Develop Autumn 2022

WELCOME TO DEVELOP

A message from our UK Engagement Co-ordinator Hayley Still

This is a special issue of Develop as we mark 25 years of International Development in the United Kingdom and Ireland Territory.

There have been a few changes over the years, including the team’s name; the unit started life as the ‘Overseas Projects Office’ back in 1997. The way we work has also adapted and changed, but the commitment to working in partnership with territories around the world to overcome poverty and injustice has remained. You can read a little more about our journey over the past quarter of a century on page 5. We also share about the values which underpin our current working practice on page 7.

In 2020 we held the first annual International Development Week, an opportunity to explore, celebrate and support The Salvation Army’s work around the world. These events have included social media challenges, a virtual quiz night, special episodes of the Develop podcast, videos from colleagues around the world and a song written by Music and Creative Arts called ‘God’s Love is Enough’!

During ID Week this year we are celebrating with a week-long photo exhibition at International Headquarters – a journey through 25 years of partnership and progress. Gathering the photos for the exhibition has been a fascinating and inspiring experience as each one represents a project that has touched the lives of countless

individuals and communities around the world. Flip through to the central pages of the magazine for a snapshot of some of the photos that are featured in the exhibition.

Also in this edition we introduce the focus of next year’s Helping-Hand Appeal. 2023 will see the theme shift to Clean Water with The Salvation Army’s integrated WASH project in Malawi being featured. Read more about this on page 8.

On page 26, read about The Salvation Army’s international modern slavery and human trafficking response and how Zonal Communities of Practice are being used to strengthen the global network.

We also share an update from Tanzania (p 33) with Captain Sinana outlining how communities are improving their livelihoods through livestock banking and village savings and loans associations.

Financial donations are of course necessary to ensure we can continue to support international community development and emergency response projects, but prayer is also an essential resource. Read on page 12 how you can pray specifically for our different areas of work.

We hope you enjoy looking back though our history in this edition, and that the project updates inspire and encourage you as we continue to work together for a world where all people can experience life in all its fullness.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Throughout this issue of Develop you will see icons alongside the articles referencing the UN Sustainable Development Goal that each article applies to.

Here is a refresher of what the goals are.

25 YEARS OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The International Development Unit in the United Kingdom and Ireland Territory of The Salvation Army was created in 1997.

Over the past 25 years The Salvation Army has established a presence in 27 new countries and is now reaching 132 worldwide. During this time the International Development Unit has supported projects in more than 60 of these countries, partnering with territories and working alongside communities to overcome the challenges of poverty and injustice.

Our work over the years has adapted to global trends in international development, and we have responded to the emerging challenges faced by communities around the world.

We continue to seek to form mutually accountable, deep-rooted partnerships with Salvation Army territories around the world to strengthen the projects we support and create lasting change.

Successful, sustainable and equitable partnerships require mutual accountability, openness and understanding. In recent years, therefore, we have begun a journey of decolonisation in our working relationships and practices with a view to

interrogating and transforming the institutional and structural legacies of colonialism. This journey involves critically examining what we do, how we work, and how we engage with our partners.

We are continuing to learn, through our partnerships, how our working policies and practices can be adapted or dismantled to correct power imbalances and refocus resources for a more equitable future. We recognise that change will not happen instantly and so we are committed to this journey.

Whilst our areas of work may shift, team personnel come and go and our working locations change, we continue to collectively work towards our vision of a world without poverty and injustice.

We are incredibly thankful for everyone who supports our work, be it through awareness raising, fundraising or prayer. We have been involved in hundreds of projects over the past 25 years and we couldn’t have done this without your support.

Whether you have been engaged in our work since 1997 or just since last week, we want to share a heartfelt thank you. We hope you will continue to journey with us over the years to come.

Since the start of the Ukraine crisis in February 2022, more than six million Ukrainian refugees have fled their homes and sought refuge with family members and welcoming communities, and a further 17 million people have now been either directly or indirectly affected.

As the conflict has progressed, so too have the needs of the people impacted. Salvation Army officers, staff and volunteers have worked tirelessly to meet the challenge of serving those affected by the crisis, with over 10,000 people having received shelter, and almost 200,000 people having received food parcels or cooked meals. Most initial programmes have focused on meeting the immediate needs of people who have fled to neighbouring countries, resulting in joint responses undertaken in 14 countries including Poland, Moldova, Hungry, Georgia and the UK.

