Women’s groups, partnership and progress

So … after five years deeply involved in Tanzania, finally I am asking directly for some money to empower women’s groups in remote hamlets to tackle the awful rates of maternal and child mortality. I have waited, and now is the time for your fiver ... or even ten crisp fifties! But please read on, even if you do not want to donate!!

Despite being a peaceful and relatively incorrupt country, death in childbirth is 100 times more common than in the UK.

One in ten children do not reach their fifth birthday in rural areas, and girls from a young age spend their childhood fetching dirty water to drink:

                                 

In response, we have learnt that good-willed foreigners air-dropping solutions, then disappearing, does not work. Instead, we have helped the people set up eleven women’s groups in eleven hamlets, and the young and middle-aged women have now become the engine for progress.

                                  

FGM has stopped in some hamlets. Children are being immunised. Women are seeking safe childbirth. Communities are working together to produce enough crops and food to fight off malnutrition. Suddenly there is an energy about making things different. Women have a voice. The women’s movement is called ‘Tushikamane’ – ‘We stick together’.

The top priorities, however, are water and sanitation. The majority of rural women spend their girlhood and adult life fetching dirty water five times a day, and scratching a living for the family for the remainder of their time. Few have ever used a toilet. Many rural girls are denied education – their main escape route – because they are needed for hard labour.

                               

We still have the problem, however, that solutions must be locally developed if they are to be sustainable. Step forward ‘SAWA’ – Sanitation And Water Action: http://sawatanzania.org/. These are highly skilled Tanzanian professionals, who work for no profit, educating and activating rural communities to understand water hygiene and water pump maintenance. Using the skills, resources and manpower of the community, they supervise the constructions of sustainable water and hygiene solutions. 

Before SAWA:

                              

After SAWA:

Working through SAWA and women’s groups, we have been able to deliver such profound change as this pump, for just £500. Our charity – ‘Mission Morogoro’ – has no overheads at all, and works with the women of these remote hamlets to change their lives for ever.

We have three more pumps to install, and then they would like us to begin to help them update their primeval agriculture. Again, we will be using local partner non-profit organisations, of Tanzanian professionals who really care.

Please help! Donate here:

http://www.missionmorogoro.org.uk/how-to-donate

Or buy the story:  The blog is now a paperback:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1973377349

Kindle version: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01MZ9MQFN

And tell your friends – especially book clubs – about the book! It is written as a diary, trying to inject some Bryson-like humour, and entertains at the same time as gripping you with the unfolding story of Tushikamane.

Or why not buy a well for Kipera?!!!
£500 to transform the lives of those whose daily water supply is this:

Thank you!!!