After almost 2.5months I am coming to the end of my time in Tanzania and, together with the local volunteers, I am buying the chickens, animal feed and goats for the last few of our grant recipients. I’ve been setting up a new Small Grants Project to assist people affected by HIV/AIDS and have been lucky enough to be able to take the project from start-up to final handover into the community. This has meant doing a feasibility study (assessing whether there is potential to start up new businesses in our target area and identifying whether there are people affected by HIV/AIDS to run them), doing family visits and interviews, followed by final selection of 9 successful applicants, business training (fortunately done by our one of our able Community Volunteer Co-ordinators as it is in Swahili), formal business launch with local community leaders and then buying goods to the value of the grant.
The photo shows our grant recipients together with the ward and village executive officers and the Tanzanian Country managers on launch day – an excellent turn-out and the grant recipients were delighted. Local hierarchy is very important here. Finally there is weekly follow-up to support the people running the new businesses. I’ll manage to fit in one of these follow-up visits before I leave, but it will be done on an on-going basis by the two local Community Volunteers who we have recruited as part of the project. They in turn will be looked after by a local Community Volunteer Co-ordinator employed by MondoChallenge. So as long as the funding for the Community Volunteers and Co-ordinators continues, the project is now almost totally sustainable locally (aside from the managerial support of our lovely and very excellent Tanzania Country Manager of course!). It’s great to think that we have contributed something that can now stand on its own two feet.
The whole experience of being in Tanzania has been great – from the extreme hospitability and generosity of my homestay family, to the crazy daladalas (minibuses) that eventually take me to work, to the dedication of the local people making time to work on the project even though they need to also fit in earning money to pay the school fees and maybe one day finish building the family home. To their patience and amusement when I have ‘English’ moments and demand that the taxi I have hired at great expense should indeed come with the petrol for which we have paid. And that it should turn up in less than 30mins from being ‘immediately available’. And to the amazing safari parks, walking country and the 5,000 year-old cave paintings in Kolo (definitely worth a visit if you get the chance). To the bustling markets and friendly haggling about the ‘special price’ that people might just try to charge you. And to the Masai families continuing to live in their traditional ways with multiple goats and wives. And to the difference that we hope to make to the families living in maybe one room with four children – and their happiness at the opportunity to make a better living for themselves.
The whole experience of being in Tanzania has been great – from the extreme hospitability and generosity of my homestay family, to the crazy daladalas (minibuses) that eventually take me to work, to the dedication of the local people making time to work on the project even though they need to also fit in earning money to pay the school fees and maybe one day finish building the family home. To their patience and amusement when I have ‘English’ moments and demand that the taxi I have hired at great expense should indeed come with the petrol for which we have paid. And that it should turn up in less than 30mins from being ‘immediately available’. And to the amazing safari parks, walking country and the 5,000 year-old cave paintings in Kolo (definitely worth a visit if you get the chance). To the bustling markets and friendly haggling about the ‘special price’ that people might just try to charge you. And to the Masai families continuing to live in their traditional ways with multiple goats and wives. And to the difference that we hope to make to the families living in maybe one room with four children – and their happiness at the opportunity to make a better living for themselves.
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