Though the response differs in each country, the provision of cash vouchers has been common. This means of support aims to give recipients choice and dignity as they can decide for themselves which items to purchase such as food, hygiene products or clothing. To date The Salvation Army has provided over 43,000 vouchers to individuals and families. It has been an important element in helping refugees from Ukraine to settle into host communities across Europe and establish a sense of normality in their lives. As children start at new schools and the related costs of uniforms, stationery and

UPDATE ON UKRAINE

language classes are incurred, the cash vouchers can help to ease the financial burden on families.

As time moves on, the response has moved towards addressing and supporting the longer-term needs of those affected. In the UK, for example, a corps has started a drop-in service where the local Ukrainian community and refugees can meet. In this safe space, people can share their experiences, gather local information and receive help in accessing other support services. This is a simply a snapshot of the work that is taking place in the UK and across Europe, and we are thankful for the generosity of donors who have helped to ensure such support is available.

As the response to the Ukraine crisis begins to shift to a longer-term approach, we continue to see new emergency situations arise. At the time of writing, floods in Pakistan have recently claimed the lives of more than 1,300 people, injured more than 12,700 and displaced more than 33 million. The Salvation Army in Pakistan has been quick to respond, working alongside the government and other non-governmental organisations to provide people with food and hygiene items.

If you would like to donate to The Salvation Army’s international emergency response work, please visit our website or scan the code at the back of the magazine.

OUR VALUES

The Salvation Army in the United Kingdom and Ireland Territory has outlined six values by which its identity, mission, decision-making and actions are shaped. As a unit of this territory, International Development UK has also adopted these values.

We spent time in prayer and discussion as a team to consider how we might understand and embody these values in the unique context of our work. As a result, alongside each of the values, we identified three or four behaviours which help us to live them out practically in all aspects of our work. The values we have adopted are briefly outlined below.

Following Jesus’ servant-hearted example, we aim to represent The Salvation Army positively by exemplifying the following values: Boldness, Compassion, Integrity, Mutual Accountability, Passion and Respect.

Boldness: We are committed to being Christ-centred and challenging injustice of all kinds. We show confidence in our values, knowledge and expertise, and are prepared to adapt to challenge and change.

Compassion: We are compelled to work towards reducing people’s suffering and experience of all forms of poverty and injustice, we empathise with all people, and we are committed to self-care.

Integrity: Our team is a safe environment where we can all be honest about our achievements, failures, mistakes and challenges. We have an attitude of humility and are trustworthy in all that we do.

Mutual Accountability: We are willing to be informed by local knowledge and expertise, we are approachable by all those we work with, and we are good stewards of all resources God has provided to us.

Passion: Driven by our desire to see change, we pursue equality and justice for all people and promote innovation which serves the mission.

Respect: We deeply support and champion others within the team. We value and dignify all people we interact with, treating them as we would wish to be treated, and we seek to understand and adopt decolonisation principles.

Hayley Still

HELPING-HAND 2023

Through the 2023 Helping-Hand Appeal, you can support The Salvation Army’s work with communities to improve access to clean water and sanitation.

As I write, I am sat in London during the hottest few days the United Kingdom has experienced since records began. The grass is parched, the children’s splash parks have been turned off and hosepipe bans are being discussed. Despite this, I continue to have a free-flowing supply of clean, safe drinking water.

This is not the case for everyone. Water scarcity is a growing issue with 1.42 billion people – including 450 million children – living in areas of high or extremely high water vulnerability.

At the end of June, I travelled with colleagues from the Video Production Team to Karonga, Malawi, to visit The Salvation Army’s integrated water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) project. We interviewed community members and filmed project activities to be used in the 2023 HelpingHand Appeal videos and resources.

Malawi is known as the ‘Warm Heart of Africa’, and that was certainly our experience. In each community and school that we visited, we were welcomed with song and dance. It was wonderful!

The Karonga District is situated in the north of the relatively thin, landlocked country. It is an

approximately eight-hour drive from Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) in Lilongwe which we flew into, and more than 12 hours to the nation’s commercial city of Blantyre where The Salvation Army’s national headquarters is located.

