Ibuga Area Development Programme (ADP) is in Tanzania's Kagera
Region. The 11 villages are split between a fertile plateau about
1,660m above sea level and the lowlands. There are approximately
43,800 people in the ADP area.
Agriculture and income-generation
Crop yields are low. The dense population and pressure on land
restricts the size of farms and limits the level of production.
Moreover, poor roads make it difficult for farmers to transport
their harvests to market for sale.
The ADP helps the community repair roads and construct bridges
to improve access to markets. It establishes tree nurseries and
encourages planting to stabilise the soil. Trained agricultural
extension workers advise farmers on better ways to care for land,
crops and livestock, and they encourage better diversification of
food crops. The ADP provides farm tools, seeds, fertilisers and
insecticides.
World Vision promotes alternative income-generating activities,
such as food processing, dairy farming and fish farming, to groups
of women and youths. It trains them to market their produce and
keep accurate records. The groups can access loans through the ADP
for start-up capital.
Health
In Ibuga, the most common fatal diseases, other than AIDS, are
malaria, pneumonia, anaemia, diarrhoea, intestinal worms,
malnutrition and tuberculosis.
The ADP constructs sanitary latrines. It trains village health
workers to educate the community about nutrition, breast-feeding
and family spacing, promote the use of insecticide-treated mosquito
nets to prevent malaria and assist with immunisation campaigns for
children, and women of childbearing age.
HIV and AIDS
The ADP holds public meetings to educate the community about
HIV-prevention and promotes HIV testing and counselling. Community
committees are trained to care for critically ill patients,
orphans, vulnerable children and families. Preschools are set up to
care for and feed vulnerable children. The ADP provides the
committees and preschools with nutritious food for distribution and
vocational training centres teach teenagers job skills to help them
provide for their siblings.
Water
People on the plateau have difficulty obtaining water, and those
who live on the lowlands depend on spring water that becomes
contaminated with silt during the rainy season. Few families boil
water before use.
Ibuga ADP works with village leaders and teachers to promote
water hygiene practices, constructs rainwater tanks and wells and
protects springs from contamination.
Community leadership
Community-based organisations are formed and trained to promote
and manage development activities in the long term. The ADP helps
these organisations apply to the government for official
registration and ongoing support and has built a community centre
for their use.
Education
The people of Ibuga value education. However, there are not
enough classrooms in Ibuga to meet the demand and more students
attain the marks required to enter secondary school than there are
places available.
Ibuga ADP constructs secondary schools and repairs primary
school buildings. It provides desks, school materials and sports
equipment and builds rainwater tanks and latrines. Mock exams
provided by World Vision help students and teachers decide on
subjects for revision and the best achieving schools are
acknowledged, with the top students being awarded school bags.
Faith
There are six Christian denominations in Ibuga ADP. World Vision
encourages dialogue between different groups, trains leaders and
helps them with their development activities.
Sustainable development
World Vision and the people of Ibuga envisage that by 2013, the
community's capacity to access resources for ongoing development
will be at a level that no longer requires World Vision
assistance.
Tanzania at a glance
The shouts of 'karibu', or 'welcome', which greet visitors to
Tanzania, speak of the long tradition of hospitality and
friendliness that characterises East Africa's largest country.
