A YEAR IN
TANZANIA 2010
SUMMARY REPORT
Mothers prepare a meal during a childhood nutrition workshop
3
OUR PRIORITIES
GOOD REASONS
in Tanzania
why Plan works in Tanzania
• Improving the health of children and their communities, promoting safe motherhood and reducing the impact of HIV/AIDS
• Malaria is the biggest killer of children, but less than a third sleep under a treated mosquito net • 88 per cent of the population survives on less than US$1 a day
• Ensuring girls and boys have the same opportunities for a good education
• Only a third of the rural population has access to proper sanitation
• Increasing families’ access to clean, safe water, decent sanitation and hygienic living conditions • Enabling families to increase their incomes and food supplies • Promoting children’s rights and involvement in the development of their communities
‘Raising the standard of local schools has a powerful effect on the community: it raises their expectations’ Busira
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Focus On:
enabling children to learn Plan is striving to ensure that all children in the poorest parts of Tanzania have the opportunity to benefit from a good education. This work includes setting up nursery centres catering for the needs of children under the age of six. We help communities to make sure schools are in good condition, with proper sanitary
facilities and enough equipment to promote learning. We support teacher training and supply textbooks. We also help the most vulnerable children – like orphans – to go to school by meeting the costs of fees and materials.
Community Action
A family planning facilitator makes a point during a training session
If you’re a young pupil at Mpofu Primary School in southern Tanzania, getting an education is something of a challenge. The school has only one decent classroom, two teachers and 317 pupils.
thatch for the roof. They also hired a teacher and agreed his terms and salary.
Here, as in many of the poorest parts of Tanzania, lack of money is robbing children of the chance of an education. Indeed, until recently children in Kilombero faced hurdles before they could even start at school.
Solutions within reach Last year, 57 children attended the preschool, each of them taking their first steps towards a better education. Some have started at Mpofu Primary School, where the Head is delighted with his new pupils’ abilities and the effect on his workload.
Plan is working with children, families and communities to find sustainable solutions to the challenges in Tanzania. We have only given you a small insight into Plan’s work in Tanzania with this report but over the past year we also:
for better learning
The Tanzanian Government’s education policy states that children should attend preschool before they enrol for primary education. But at Mpofu, the lack of classrooms made it impossible to give young children this start in life. The nearest school offering early education was in Ngajengwa, more than a mile away. It was too far for the little ones to travel. With obstacles like these to overcome, there’s little wonder that many parents do not see going to school as a worthwhile pursuit for their children. Families in this area are mostly farmers. Every day, their goal is to produce enough food to eat and sell at the market. Children are often seen as an extra pair of hands – help that is desperately needed to make ends meet. Of the children who enrol in primary school, 20 per cent will drop out. Local resources Education is a vital way to lift children and their families out of poverty in the long term, so Plan is working with communities and authorities in Tanzania to improve the quality of the education they offer. We help with the renovation of classrooms, provide equipment, train teachers and turn schools into places where children feel secure and motivated to learn. Improving the standard of local schools has a powerful effect on the community: it raises their expectations. Children see that school is an exciting, stimulating place to be. Parents begin to view education as an asset, laying the foundations for a life beyond poverty. Plan discussed the lack of preschool school facilities with Kilombero District Council and local communities and we agreed to find a solution. Despite the challenges, the communities believed they could use local resources to set up an early education centre. With our support, they formed a group to construct a classroom, using wooden poles and Produced for Tanzania by Plan International Australia.
Those who could not afford to contribute money to the project donated maize and rice to sell, raising funds for materials.
‘Although we are only two teachers here, we have been able to move on because children who attend preschool learn faster than their peers who don’t,’ he says. Together, Plan and the poorest families are learning that with the right advice and support, the answers to the problems communities face are within their reach. The community is already looking to improve the preschool facilities. The quality of the building bothers them and the teacher has no real training in early childhood education. But it’s a start, as are the latrines Plan is building at Mpofu school to make sure the children learn in clean, safe surroundings. ‘Although our school is still new and we don’t have enough buildings, we are working together with other development partners to improve the situation so that our children get a good learning environment,’ says Margaret, one of the school committee members. With such motivation, Plan has no doubt that it won’t be long before families have the preschool and primary school at Mpofu they need, and their children the chance of an education they deserve. Some names have been changed for child protection and privacy reasons
‘Together, Plan and the poorest families are learning that with the right advice and support, the answers to the problems communities face are within their reach’
The Bigger Picture
• Trained 1826 community health workers and traditional birth attendants to protect the health of mothers and children • Ensured that 1796 particularly poor and vulnerable children could remain at school by assisting with school fees and providing them with essential school materials • Worked with the Tambukareli community in northwest Tanzania to install a water supply, giving 5253 people access to clean, safe water • Supported vocational training for 559 young people Your support as a sponsor is crucial to achieving these results. With the resources provided by sponsors, Plan expertise and the collaboration of communities and local partners we are making a big difference to the lives of people in Tanzania. Thank you for your involvement!
To learn more about Plan’s work in Tanzania visit plan.org.au/ourwork/southernafrica/tanzania
‘I would like to extend our sincere thanks for the continued support sponsors are providing us in making our programs a reality for the benefit of Tanzanian children’ – David Muthungu, Plan’s Country Director in Tanzania