For the first four weeks at our village the main focuses
of our project were integrating with the community, action research and
awareness raising.
To integrate with the local community we introduced
ourselves in a number of ways. Firstly we visited the market every day to
familiarise ourselves with the stall owners and explained our
role with Raleigh ICS and SEMA. At first we got lots of unwelcoming looks as
they thought we would just be there for the goldmine that was on the outskirts
of the village. I don’t know if I was expecting them to welcome us with open
arms, but I was a bit thrown off by this and couldn’t understand why they were
being so unfriendly and would just stare or demand money. However when people
started listening to our reasons for staying in the area and what we planned to
do they gradually became more accepting, making us feel at ease. The villagers
began to learn our names and faces and would try their best attempt at speaking
basic English to please us. We met some very kind people in the village,
especially the village leaders who welcomed us back to visit whenever possible!
As most of our projects would involve the schools we
thought it was essential to get to know the students and teachers to build
trust and respect. To do this my team held sports days at Mgongo Primary and
Kibululu Primary Schools, with sack races, relays, three-legged and traditional
running races. The children had never done anything like this before so were
very excited yet nervous! The team were feeling a bit anxious about controlling
hundreds of kids speaking a different language, especially as order and
organisation doesn’t really exist in Africa! But with their co-operation and
the help of the prefects we somehow managed to run it all smoothly and it was a
really fun day. The highlight for me was being surrounded by all the children
at the end of the day, fascinated by our hair and skin, then singing us a song
in unison. It really was special to hear and is one of my favourite memories
with the children in Mgongo.
To engage with the secondary school students we joined in
with netball and football tournaments on a Friday afternoon for a few weeks. At
secondary school they get taught all their lessons in English so it was
slightly easier to attempt speaking to them, although they all got very shy!
They loved that the British volunteers joined in with the sports too and liked
to laugh at us getting tired in the heat!
As mentioned in my post ‘Welcome to Mgongo – Karibu Sana’ we conducted household surveys for
our action research about water and sanitation. The results of this
subsequently guided our awareness raising, infrastructure construction and
secondary project.
For our awareness raising we decided to do a hand hygiene
campaign with five schools in the area. In order to make it effective and
sustainable we knew we had to plan it thoroughly. The team gathered for hours
of meetings to discuss and plan everything we were to do in detail. As we were
the first Raleigh ICS group in Tanzania there were no resources available from
any previous teams or from the project partner either, so it took a while to
prepare every campaign, session and meeting. This was still within our first
few weeks so to begin with we had some slight language barrier difficulties, as
the Tanzanian volunteers were having trouble keeping up with the fast incoherent
discussions of the British. Hence part of our challenge was to continuously
consider this and to make sure everyone understood every detail. After all, we
were part of a team and each individual needed time to get involved. So after
hours of discussions and decisions we had a plan of action to help the water,
health and sanitation in Mgongo.
Once the planning and organising were complete we were
finally able to begin the health awareness lessons. Our aim was to teach the
schools about hand hygiene in order to help prevent diseases and illnesses. For
the knowledge to be relevant we had to first provide the schools with hand
washing facilities, i.e. a ‘Tippy-Tap’. A tippy-tap is a very basic but
effective invention that has minimal surface contact and water wastage. It is
simply three long wooden sticks, a jerry can with a hole cut in the side,
string and a stick for the pedal. So to access the water you push your foot down
on the pedal, which tips the jerry can via the attached string, and the water
will come out like a tap – voila! We built two tippy-taps by the latrines at
each school to encourage the children to use it after going to the toilet. We
then conducted the health awareness sessions in four parts. First of all in
introduction into why you should wash your hands, secondly a play about
protecting your friends and family from illness, thirdly an explanation and
demonstration of the tippy-tap and finally a germ game using flour to represent
how thoroughly you must wash your hands! It was only basic information, but the
children were completely unaware of why it is essential for them to wash their
hands. It was such a great moment to first see a young boy running straight to
the tippy tap after the toilet to try it out – I really hope we educated the
teachers enough too for it to continue.
Another on-going project throughout our time in Mgongo
was the Women’s Group. It was the first female social group to be set up in the
area, so we found that it was a bit slow to get going and we began to doubt any
success! However after a few meetings we all started to really enjoy it and
have a really good time, despite the huge language barrier! We all spoke about
our lives, families and ambitions, which helped us to understand each other a
lot more. They also shared music and crafts that they had made and we showed
them our photos and art work. Mama Musa showed us a bowl she had weaved using
dried grass, and because we had said we loved it she presented all the girls with
one as a leaving gift! With the whole women’s group we also made a doormat and
netball bibs together; the netball bibs were an on-going project for the girls
at the Secondary School to encourage them to be active and enjoy sports. In our
last week in Mgongo Mama Musa invited us to her house for tea and to build her
a Tippy-Tap outside her latrine. It was a simple mud house, yet she had made it
feel very friendly and cosy! It was very sad to say goodbye to all the women
from the group, but they generously welcomed us back to stay with them whenever
we could J
So that’s what we got up to in our first five weeks in
Tanzania. I will update you again on the second phase soon!
..x
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