As the main connection between Malawi and Tanzania to the north, the narrow, regularly potholed road between Lilongwe and Karonga is busy with many cars and goods lorries travelling back and forth. Regular checkpoints – designed to minimise smuggling between the neighbouring countries – further add to journey times.

The drive from Karonga town to each of the communities where the project activities take place is a further hour or more. All of this is to express just how remote the project locations are. In one community, a woman named Anastasia explained how other organisations had chosen not to work with her village as it was so difficult to reach. She stressed to me just how much it meant to her and her neighbours that The Salvation Army is there and has taken time to work with the community to construct a borehole for the surrounding villages.

The construction of boreholes is one element of this far-reaching, integrated project, the others being the provision of handwashing facilities and toilet blocks in schools, agricultural training for food security, and awareness raising around hygiene practices.

Whilst women used to have to wake early to collect water from the nearest stream or river – a water source which was shared with animals and easily became contaminated – a local borehole means they can now draw clean water more quickly and efficiently. This has not only led to a reduction in diarrhoea, cholera and other waterborne diseases, as you would expect, but it has had other impacts for women and girls.

The threat of violence and sexual assault was ever present for women and girls as they had to walk through wooded areas, thick with trees and bushes, to collect water.

Additionally, the high demand for the water, which was collected by scooping from shallow pools in the riverbed, meant that it often became busy and it was a necessity to wake early to beat the queues.

An accessible borehole, constructed in an open space alongside the houses, means women and girls need no longer wake up early and gather water in fear of their safety. The borehole is centrally located and for a large number is a short walk from their homes. The time that has been freed up simply through the installation of a local borehole means women can work on incomegenerating activities and girls can spend more time in school.

It must be noted that each borehole serves a lot of people. The provision of a single clean water source has been transformative, but it remains a long distance for many to reach.

Additional boreholes are needed to reduce the strain on the single borehole and reduce journey times for those living further away.

This is a truly integrated project, not only because of the variety of project activities but also because of the way it impacts all aspects of people’s lives.

Schools are a central component of the project. Without handwashing or drinking water facilities, children easily became sick – schools

“

Girls need no longer wake up early and gather water in fear of their safety. ”

are an opportune place for illnesses to thrive and spread. Equally, the lack of toilet facilities added to the poor hygiene practices, as children and community members had no choice but to defecate outside.

Furthermore, without safe and private toilet facilities, girls were forced to go home when they got their period. This meant they regularly missed class and ultimately fell behind in their education.

In response to these challenges, the schools and communities partnered with The Salvation Army to construct toilet facilities – separate blocks for boys and girls – which have private cubicles, handwashing facilities and a room in which girls can manage their menstrual hygiene – essentially a space where they can clean themselves before returning to class.

Yet providing facilities is just part of the process. Attitude shifts and behavioural changes take time. Therefore a group of women in the community formed a mothers’ group, created to help raise awareness about hygiene issues in the school and to support girls as they reach puberty, advising them about what they need to do when they get their period, and simply being a support system so no student feels alone.

This care goes alongside other informationsharing methods such as dance and drama presentations which are used to highlight the importance of hygiene and sanitation in a fun and engaging way.

Young people are at the heart of this project. They are agents of change in their families and their wider communities, transforming attitudes and behaviours to keep themselves, their friends and their families safe and to ensure that all people can reach their potential.

Water is more than a drink on a hot day. It is children growing. It is continued education.

It is time to build your business. It is the potential for equal opportunities. It is economic independence. Water is life!

This project falls within our Clean Water area of work, which will be the focus of next year’s Helping-Hand Appeal commencing on 1 January 2023. As well as Malawi, we also support Clean Water projects in China, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria and Tanzania.

Helping-Hand 2022, which is supporting our Gender Justice projects, will run until the end of this year. There is still plenty of time to support this year’s appeal either by using the resources to raise awareness, donating, or fundraising through the One in Three Challenge.

How can I help?

• £15 could give a person clean water for life through access to a sand dam

• £45 could provide training in the maintenance of boreholes

• £470 could construct a toilet in a school

• £1450 could install a shallow well alongside a sand dam

How can I donate?

