Tanzania project profile

Budekwa ADP

Education
Budekwa has a shortage of trained teachers, classrooms and school equipment. Primary level exam results are poor. There are no secondary schools in the area.

The ADP helps build and equip classrooms and teachers’ houses and install rainwater tanks and latrines. It provides mock examinations so teachers and pupils can gauge which subjects require extra revision. Teachers attend refresher training courses to upgrade their skills, school management committees are trained and a school feeding programme provides children with a nutritious midday meal.

HIV and AIDS
People belonging to at-risk sectors of the population are trained to educate their peers in HIV-prevention and encourage HIV testing. World Vision forms AIDS-awareness clubs in schools and trains students to educate their friends and families. Community members form committees to care for the chronically ill, orphans and vulnerable families. The ADP supports the committees by providing them with medicine and nutritional food to distribute.

Health
The two government-run dispensaries are poorly equipped, so most people go to traditional healers. Malaria, skin diseases, diarrhoea, tuberculosis, conjunctivitis and respiratory infections are common.

World Vision builds and equips dispensaries and houses for health staff. Public latrines are constructed to improve sanitation and ADP health workers immunise preschoolers and pregnant women. They train community volunteers to instruct mothers in family health and hygiene and promote the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets. Traditional birth attendants learn modern, safe childbirth techniques.

Agriculture and income-generation
Most of Budekwa’s households grow their own food, but production is limited by successive droughts and traditional farming methods. Insects and rats frequently destroy stored grain. There are few other local sources of income.

The ADP forms farmers’ focus groups and provides subsidised seeds and farm tools. It encourages farmers to grow drought-resistant crops, such as millet, sorghum, cassava and sweet potatoes, rather than depend on maize and rice.

Farmers learn better ways to care for animals, prepare land for planting, sow seed, manage pests and harvest and store crops. As they put these new ideas into practice, they are able to produce sufficient food and even have surplus to sell.

The ADP forms business self-help groups and trains members in off-farm income-generating skills, marketing and book-keeping. It provides small, low-interest loans so they can set up or expand productive activities.

Conservation
‘Slash and burn’ agricultural methods, overgrazing and felling of trees for firewood have led to soil erosion and land degradation. The ADP promotes compost-fuelled biogas stoves to reduce the need for firewood. It also helps schools form conservation clubs and start tree nurseries.

Community leadership
World Vision forms and trains community-based organisations in leadership, financial management and the fundraising skills needed to run development activities in the long term. Women, teenagers and children are all encouraged to participate.

Sustainable development
World Vision and the people of Budekwa envisage that by 2012 the community’s capacity to access resources for ongoing development will be at a level that no longer requires World Vision assistance. We will keep you regularly updated on their progress.