay their bus fares. This way lies longer term growth and sustainability for the whole economy. We met the whole committee, and what a joyful bunch of ladies they were too. At the end they had us all up singing and dancing with them!

Moving on, we visited 3 different apprenticeship programmes supported by Save: Tailoring Hairdressing Carpentry All small scale initiatives, and incorporate training on entrepreneurship. Need to be set in the context of high drop-out rates in secondary education, very limited tertiary education, and - as mentioned earlier - the prevalence of one-man businesses in the economic fabric of the country (as evidenced in the final picture below). All the apprentices we saw have either now started their own businesses or intend to do so at the end of the programme.

Early start, fantastic day visiting lots of local projects. This is what we came for! To set the scene, school truancy is high in Tanzania. Root causes are lack of money for transport and school uniform, hunger, & high levels of Physically Humiliating Punishment (PHP). Songwe is one of the coffee growing areas. The school we visited has 741 students, and just 13 teachers - work out the scary average class sizes for yourselves. No running water. No computers. Just one solar panel provided by Save. Projects run by Save with money from Tchebo - German coffee manufactures - as part of their CSR programme include: Speak Out (Tuseme) Clubs for volunteer students to discuss and present non-academic issues. E.g. As a result of the children speaking out about hunger, there is now a feeding programme in which involved parents provide food like maize and beans. High-Performing Teacher Scheme - literacy boost, teaching aids, sharing better ways to engage students Project benefits: PH