Mwika trip

We left Zanzibar for Kilimanjaro. It goes without saying that Kilimanjaro, which is highest mountain in Africa and 4^th highest mountain in the world, is one of the main attractions in this region along with Safari. This is why there are so many tourist staying in Moshi and Arusha. Since these cities are positioned very high it gets very cold in the morning and it is very dry as well. This is in stark contrast to the climate in Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam where it is very humid and very hot.

On the first day, on arriving at the Kilimanjaro airport, we went to Mwika, a small town in the region, which is 2 hours drive from the airport. James, the guy who organized this trip, is based in this town, and his project for education is also based in Mwika.

On the first evening, we stayed at hostel that is run by local Christian community. Many of the local people belong to this community. Initially this community was established thanks to the contribution from German church. Since the electricity (outage?) takes place in the region frequently, it is common for each household has private electric generator, and this building was equipped with solar electric generator.

Having had a rest in the hostel, we headed for the 'mama’s place'. In Tanzania, ladies are affectionately called mama. We were invited by mamas to the dinner at their place. They served a wide range of Tanzanian local dieses including baked banana, roasted beans, and boiled pork. Also they served internationally famous Kilimajaro Coffee and this was pretty good. These ‘mama’ s produce custom-made Tanzanian traditional clothes which are made of textile like Boutique and Kanga. These clothes are designed for those who live in perpetual summer country like Tanzania, so it is very comfortable even under very humid and hot weather. Climate in Dar es Salaarm is quite similar to that of Tokyo in summer, so might actually be  very suitable for Japanese people. While pattern of some cloths are elaborated, others are quite simple, so you can wear this clothes even after you go back from Africa. What differentiates this organization from others is that they engage in project to take care of orphans in that region. The profit they earn by selling their products is used for these orphans. They use the minimum amount of profits to sustain their life while the rest of profits is spent on the project. We found so many NPO project or social enterprise whose main purpose is to use the money they earned through business for charity in Tanzania. There were many entrepreneurs took up initiatives for these projects to address the problems they face in their community.

Having had a good dinner time, we visited a guy who is in charge of students union of the local University. He and his wife studied education at the university and we talked about situation of education in Tanzania with them. Here are brief summary of our dialog.

・ Jobs in the field of medicine and education are regarded as more promising in Tanzania where there is no major industry. Government subsidizes those who study medicine or education and according to their academic results, students get scholarship.

・ Since a few years ago, government made primary education free. (It is highly criticized because practically students need to pay for other stuff like school uniform) After that ratio of students to teachers increased so rapidly that there are not enough number of teachers in the school. Also, resources for education are limited to allow every student to use sufficiently. Internet is not available in the school either, so students don’t have sufficient access to the materials.

・ Although the use of the Internet is expanding genarally, it is not employed for the purpose of education. There are two main reasons. First of all, the cost of the Internet is still expensive though it is not unaffordable. Secondly, students need to acquire the literacy for the Internet.

・ In Tanzania, it is still difficult to go to graduate school. Generally students have to turn to loan to finance education fee for undergraduate level ($1000). Only after clearing off student loans, can they arrange new students loan for graduate school. Therefore, if one wants to go to graduate school, they have to work for several years before they apply for graduate school. Since this guy and his wife are fortunately both teachers, either of them can go to grad school while the other are working as a teacher.

Having talked for a couple of hours with guys we went back to our hostel to prepare for safari trip from following days.

After the trip to safari, we came back to Mwika. We stayed James’ s place this time. Along with his family, they live together with his relatives. It seems common for locals to have live together with relatives as a big family. We met his father, uncle, wife, child and his cousins. Speaking of his uncle, he used to be an engineer at Philips, the globally famous electronics company, in Nairobi, and he knows a wide range of things, so we talked about various topics including economy politics and other stuff. At night we discussed James’s education project. He is now running non-profit vocational school for local children who dropped out from the school mainly due to financial reasons. This vocational school serves as a good opportunity where students can learn practical skills that will be required to get the jobs or going to other school. In his school, he teaches carpentry, needlecraft and so on. There are other vocational schools where students acquire computer skills and English to prepare for the next school or getting jobs. Plus, he is now planning to launch a new kindergarten for pre-primary school children to prepare for coming primary education. This aims to educate children before they enter the primary school so as not to drop out from the school.

