Some final pics of the trip

Pictures: Beautiful Mafia Island, which is becoming popular for scuba diving but a French company has just discovered oil; visiting Mvae village, greeted by a welcome by village elder women; students at primary school where HAPA has just built their first pit latrines (toilets), and change rooms for girls and students with a disability which is really very advanced; the "novelty cheque" picture HAT desired, representing an actual transfer of >US$6000 for the Matumbo medical dispensary; street vendors selling through the windows of Tanzanian buses, which the government is considering banning; and a primary school footy team, whose uniforms were provided by an NGO who is using sport to deliver health promotion messages.

Visit to Human Development Trust - Dar es Salaam

My final NGO visit was to Human Development Trust who work in 3 rural regions of Tanzania (Kagera [on Lake Victoria], Mbeya [south west, bordering Zambia] and Mtwara [south, bordering Mozambique]) and in Dar es Salaam. The NGO has three strategic pillars - policy advocacy eg: to government; building the capacity of other small NGOs, particularly NGOs who care for people with HIV/AIDS; and community development, particularly for vulnerable children and in STI/HIV prevention.

This is an impressive organisation that has grown to 19 staff, and engaged 8 overseas volunteers, in just 5 years. Their website http://www.humandevelopmenttrust/ is very interesting to browse, particularly "stories from the field" on the front page.

We just had time for morning meeting in the office with the telling of some stories relating to their work before I had to leave for the airport - which became a gridlocked trip through Dar's phenomenal traffic (this is a city the size of Melbourne without freeways, trains or trams) meaning that the driver had to divert from the main road through a few Dar suburbs to get me there just on time. Qatar Airways told me I was 7kg over my 20kg limit, US$169 if I wanted to take 27kg, so I had to jettison excess baggage... goodbye mouthwash, goodbye lonely planet, goodbye David Sedaris novel... sheesh...

Pictures below: Family in HDT's "Most Vulnerable Children" project, which aims to improve the economic activities of foster families which support vulnerable children, such as those whose parents have died from AIDS; meeting key HDT staff in Dar es Salaam; and children in a secondary school in Bukoba district who are very keen to study despite lack of desks and chairs.

Singida: visiting villages and HAPA

Photos: Posing with HAPA staff in their office in Singida; arriving at Matumbo village;

Tried booking accommodation in Singida town two days before arriving, only to discover that every hotel and guest house in town was full due to a once-in-a-blue-moon convention of district politicians from around the country. I was very kindly offered a room in the house of Mr Noel Makyao, one of the leaders of the NGO that HAT presently works with (HAPA), and I gratefully accepted. That first evening, I visited the HAPA offices and was introduced to the rest of the staff, including the new HAPA coordinator Mr David Mkanje.

The following day we headed out to the villages. Mvae village, for whom HAT funded the purchasing and installation of medical equipment to their dispensary in 2005-06, was without a doubt the highlight of my trip to date. When the HAPA jeep pulled up, we were greeted with a large group of elderly village women, singing and dancing. All of them came up to shake my hand and those of the HAPA staff, saying "karibu! asanta sana!" ("welcome! thank you very much!"). Clearly the old women realised and appreciated the difference that a well stocked primary health centre had made to the village in the past 3 years. The tour of the facility was conducted by a nurse, who had agreed to live frull time at the village because HAPA had also constructed a small house for dispensary staff to live in (not HAT-funded). I realised that just as in Australia, you have to look after medical/nursing staff in order to both attract them to and retain them in rural areas. The nurse said she had delivered three babies for the village in the last month - important, given the maternal and child mortality rates in Tanzania, that they now have access to a well trained birth attendant and access to perinatal care.

HAPA also let me know that the Mvae community have strongly participated in the local Community Health Fund. This is an optional insurance scheme encouraged by the government - if a villager contributes the equivalent of A$5 a year, they are guaranteed access to treatment and drugs at the dispensary. The more the villagers contribute, the more the government then tops up this fund. Furthermore, a democratically elected local health committee can decide how to spend any unspent monies in the Fund on local health initiatives - for example, purchasing more medical equipment, constructing infrastructure, ordering stocks of more expensive drugs etc. The Fund has high participation at Mvae.

