UMATU Centre Gate & Guardhouse

Karatu is kind of in holiday mode at the moment. Monday was Eid al-Haj, the Islamic festival of the annual pilgrimage -- the Haj -- to Mecca, and Tuesday was Tanzania's Independence Day, celebrating 47 years of Independence from Colonialism.

On another note, UMATU Center is fenced and gated, complete with a strategically situated askari (guard) house. Against all odds, water is flowing and the electricity works so UMATU should be moving in later on this month or by early January at the latest.

December in Karatu

World AIDS week outreach came to an end yesterday with drums and drama at Karatu Market Day. The drama troupe Simba Masai joined CPAR and UMATU to put on a high-energy show. There was a huge turnout at the market, the last one before Christmas, so a lot of people took a break from shopping and auctioning livestock to take in a rather entertaining approach to HIV&AIDS education, counselling and testing.

World AIDS Week Outreach

In collaboration with Karatu District Health Department, CPAR and UMATU are conducting outreach activities at Karatu monthly market sites around the theme "Let's test and know our status". CPAR and UMATU talk about the benefits of getting tested so that depending on the result, one can take steps to stay negative or learn how to live positively. They are provided counselling services and District Health are offering testing services. Yesterday at Endabash over 50 people chose to test. Today the team is in Mangola, tomorrow they will travel to Mbulu Mbulu and on Sunday they will offer services at Karatu town Mnadani (market), the largest market in the district. UMATU members circulate through the hordes of people providing small group and one-to-one counselling and education on protecting oneself and others from HIV, proper use of condoms and they encourage people to test, if not at the market then at a designated health centre.

World AIDS Day 2008

Today is World AIDS Day. The purpose of this designated day is to motivate and educate about HIV prevention, putting an end to stigma and discrimination, the importance of testing and knowing one's status, and the demonstration of "positive" living. First thing this morning, UMATU and CPAR learned about the death of a one-year old girl and admittance to hospital over the weekend of her young mother, Maria. Maria is HIV positive but has been living in denial. Now her CD4 count is low, her immune system is weak, and she has developed opportunistic infections. The hospital here is severely understaffed and patients don't get the care and attention they deserve, so UMATU has started a "hospital-based care" program modeled on the "home-based care" program. As soon as we heard about Maria, UMATU members went to see her to express their sympathy for her loss, to encourage and counsel her, and to ensure that she was getting proper care. It was a good thing they got on top of the situation. The doctor on duty hadn't even heard about the case but after talking to UMATU promised to examine Maria and take appropriate action. UMATU spent time with Maria, helped her with food and drink, and made her comfortable. Maria now says that she is ready to talk honestly with the doctor and start the treatment program. UMATU will be following up tomorrow. Without their intervention, the prognosis for Maria would be grim.

CPAR Tanzania today

We've been gathering information about Mahhahha Primary School, next in line for rainwater harvesting and sanitation activities. Established in 2004 with the self-help efforts of the women and men farmers of Mahhahha, the school is located 31 km from Karatu town near the edge of the Rift Valley escarpment. The school has 472 students – 237 girls and 235 boys -- and 8 teachers -- 2 women and 6 men.

The school's nearest sources of water are a seasonal hand dug shallow well 3km away and a hand pump shallow well 5m away. Both are shared by people and animals. The only sanitation facility at the school is a 6-unit latrine that is shared by girls and boys. Attendance levels are low, with only 51% of girls and 49% of boys attending regularly. Teachers report frequent complaints of stomach ailments and headaches, and sometimes children even faint from dehydration.

The District Education Department has ordered all schools to establish tree nurseries and plant trees but this is difficult given the lack of water for human consumption and health and hygiene. Given the circumstances, landscaping is not a big priority. Nevertheless, over three years the school has managed to plant 500 trees during the rainy season, and 250 are surviving.

CPAR Tz will be constructing two 30,000 liter rainwater harvesting tanks and an 8-unit Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) latrine designated for girls. Other schools participating in this project have seen a marked improvement in children's health, attendance, performance and general state of mind once they have access to drinking water and water for handwashing. Privacy for girls is also an important issue that gets addressed once they have their own sanitation facilities.

SACCOS and Landscaping

UMATU members have completed their Savings and Credit Co-operative Society (SACCOS) training and are now ready to establish group savings, an important step in their progress towards financial independence. Instead of saying "jabini" ("cheese") for the photo, they were saying "ushirikiano" ("cooperation"). Shabani's son Fazil has completed Standard 7 and is awaiting the results that will determine his entry into secondary school. He is helping with landscaping (planting stuff) around the site, along with UMATU Centre's two Masai askaris (guards), Namayai and Leyyo.

This week in Karatu...

UMATU Centre's wall is going up. Deo and Mohammed travelled to the neighbouring district of Mbulu to check out the availability of piglets to purchase for our women's household piggery activities. UMATU, Nderingo and Naisosion, our new financial officer, are spending the week immersed in SACCOS training with the District Cooperative Officer in order for UMATU to take the next step in their process of becoming a full-fledged Savings and Credit Co-operative Society. Co-operatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. As a Co-operative Society, to borrow from the International Co-operative Alliance's definition, UMATU will officially be an "autonomous association of people united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically controlled enterprise". The photo shows them taking a break from training to throw a soccer ball around.