Chickens, Sewing Machines and Women’s Empowerment!
Mission Morogoro's recent visit to Tunguli
Our small group of MM trustees has just returned from a hugely successful fortnight in the village of Tunguli in Tanzania. We were able to meet the women’s groups in the Tushikamane project and see the progress made in the villages and Health Centre.
Tushikamane means “together” in Swahili and the project aims to reduce the shockingly high infant and mortality rates in the area by empowering and working with women. Eleven women’s groups have been established involving more than 600 villagers and through these they receive health education and can express their needs and wishes for the future. These include healthcare and practical projects to benefit the community such as raising chickens and pigs and learning to sew.
We were able to make each group a gift of Tzs150,000 (£55) to invest on together on projects they consider important and will watch with interest to see how they invest this money. We also gave each group a solar lamp and asked them to trial it to see if they felt it was of benefit. For many their only source of light is kerosene lamps, which are polluting, dangerous and costly to run. If they decide that the solar lamps are a better option we will look for ways in which we can help to spread their use.
The women are highly enthusiastic about Tushikamane and greeted us warmly. We were given gifts of huge watermelons and live chickens, which helped to feed us during our stay - good news for us but bad for the chickens.
The new motorcycle ambulance has been greatly welcomed and is already very busy. During its first month of operation it transported almost 30 patients for life-saving procedures such as caesareans or to treat malaria and pneumonia after which it returned them to their homes.
We were also able to see the new toilet blocks and upgraded laboratory, both of which greatly enhance hygiene standards at the Health Centre. Our immediate focus for the HC is now security and we hope soon to be able to provide a perimeter fence and security lighting. This will eliminate unauthorised visitors and provide true safety for the patients and staff while securing HC resources such as the water stored in the rainwater harvesting tanks.
The tractor is in fine form and is being well cared for. It is working both on cultivation and to transport water and building materials. There has recently been a change of village leadership in Tunguli and it is great to see that they are energetically working to improve farming methods. We were also pleased that the tractor has been contracted out to other farmers to earn money to support Tunguli projects. The villagers have engaged with local government support workers to help them as they learn about and trial new, more sustainable methods. MM’s role is to provide limited finance for quality seeds and to cover travel costs for the government support workers to visit the women’s groups.
Of course unreliable rains remain a major challenge and a future project we hope to work on with the village is the creation of a lagoon to store rainwater for irrigation during the long dry periods.
The sewing project is proving a great success. Twelve women are approaching the end of a 3month course using the hand sewing machines MM provided previously.
There is a waiting list of almost 30 ladies who wish to attend future courses and we hope to begin a second course early in 2017. Further machines will be made available to those who graduate from the course so that they can continue to make items for their families, particularly school uniforms, which are needed for children to attend school.
For more see www.misssionmorogoro.org.uk
Again we thank you all for your continued support and encouragement. We look forward with great optimism and hope that you are as pleased as we are by the latest news.
Tony Mortimer