We also stopped at Matumbo Village with a personal greeting by the village chairman, a smiley man with a nice pointy beard. For the last few months, HAT has been raising funds for the stocking of this village's medical dispensary with vital equipment - just last week we transferred the $6,646 to HAPA and I will soon have a picture of myself and David Mkanje shaking hands with a big fake ceremonial cheque to show! The chairman gave his thanks to HAT, as the dispensary is due to officially open with a big ceremony on September 11 (I learnt that the last ceremony associated with a HAT project at Choda village attracted TV crews and was on the Tanzanian news, which was a surprise). Unfortunately the medical equipment will not be delivered in time for that, and treatment with it is unlikely to start until October.

In the morning we had stopped at Ughandi B villagae, at which a new block of first-rate pit latrines (toilets) for the primary school was officially being handed over to the community. To date, the kids have been using unsanitory facilities, leading to disease. The project was funded by a group of fundraising citizens in Somerset England, and I was lucky enough to meet the Loader family who had travelled to Singida on behalf of the group. A very large proportion of the village turned out, and there were speeches by the school principal, district commissioner, Richard Loader, and David Mkanje of HAPA. Clearly the community was very appreciative!

Had a final meeting with HAPA in their offices to talk about re-signing our partnership agreement, and future priorities. I left Singida convinced of the vital significance of the work being done by HAPA and was pleased HAT had been working to fund some of the projects in needy communities. Unfortunately I also left Singida a little ill with a fever, but the malaria test I took in Dar es Salaam the next morning came back negative, meaning it's likly just a mild flu/virus! *phew* Couldn't help but feel lucky that I had easy access to first rate health care in an airconditioned clinic via an airconditioned taxi, all covered by my travel insurance.

Nota bene: The Agile Cow

In Tanzania taxi fares are negotiated between driver and passenger before the journey starts. There are no meters. Therefore, when the driver proposes a fare to a tourist and has either (a) been beaten down to a resonable price, or (b) struck it lucky, his priority is to get to the destination as quickly as possible. There is no revenue in sitting idly in heavy traffic.

Three days ago I was the naive seatbeltless passengar for an ingenous and possibly insane taxi driver for whom the tarmacked road was merely a suggested route. Whenever we hit any traffic he would opt for the sidewalk, 'Grand Theft Auto'-style, beeping his horn as men, women, children, chickens and even a cow scurried out of harm's way.

PICTURES From top left, clockwise: 1. A major street in Dodoma, the administrative capital of Tanzania. Yes, it is a bit like the Wild Wild West but without horses. 2. The Chairperson of Ntyukwa village inspecting a latrine (urinal) for the school boys - this is new for this community. Note he is wearing his political party hat, as there is an election tomorrow. 3. The managing Director of Maji de Maendeleo, Mr Matthew Halla, in his office. He speaks Swahili, English, Russian, French and his local village language. 4. This is me walking towards a drinking source for the Chumwino Village primary school, constructed by Maji de Maendeleo for only US$1000 funded by a Japanese town. 5. Latrines (toilets) constructed in Ntyukwa Village 6. Lunch in a Dodoma cafe. Mr Halla had chicken and chips (a usual Tanzanian lunch) whilst I had tomato stew on rice with chicken.

About Today

Today I met with staff of Maji de Maendeleo, an organisation that helps local communities in the Dodoma District (approximately 500 villages) with access to safe drinking water. They do this by supplying wells that use underground water; creating drinking points that tap water from the local dam; building latrines, so that cross-contamination of drinking water with human waste is avoided; educating communities about safe drinking; and building capacities of communities and schools to manage their water facilities. I met with Mr Matthew Halla, Managing Director; Mr Augustine, a program manager; and Mr Semu Nassari, program manager.

This is an impressive organisation, and clearly committed to their vision. They partner with a range of overseas NGOs as well as the World Bank and World Food Program. Today, they took me on a tour of 2 of their projects.

One, which is completed, was to construct a well for drinking water in Ntyuka Village near Dodoma city. They also took me to visit the village chairperson (who is facing an fiercely contested election tomorrow!) and the village doctor and his medical dispensary... they are very lucky to have a doctor, but he lacks adequate supplies including a delivery bed, and Rapid Testing Kits and microscope for testing for malaria, HIV and other blood-borne diseases.

The second project is much bigger and based in Chumwino Village primary school - the village is more rural than Ntyuka. This project has 4 phases:

(a) Build 8 latrines (toilets). This is because currently, the school of 3500 pupils is served by just 4 toilets, and 2 for teachers. This means children are often forced to go in the bushes, and in the wet season this is dangerous as the waste can be swept into the local water supply, causing parasitic disease.