• Give a donation to your local Salvation Army corps or Family Ministries group

• Donate online: salvationarmy.org.uk/ helpinghand2023

Benjamin Gilbert

PRAY WITH US

Join us in praying for the different aspects of The Salvation Army’s work with communities around the world.

Why we need your prayer

Working with our partners around the world as we seek to engage with communities experiencing extreme poverty, we are aware of an increasing number of significant challenges that we face.

Some factors that complicate this work are outside of our control, such as erratic weather patterns, war, economic pressures and political uncertainty.

The projects we support are tackling poverty in extremely complex environments, and progress sometimes feels like ‘two steps forward, one step back’. Yet even in the unknown, we can be sure of God’s unchanging love and his desire to touch everyone with his power and love.

Partnership is a central part of all that we do; we know that we are stronger, healthier and more effective together. We need you to partner with us in prayer: for the individuals and communities that we work alongside, for our colleagues and the projects we support, and that God will intervene when things seem humanly impossible!

Here are some specific things to pray for within each of our areas of work:

ANTI-TRAFFICKING

An estimated 40.3 million victims are trapped in modern-day slavery and 71 per cent of trafficking victims around the world are women and girls. Within this area of work International Development UK are currently partnering with Bangladesh, Ukraine, Poland, Malawi, Nigeria, Philippines, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

• Pray for healthy and robust networks between territories, strengthening links across territories and offering repatriation opportunities to survivors of trafficking.

• Pray for the zonal capacity strengthening initiatives that seek to support territories as they engage with anti-trafficking.

• Pray that our project advisers who focus on this area are renewed in their strength and vision to see even more people rescued and supported out of trafficking.

CLEAN WATER

Over two billion people (one in three people globally) live in water-stressed countries and do not have access to safe drinking water. This is expected to be exacerbated in some regions as a result of climate change and population growth. Unsafe water sources are responsible for 1.2 million deaths each year, including deaths of 297,000 children aged under five. These deaths could be avoided if drinking water issues were addressed.

Within this area of work International Development UK partner with Malawi, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Ghana, China and Tanzania.

• Pray for more opportunities to reach families without safe drinking water and for the resources we need to work effectively with these communities.

• Pray for wisdom to enhance the initiatives that The Salvation Army is doing to tackle this issue so that best practice is shared effectively and we work in a sustainable way.

• Pray for more opportunities to partner and collaborate with other churches and organisations.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE

In 2021, 432 disastrous events were recorded that related to natural hazards worldwide. Overall, these accounted for 10,492 deaths, affected 101 million people and caused approximately $252 billion of economic losses.

Over the last 10 years, more than half the world’s population lived in direct contact with, or proximity to, significant political violence. The number of forcibly displaced people around the world increased from 31 million in 2008, to over 88 million in 2022.

Within this area of work, and in the past two years, International Development UK has partnered with Kenya, India, The Caribbean, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Moldova, Ukraine, Mozambique, Ghana, the Philippines and Pakistan.

• Pray specifically for Ukraine and the many refugee families fleeing the conflict.

• Pray for the officers, staff and volunteers involved in the frontline of the Ukraine response – for strength and unity as the war is so prolonged.

• Pray for smooth transitions as projects move from a disaster response to longer-term programmes.

FOOD SECURITY

It is estimated that between 720 and 811 million people in the world faced hunger in 2020. Around 660 million people may still face hunger in 2030, in part due to lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on global food security.

Nearly one in three people in the world (2.37 billion) did not have access to adequate food in 2020 – and the trend is moving in the wrong direction with more people facing inadequate access to food. Within this area of work we partner with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Burkino Faso, Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

• Pray for wisdom and discernment for our project leaders who are contending with the increasing challenges of climate change and its effects on vulnerable food markets.

• Pray for the corps that are involved in crop demonstration plots and training, that they will be able to engage with individuals who will be receptive to new farming technologies.

• Pray specifically for opportunities for more funds in this area to tackle the increasingly challenging need of food insecurity.

GENDER JUSTICE

Domestic abuse is a universal issue, not bound by social status, wealth or gender. However, most victims are female, with one in three women around the world experiencing intimate partner abuse or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. Within this area of work International Development UK partner with Argentina and Bangladesh.