Basically, these are non-profit projects, which are mainly financed by charity organization in foreign countries. In the case of James, the church in the USA financed his project. They made contract 3 years ago that church would financially help his plan for five years. We, JEAN, are planning to help through advertising his project to those who are potentially able to finance his project.

The next day, we actually visited his vocational school. These girls are learning needlecraft at his vocational school. They welcomed us and they sang a song for us.

These are boys who are learning carpentry at his vocational school. The guy who is wearing red shirts is James.

In other vocational school, some students are learning typing skills, how to use MS words, PowerPoint and excel. Some were using typewriter because sometimes they can’t use computer because of the lack of the electricity.

Likewise, in rural areas there were quite a few projects that aimed at helping children to acquire practical skills that are needed to get job and go to the next level. Although these projects are mainly aided by charity groups from overseas, they did not have enough access to these charity organization. To address the lack of means of communication, we will launch the website in which we can offer information about the project and expand the ideas.

This is the cloth made by mamas in Muwika. This is made of Butique.

Trip to Tanzania -Dar es Salaam-

It was a sunny day in Tanzania, much humid and hotter than Ethiopia (since we switched our airplane at Ethiopia).
We were all a bit nervous to meet our friend Natsuki and her friends.
Moreover, I personally was nervous about this trip, my first time landing on the continent of Africa.
But all those fears and worries went away when we saw Natsuki waiting for us at Dar es Salaam airport with a big smile on her face.
Everything seemed fresh; the view from the taxi, the town, the people.
It was still hard to believe that we were actually in Tanzania.
It was much peaceful and a bright place to me from what I've been hearing about Africa.

After reaching to the Jambo Inn hotel, we planned our schedule and walked around the city.
The local supermarket we went seemed to have many British, Western food or I should say snacks. Comparing with the other African food, those imported chocolate bars were quite pricy.
Speaking of food, it was our first time of tasting the local African food.
Before dinner, we tasted some kind of grilled corn and a fresh coconut juice.

For dinner, we went to an open terrace restaurant, ate a real local food which you can see in the photo.

One thing that we realized is how banana in Tanzania has different kinds of flavors.
The fried banana we had for dinner tasted like potato but the little banana we had for the next morning breakfast tasted like grape.
However, since there are so many bananas at the market, it was understandable why people in Tanzania eat banana as their staple food.
Another thought was how much the cell phone plays a big role in Tanzanian people's life. Because it is not affordable to buy a computer, the cell phone is the method to use the Internet. We saw so many advertising display of cell phone companies in the city of Dar es Salaam which tells the significance of the mobile phone.

Transportation device for most of the Tanzanians is the city bus called Dala Dala.
Surprisingly, many of the city bus were the reused van imported from Japan.
Not only the city bus but other cars also seemed like secondhand cars from Japan.
It felt awkward to see the Japanese stickers and letters on the car but it was also astonishing fact of connection between Japan and Tanzania.

On the second day in Dar es Salaam, we had a chance to go to the market where they sell African traditional souvenirs.
Sadly, because we were tourists, many of the assistants tried to sell the products in a higher price.
It was my first time appreciating the existence of the price tag in my home country.

After the market, we went to University of Dar es Salaam by Dala Dala which our Japanese friend Natsuki attends to.
University of Dar es Salaam was quite a big campus, a lot bigger than the campus of University of London.
We were able to see many of the students at the cafeteria and around campus which made it harder to believe that there are still many youth not being able to afford the education.

After seeing around the school, Natsuki brought us to another supermarket which was in a mall.
Since the price of the products were expensive compared to the other places,
Natsuki explained to us that it was basically a place for foreign people.

We were still hearing these issues of poverty and yes, there were some people who looked poor living on the street but it was difficult to understand the severe situation of poverty in the African city.
Maybe because of the effect of urbanization or modernization.
In the city, the fact of poverty is explicit because of the influence of the West like the technology and fashion.
The stay in Dar es Salaam rose the interrogation of what poverty really is.

Our last day in Dar es Salaam turned out to be a cultural exchange day.
Firstly, we went to the museum of Dar es Salaam and saw many historical and cultural figures.
We were able to observe many information from the museum but unfortunately the condition of conservation was not very well.
Moreover, we saw many Japanese ODA stickers which was another surprising encounter.

