Precision Air 2008
We are of course delighted that Precision Air, the Tanzanian Airline chose to highlight our work in their July to September 2008 in-flight magazine .
This article was submitted to Precision Air for publication in their summer in-flight magazine
We are a “Micro-charity” working in Babati, Manyara Region. As a Micro-Charity specialising in poverty alleviation through education we have a wide variety of projects to help deal with the different faces of poverty (lack of income, education, health knowledge etc.) Our projects are designed to be of various financial commitment, if a donor wants to help build a school or a classroom, then we have the local contacts to make that happen or if the donor just wants to sponsor a child’s education because their family cannot afford to, then we have contacts to help that happen. Because we are a small charity our overheads are low and so a high percentage of the funds raised goes directly to the cause you select.
In addition to this we offer the opportunity to come out to Tanzania and see us, to see for yourself how the donation is being spent and on whom. You can see the impact that you are making. We can also arrange both budget and luxury safaris and an opportunity to go on a fantastic cultural tour, taking in various different semi nomadic and pastoralist tribes. There are plenty of bush walking and mountain climbing opportunities, all accompanied by English speaking guides. We are based just 3½ hours from Kilimanjaro International Airport where Precision Air fly to from Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar and other tourist destinations.
Our primary focus to date has been to turn a run down rural school into a model school that we hope can be copied across all of Tanzania. We started off by repairing the damaged roves, putting in solid floors, plastering and painting the walls inside and out, putting in doors and windows and by so doing we have created an environment conducive to learning. Local builders, combined with the local community and “volun-tourists” from the UK, did the work. Having community participation is key to all that we do because we want to ensure that the community understand that they, not us, own the school.
It is important to ensure that all development projects are actually wanted at the grassroots level, the projects are self financing in the long term; and the local community develop the skills needed to continue the projects after the donor has left.
For us to create this sustainability we needed to develop an income stream for the school so that in the future they will be able to fund their own repairs, their own expansion, their own training and equipment. Our sustainability is designed not only to achieve the above but also to educate the local and wider community in the process. What we have effectively done is outsource the management of the school farm. The farm, that was previously under utilised because the teachers lacked the time and expertise to farm it properly, is now managed by a expert farmer trained at the Agriculture Institute in Bacho. It is expected in the first year that the yield will increase by 2000%. The funds that this farm will generate will cover the costs of the manager, his staff and the seeds, manure, equipment etc, and what is left will be collected and managed by the school development committee to fund what they see as the next priority in their schools development. But to make it the farm sustainable we need to invest in developing our own water source. Permission has been granted by the local authorities, so the pipes and the assorted tanks need to be developed and the whole operation carefully designed to be gravity fed. We are seeking $20,000 to achieve this. Once this is achieved fish farms, goats, cattle, chickens and ducks, combined with year round irrigation can provide much needed income for the school. The Livingstone Tanzania Trust will help develop the skills needed to manage this money and ensure fully transparent accountancy system is in place. The Trust will sit on the School Development Committee, offering advice and assistance until such time as it is no longer needed.
But there is more to the farm than just a sustainable source of income for the school, it is also a working model farm, showing what can be achieved with multi-cropping, good irrigation and improved farming techniques. We want our students and the local and wider community to learn from what we are doing so that they can increase their own productivity and grow themselves out of poverty. We already know that local farmers are following our example and the benefits of our work are spreading.
The funds that the school farm will generate will provide, over the years, for new classrooms, new teachers houses, teacher training, electricity for the classrooms and other such projects beneficial to the school community.
Work has already started on the teacher training course and at the moment the Trust, in collaboration with the Town Education Department have set up two streams of English language training which is being offered, so far, to teachers of tow different primary schools. The idea being that if the teachers have a better command of the English language they will be better placed to teach the students and this will help them when they get to secondary school where all classes are intended to be taught in English. We are in the process of getting a number of computers, which will provide the start of our language lab, for this we still need to find 24 headsets and suitable desks and chairs to ensure ergonomic safety. We have also built an oven at the school to reduce the expenditure on firewood and so be more environmentally friendly. We run a number of child education sponsorship programmes for orphans and children with learning difficulties.
Our education intentions are not just limited to schools however the community suffers ill health partially caused by lack of knowledge. We have conducted one HIV/AIDS awareness campaign for the community and the school in order to prevent the spread of the disease and remove the stigma associated with it. We want to run more educational campaigns on other killer diseases that can be prevented with greater knowledge.
The farm can now be used as a teaching aid to the students and community alike, helping local subsistence farmers increase their yields leading to surplus, which they can sell and create wealth for themselves.
