Diggin' the trench!

This is hard work! Esilalei community members are digging the trench and laying pipeline to get water from the main source to Esilalei primary school. It's tough terrain with a lot of rock so it's heavy slugging. They've completed 750 meters and they've got another 5 km to go.

The youth huddled around the mobile phone are listening to Shakira. It takes some ingenuity to keep your phone charged in the absence of electricity.

Jengo Update

Things are looking good at the UMATU building site today!

Water for Esilalei School Kids

Last year, a group of artists from the United States visited Tanzania and were captivated during their visit to a primary school in the Masai community of Esilalei near Mto wa Mbu, Monduli District, a neighbour of Karatu. They met with the head teacher to learn about the challenges facing the school. When they heard that the school was using scarce funds to purchase water and have it trucked in, they decided to pitch in and help. They returned to the States and connected with AfricAid, an NGO supporting girls' education in Tanzania. AfricAid in turn linked up with CPAR Tanzania, and we are now working directly with Esilalei community to support their efforts to get water to their school.

The group of artists launched a successful fundraising campaign and work is now well underway to excavate a trench from a District water source, lay pipeline and establish water points at the school. CPAR has appreciated the opportunity to get to know Esilalei community and we've really enjoyed our meetings. Our meeting with the Laibon, the local spiritual leader who has 300 children, 16 wives and 3,000 head of cattle, was particularly interesting. We helped the community move some equipment to the construction site of the new Laibon primary school. Classes one and two will be accommodating 127 of the Laibon's kids. It's great that he's committed to their education. We would like at some point to engage the community in discussions on sexual and reproductive health issues, but we will first need to earn that right.

Excavation has begun!

Excavation has begun on UMATU's land. The happy people in the photo are Japhet from CPAR, and Prisca, Marietha, Sophia and Angela from UMATU. This has been a long time coming so we're all happy, relieved and a little nervous because, of course, we want the place to be perfect. Current plans include construction of:

- an office building, where UMATU can organize and implement its outreach activities. UMATU members go out into the community to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS, and encourage people to test and know their status. Those who test negative are shown how to protect their status through active prevention methods. Those who test positive are encouraged to join the treatment program, join a support group and live healthy, fulfilled lives "positively", as demonstrated by UMATU's active members.

- a bakery because Karatu is in desperate need of some decent bread. Luckily, UMATU wants to fill that niche and run a successful business that will help them sustain their activities.

- a training centre (classroom) for ongoing education and skill-building activities in the community.

Primary School Rainwater Harvesting

Access to water is a challenge in Karatu District. Kids are punished if they don't bring a container of water to school, but scarce water is needed at home making it a source of contention among students, parents and teachers. Attendance and performance are down as children leave school early when their thirst becomes unbearable. And, normally girls are sent out to look for water so they miss a lot of school time and are at risk of encountering drunk men, snakes and other dangers.

One of our activities is construction of two 30,000 liter rainwater harvesting tanks and 8-unit ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrines targeted for girls at rural primary schools. Handwashing and drinking stands are also set up. We train school water committees made up of kids, teachers and parents to maintain the infrastructure and manage the water supply, and to promote improved health and hygiene practices at school and at home.

Kids report that teachers, parents and children are in harmony these days. Children are no longer plagued by waterborne diseases and stomach ailments, and attendance has increased. Schools are able to attract and retain teachers, and even school performance has improved as children and teachers are better able to focus on schoolwork. Dry environments have been turned into oases. Schools have started fruit orchards and planted shade trees, and teachers living at the schools are able to supplement their food requirements with vegetable gardens.

So far, we've established rainwater harvesting at 15 schools, and our goal is to reach the remaining 70 primary schools in Karatu District.

JENGO LA UMATU

In an exciting initiative, a group of spirited Canadians from Bishop Strachan School in Toronto launched the UMATU Fund Campaign and have been hugely successful in raising funds towards construction of an office/ business/ resource centre for UMATU. UMATU has been brainstorming ideas as to how they will use their centre to raise awareness, provide education and conduct business. As the dream moves towards reality, we've managed to purchase a nice piece of land for this purpose, not an easy accomplishment given Karatu's current reputation as a hot destination to purchase real estate. UMATU and CPAR are thrilled, the plans are drawn up and we are all anxious to begin construction, which should start within the next couple of weeks.

UMATU

In September 2005, two women approach CPAR Tz. They had just joined the newly introduced HIV & AIDS treatment program at Karatu District Hospital, and due to the prevailing stigma and lack of information, were feeling isolated and alone. They wanted to learn more about HIV & AIDS and asked if we could help. The next day, Karatu's first support group for PLHIV (people living with HIV) was born. We facilitated education on all sorts of issues, from basic human rights, sexual and reproductive health issues, treating opportunistic infections, maintaining good nutrition, etc.

During World AIDS Week in December 2006, UMATU members chose to go public with their status – a landmark event in Karatu. They conducted outreach education during World AIDS Week, and on World AIDS Day marched through Karatu town and spoke out on human rights and abolishing the stigma at the town’s celebrations. As a result of their openness, more women started to come forward and UMATU’s membership continues to grow. Members are now equipped to offer counselling, small business training and treatment and nutrition advice to new women members as complementary services to the existing ART program. The group chose the name UMATU (Upendo na Matumaini) (Love & Hope), registered officially as a community based organization, and today has a membership of 56 women "living positively".

UMATU's vision is that all people living with HIV & AIDS are living “positively” as respected, fully functioning members of society. They are committed to abolishing stigma through education to encourage people to test, know their status, know their options, and for those who are positive to join the treatment program and be part of a support group so that they can know their full spectrum of human rights and live positively.

Food!

After previous years of drought, and the need for food aid, we've been fortunate in Karatu this year to receive good rainfall. We work with Farmer Field Schools (FFS) which are groups of women and men farmers who experiment with improved farming techniques, usually on a plot of land allocated by the community, and then take lessons learned back to their own "shambas" (farms). With the application of Conservation Agriculture methods, this year's crops are looking good, and we look forward to a successful harvest of maize, beans and pigeon peas.

We've been promoting local drought-resistant crops like cassava, which has multiple uses. The tubers can be dried, milled and the flour used to prepare ugali, the staple porridge, and the nutritious green leaves can be consumed fresh or boiled, and dried and saved for future consumption. Sweet potatoes are a nutritious food that can be boiled and consumed directly. Lab lab is a cover crop planted to increase nitrogen and conserve moisture in the soil. The seeds are a good source of protein, and once the leaves have dried they are fed to the farmers' dairy goats.

We're also helping farmers improve their local storage facilities so that the harvest can be conserved for future consumption and the surplus safely stored to sell at a time when the best price can be obtained. This is particularly important now with the negative impact on Karatu of rising global food prices.

Papaya is a particularly good food for boosting the immune system. We work a lot with PLHIV (people living with HIV), and keeping nutrition levels up is a challenge. We've been raising papaya seedlings in our tree nursery and distributing them to farmers. They've proved to be very popular. Access to papaya will really make a difference in terms of improved nutrition and also income-generation.

Karibu Karatu!

We are CPAR Tanzania, a non-governmental organization (NGO) supporting community initiatives to improve agricultural production and achieve year round food security; to provide water and sanitation in primary schools through construction of rainwater harvesting tanks and ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrines; and to support people "living positively" with HIV through education and access to small business loans. All our activities are crosscut with education on Sexual and Reproductive Health issues such as Human Rights, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Gender-based Violence, Family Planning, Safe Delivery, and Safe Sex. We've been working in Karatu District, Tanzania since 2003.