• Pray for wisdom and sensitivity when speaking about the emotional and physical abuse, as it can trigger painful memories and responses.

• Pray for the provision of resources needed for follow-up care and holistic support to each individual.

• Pray for family members indirectly impacted by domestic abuse (children, relatives, friends) that they will be included and not left alone.

INTRODUCTION

The International Development Unit in the United Kingdom and Ireland Territory of The Salvation Army was created in 1997.

Over the years, the department has supported projects in more than 60 countries, partnering with territories and working alongside communities around the world to overcome the challenges of poverty and injustice.

The photos in this exhibition are a glimpse into the lives that have been impacted and the communities that have experienced transformation.

Journey with us through 25 years of International Development…

Anne Makumi and Toluwanimi Jaiyebo

COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

Anne Makumi (Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Response Coordinator, Africa Zone) and Toluwanimi Jaiyebo (International Programme Coordinator, Anti-Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery) outline how The Salvation Army is using networking and international partnerships to respond to modern slavery and human trafficking.

The Salvation Army is present in 132 countries and has made responding to modern slavery and human trafficking (MSHT) a global priority, building on a long history of working in this field. The presence of The Salvation Army around the world provides a ready network of leaders and volunteers across Africa, Europe, South Pacific and East Asia and the Americas dedicated to fighting trafficking and modern slavery.

The Fight for Freedom, The Salvation Army’s International Strategy for Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Response, is our road map for our contribution towards a world without slavery. It sets out an eight-part holistic framework to responding to modern slavery and calls for a seamless global network that exists between territories, commands, regions, contact people and practitioners based in

Communities of Practice (CoPs) which are co-ordinated zonally and internationally.

CoPs are forums bringing together antitrafficking and modern slavery national contact persons (NCPs) and practitioners to interact, engage, share information, resources and best practices, and build strong partnerships and networks. It provides a space for growth of ideas, sharing of data/ resources and cross-border collaboration to stop trafficking. Across the global Salvation Army and within six Zonal CoPs there are 117 NCPs, representing 108 countries, who are leading and co-ordinating responses within their territory/country.

Some global highlights taken from the International Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Report for 2021 include:

• Through CoPs, there were 154 international collaborations reported in 2021

• 166 awareness workshops were held, reaching more than 10,000 people across the world

• 142 prevention programmes and initiatives are active across 47 territories

• The Salvation Army served and journeyed with 9,795 MSHT survivors

The UK and Ireland Territory International Anti-Trafficking and Modern Slavery team are privileged to walk alongside The Salvation Army International Social Justice Commission (ISJC) to support the growth and development of CoPs in the Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and South Pacific and East Asia Zones of the organisation. Though the Africa CoP only officially started in January 2021 it has quickly become a flagship community demonstrating that people who are motivated, empowered and supported can indeed disturb the present to better the future.

The Africa CoP has representation from 24 countries with a total of 30 contact persons drawn from 17 territories, commands and

regions, in addition to the Zonal leadership and Zonal modern slavery and human trafficking team. The CoP has seen a network platform within and outside The Salvation Army’s modern slavery and human trafficking response (MSHTR) structure being established, that equips and offers encouragement to members.

The CoP structure enables the contact persons to be supported at the Zonal level by the Zonal leadership and the Co-ordinator for modern slavery and human trafficking response as well as the Survivor leader. At the territorial, command or region level the contact person works with the direction of their territorial leaders, and they in turn guide the MSHTR taskforce committee, who support them in the implementation of initiatives to respond to human trafficking in the territory. The Africa CoP is further connected to the other five CoP teams for greater networking at the global level.

To equip, encourage and further facilitate networking among the contact persons, a CoP meeting is held every quarter virtually and in person. The meetings, which take the

format of a workshop, provide a platform for shared learning, re-learning and unlearning on topical issues as well as offering encouragement to each other. The meetings supplement the one-to one meetings among the contact persons and the Zonal MSHTR Co-ordinator. The contact persons also receive training on select topics or themes such as basic concepts of modern slavery and human trafficking, ethical storytelling and child protection, among others, which the community of practice has found very useful, going by the feedback from the CoP members:

‘It was an amazing time throughout the training, sharing experience. I learnt a lot.’