(b) Extend the current water source to these new toilets, so that students can easily (and remember to) wash their hands

(c) Teach the children about hygeine through simple diagrams, and through games (often, through sport).

(d) Build the capacity of teh school to maintain the resources. Parents are happy to contribute to this effort so that it is all sustainable.

Travel to Dodoma and... making a splash

LEFT: The 'pool' I dived into (see below) RIGHT Picture of a Dar es Salaam market from the bus

Fairly non-eventful bus ride from Dar to Dodoma, although it took much longer than the advertised 6 hours... the bus driver was very careful! I met a couple of Bangladeshis who are working for an NGO who were very interested in HAT & Australia, and we are going to keep in contact.

The hotel in Dodoma is quite nice, soon after arriving hot and sweaty I decided to go for a swim in the pool and dived into this one. Shortly after, one of the waiters in the restaurant yelled "Bwana! Bwana! Hapana! ('Sir! Sir! No!') It is not a pool!". Apparently this was not the pool, I had jumped into something that was purely for display purposes. He then led me ingloriously through the rather nice hotel restaurant (topless and wrapped in my towel) to the real and much bigger pool. Oops!

Profile of NGO Maji na Maendeleo

Profile of organisation I will visit tomorrow in Dodoma

The picture on the left is one of their completed projects, a well in a village that had no access to clean drinking water.
Maji na Maendeleo Dodoma (MAMADO) is Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) registered with the Ministry of Home Affairs on 24th May 2000. MAMADO operates in all six Districts of Dodoma Region namely Dodoma Urban, Bahi, Chamwino, Kondoa, Kongwa and Mpwapwa.

Since its establishment, MAMADO has been closely working with communities in all six Districts. Participatory approaches have been employed in all kinds of development projects implemented by MAMADO.

1.1 VISION
To have strong, capable and self –dependent communities which are able to plan, implement and manage their water supply and sanitation facilities and services in a sustainable manner.

1.2 MISSION
MAMADO is a regional NGO organisation which aims to improve sustainable water supply, sanitation facilities and the hygiene situation of communities by supporting and facilitating activity in partnership with relevant organisations.

1.3 CORE VALUES
Based on the regional and founding values of unity, love, peace, justice and sustainable use of local resources: MAMADO is committed and believes in:

Ø Unity and solidarity among all its members and communities of Dodoma region.
Ø Building positive relationships, sharing information and promoting dialogue.
Ø Self-dependency and creativity among its stakeholders in fulfilling their development objectives.
Ø The facilitation of communities and other stakeholders into becoming agent of their own empowerment and development.
Ø Putting proper perspective the issue of gender equality and equity in all its activities, programs and initiatives.
Ø Openness and fairness in the practices of its members, Board of Directors and other committees.

1.4 KEY OBJECTIVES
Ø To facilitate communities of Dodoma region to improve and sustain their community water supply
Ø To facilitate communities in Dodoma region to improve their environmental
sanitation situation
Ø To build capacity and skills together with Regional and District Councils, NGO’s, companies and individuals to enhance efforts in water, Sanitation and hygiene improvement in Dodoma
Ø To establish a water and sanitation demonstration centre for the promotion, and where appropriate piloting, of water supply and sanitation technologies
Ø To lobby and advocate for improvements to the water and sanitation situation in Dodoma region
Ø To ensure HIV/AIDS, gender issues, environment and water/land rights are considered in all aspects of project planning and implementation
Ø To mobilize local, national and international resources to enable MAMADO strategic plan to become reality


1.5 ACTIVITIES
The organisation in carrying out the aims and objectives above named does the following:
Ø Assisting communities and community based organisations to plan and implement their water supply projects, sanitation, and hygiene projects by working directly with them in a participative way
Ø Assisting communities to ensure their water, sanitation and hygiene projects are sustainable
Ø Researching, documenting and disseminating information on water, sanitation and hygiene in Dodoma region
Ø Publicising the real situation of water, sanitation and health in the communities and efforts made by them to improve their situation.
Ø Liaising and collaborating with District, Regional and National authorities, NGO’S Private sector for improvements in water, sanitation and hygiene
Ø Providing advisory and consultancy services on water, sanitation and health.
Ø Lobbying and advocacy for water and sanitation as well as water and health policy issues