‘It has been a rewarding week of learning and sharing together.’

‘The conference content was awesome. People not only shared what they do but also who they are, such a rich community of NCPs!’

‘The programme content was relevant, and the spiritual time was very uplifting especially devotions, prayer time and painting sessions.’

The contact persons are also able to support and include survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking in their initiatives more, within the territories and in partnership with other like-minded organisations. A total of 20 survivors were repatriated into the territories from other parts of the world through the Zonal MSHTR office, and over 430 survivors supported by the various contact persons in the territories in 2021. To ensure inclusion of survivor voices and perspectives in the Zone’s MSHTR initiatives, a survivor leader has been

appointed in the Zonal office, and the various territories and commands are also looking to include survivors in decision-making positions such as within the MSHTR taskforces.

The Africa CoP has not been without challenges. For instance, with an increase of survivors referred to the contact persons, proper reintegration and sustained follow-up has significantly reduced due to limited resources. This poses a risk to the survivor of being re-trafficked or ending up in a worse condition especially if no means of livelihood and recovery are available. This challenge can be alleviated by the setting up of a survivor kitty that provides at least $500 per survivor for follow-up post return and to set up a means of livelihood with the survivor and thus empowering them.

Overall, CoPs are proving to be an invaluable opportunity for partnership and collaboration, and as these zonal networks are strengthened we are confident that so too will be The Salvation Army’s global response to human trafficking.

Captain Stivina Sinana

LIVESTOCK AND LEARNING

Captain Stivina Sinana from The Salvation Army’s Tanzania Territory shares how rural communities in Tanzania are working together through livestock banking to grow their incomes and overcome food insecurity.

In Tanzania, an overwhelmingly rural country, livestock keeping is invaluable in ensuring families reach the required dietary diversity. However, this practice has traditionally been looked down on as a second-class way of life. Poverty is at its highest among agricultural households, and small-scale farmers face a myriad challenges in overcoming material poverty. To meet the increasing demand for animal protein and to boost rural incomes, investment in sustainable livestock feeds and the improvement of livestock quality is essential.

In 2019, The Salvation Army in Tanzania commissioned a situational analysis on the livestock value chain in Ilembo, an administrative ward in the Mbeya rural district of Tanzania. Analysis found that livestock production in Ilembo is limited for a variety of reasons including a lack of knowledge on livestock management, inadequate livestock market systems, low-quality animal feeds, prevalence of diseases and pests, limited veterinary services and a lack of supportive financial institutions. As a result, households practising indigenous livestock production had minimal income and were thus not able to meet the basic needs of their families, and childhood malnutrition was common.

In consultation and partnership with rural communities in Ilembo, The Salvation Army established a livestock banking and village savings and loans project to address these challenges. The project was established to support small-scale farmers to overcome the barriers to effective livestock production.

Most households that the project is engaged with keep traditional local breeds which are of low quality and do not typically fetch a good price when sold. Therefore, working primarily with female-led households, the project provides higher-quality species to enhance the potential of the local breeds and trains farmers in improved livestock management techniques. There is evidence to show that the breeding of goats, pigs and poultry not only contributes significantly to improving food and nutrition security, but also to household incomes and national economic growth in Tanzania.

As part of the project, farmers worked together to form Village Livestock Groups (VLG) through which they each receive an improved breed of animal, such as a goat, pig or poultry, and ensure others benefit through the ‘pass on, pass back’ model – essentially, you return one or

more of your animal’s litter back to the group to be passed on to another member.

These groups then evolved into village savings and loans association (VSLA) groups which were supported with start-up materials including record-keeping books, calculators, stationery and other necessary items and training. In a VSLA group, members regularly contribute a small amount of money to build up a communal fund. Members can then take a loan from this fund to start or grow their business, or pay for costs such as school fees or healthcare. The loan is then repaid with a small amount of interest which continues to grow the collective fund.

Community engagement and ownership of this project is essential for its success. Taking learnings from previous projects in the territory, consultation meetings with community members and their local leaders have helped to shape the project design. Furthermore, support from agricultural and veterinary officers helped community members with identifying issues relating to their current agricultural and livestockkeeping methods. This subsequently led to the core components of the project design being centred around modern and sustainable farming and livestock-keeping practices.

Experience from both the agricultural and veterinary officers, as well as previous projects implemented across the Tanzania Territory, has demonstrated that project designs such as this are generally the most effective way of improving livelihoods, food security and income generation for smallholder farmers, while creating a positive impact on the environment.

At the outset of the project, female participation in community forums or meetings required the permission of their male counterparts. Further, women were denied the right to own property, land or livestock and did not have access to financial resources within their households. This project, therefore, intentionally set out to ensure that at least 60 per cent of participants were women, with the aim of enhancing their economic empowerment.

Additionally, throughout the project implementation, women were provided with opportunities to take up leadership positions within the committees to demonstrate to men that that they too can be leaders within their respective communities. In relation to this, the inclusion of the VSLA groups has proven to be superior methodology for the empowerment of women, providing them with opportunities for leadership and income generation.

One of the women who has been part of the project is Devotha. She is 24 years old and lives with her parents and her child in Ilembo.

Like many of her neighbours, Devotha and her family were facing economic hardship as they were dependent on subsistence farming on their small plot of land. They had four chickens and as part of the project they received a pig.

Devotha also joined the VSLA group in her community through which she took a loan to purchase another pig. By breeding piglets, she has been able to improve the nutritional value in her family’s diet and has livestock to sell for additional income. As well as the financial improvement the group has brought to her life, Devotha has also enjoyed the social element of meeting together each week.

To ensure that the small-scale livestock farmers continue benefiting, Livestock Management Committees have been established and the members trained to provide farmer

support as well as supervision in each community. Training in how to integrate growing of feeder grasses and feeder shrubs alongside other crops has helped to improve the health of farm soils as well as sustainably provide nutritious feed for livestock. The farmers have also been taught how to use the livestock droppings to make manure for their vegetable gardens, thereby further improving their nutritional status.

To date, this project has reached 114 households, and it is anticipated that a further 126 households will participate. The formation of VSLA groups will be encouraged, as this has proved a successful means of building trust among community members as well as providing opportunities for women in leadership development. All 250 of the participating households will be supported to increase their knowledge in production of vegetables and fruits to improve their nutritional dietary intake.

Can you help us to raise funds

Angela Carlucci

FUNDRAISE FOR THE SALVATION ARMY

Fundraising events are a fantastic and fun way for people of all ages and abilities to help raise valuable funds for the work of The Salvation Army.

Whether you want to achieve a life-long ambition, push yourself to the limit, or bring your community together to support some of the most vulnerable people in our society, your fundraising event really will make a difference to the work that we do.

There are hundreds of ways to support The Salvation Army, from pounding the pavement in one of our many runs, hopping on your bike in the London to Brighton Cycle Ride or even taking on a skydive! For more sedate activities, why not take on a sponsored silence, host a tea party, ask for donations to our work instead of birthday gifts, or maybe take on a hair shave to raise funds? Whatever you want to do, we have an event for you. Every mile you cover and penny you raise will help The Salvation Army be there for those that need us most.

For the adventurers out there, we are pleased to invite you on our newest fundraising challenge – The Northern Lights Trek. This three-day trek, taking place in March 2023, will see you trek across Iceland’s frozen fjords and witness the stunning Aurora Borealis at first

hand. Starting off in Reykjavik, and then trekking over 30 km through the land of fire and ice, you will finish your trip with a visit to the Blue Lagoon and a celebratory dinner.

Whatever you decide to do, we will be here to support you throughout your fundraising journey. From our fundraising pack, filled with top tips and materials, to our administration support, we’ll be here to motivate and guide you and make sure you have the best experience possible.

By becoming part of #TeamSallyArmy you will be helping the most vulnerable people in society and providing hope to those who need it most.

Would you like to learn about our events?

• Visit www.salvationarmy.org.uk/fundraise-us for general fundraising information OR https://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/walks-and-treks/ iceland-northern-lights-trek to learn about our Northern Lights Trek.

• Alternatively, contact the team directly at challenge@salvationarmy.org.uk or call us on 020 7367 4819

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notify The Salvation Army if you:

you pay Income Tax at the higher or

rate and want to receive

must include

ask

your