Secondly, we went to a musical cultural center where there was a stage for the musicians to perform.
While we were eating lunch, the performers were practicing a piece which seemed like a rare situation.
After that, we went to a museum of different housing of African tribes.
Again, after the tour, few women performed a traditional African musical piece just for us.
Some of us joined the dancing and it was quite a experience. We all really enjoyed it.
From what we experienced, it can be said that music plays a crucial role in African people's lives.
When I asked Natsuki's Tanzanian friend about a good part of Dar es Salaam, he told me that
Dar es Salaam not only have a characteristic of modernity, but also a side of preserving their traditonal culture and music is definitely one of them.

We got to see the unexpected connection between Japan and Tanzania that we did not know before.
It made us realize how the relation is already influencing a big part in Tanzania.
There was more to discover about this country but it was a great great place to visit especially for someone who has never been to Africa.

Water Purification Technology

The CEO of Life saver points out that building infrastructure of water is too costly to manage

It is estimated that slightly more than half of the population do have access to improved water. Only 8% of the household are connected to water services in Dar es Salaam. In the lack of investment, we need to come up with alternative way to provide people in need with improved water. This presentation offers profound insight into 'water'. Examples that mentioned below might not to be about exactly East Africa, but the importance of this technologies remain the same everywhere.

We need a different point of view in providing those who are desperate in need of drinkable water with fresh water.  In stead of shipping water, we can use natural ecological system. We don't actually have to implement the infrastructure that cannot be burned by developing countries.

 There is plenty of water available as long as we can purify water in the river into drinkable and fresh water.  Michael Prichard, advocator of  life saver bottle, asserts that we need provide people with technologies that enable them to get purified water by them selves rather than huge infrastructure.

All we gotta do is to implement straw.

As well as the life saver bottle, the same technologies in jerry can process 25,000 water meaning that family of four can employ this technology for as long as three years.   This is simply enough. Plus, it only cost, 1/2 cent per day. Technologically speaking, this technology pores are only 15nm, which the smallest bacteria and virus.  Previous technologies was filtering down to about 200 nm which actually allow the smallest bacteria and several viruses to get through the holes. Given that nothing can go through the hole of life sever bottle, people can turn to this bottle. People in Haiti, for example, spend a several hours a day to get water.  For the most part, however,  water available tends to be contaminated. The same water is used for doing dishes, doing laundries, and drinking.   People are forced to drink this contaminated water knowing that this will cause them to have serious disease. In fact, drinking dirty water is the most major causes of the child mortality.

UK government is spending £ 12 billion on foreign aid.  It can be argued that they are spending money on wrong stuff at the expense of many people's life. By making use of technologies, unnecessary decease and death can be avoided. In my view point, this technology shed light on development of infrastructure. In the face of serious shortage of water, waiting for infrastructure to be built might prove problem. Importance of stable provision of water would be the same regardless of countries. However, in case of emergency, such as when local public system was paralysed by natural disaster like flood, people who are at risk need to get access clean water as soon as possible.  Likewise, in the region where people are suffering from extreme poverty,  they are desperately in need of clean water. They need this tiny device more than infrastructure in the short run.  Therefore, in accordance with the purpose of aid, we seriously put more emphasis on this kind of technological breakthrough.

Naoya Saito

Rich culture of Africa: Music

This is for the youth who are interested in Africa. Music in Africa has an distinctive art that we cannot find anywhere in the world. I was hoping by understanding Africa through music which is a common sound everywhere, Africa will not be all about the negative image.

If someone asks you about Africa, what would you tell them?

I would definitely talk about the rich culture of music in Africa, how talented they are.

Bobby McFerrin was surely the first person who inspired me to African culture when I was a little kid.

Even though McFerrin is an African-American vocalist, listening to the 'Flight of the Bumblebee' in the album he recorded with Yo-Yo ma, it showed the talent that many people will not be able to have.

Nowadays, many singers who are originally from Africa are getting attention from the teens in the United States especially as rappers; for example, Senegalese rapper Akon and K'naan who was born in Somalia.

However, the problem is the lack of information about African music.

Yes, we know that these singers are from Africa and very talented because of their home country but nothing else.

Therefore, this project will give the opportunity to spread the African music culture to those who are interested in music or Africa's culture.

I've been taking African music courses in the School of Oriental and African Studies which I hope will help my research in Tanzania.

There is a traditional music genre called 'taarab' which is especially popular in Tanzania and Kenya.

Taarab music reflects many of the cultures throughout East Africa and other region but it is well-known as a wedding music or music for social gathering rituals.

When comparing the taarab music with the West African music especially in Mali, it shows similar characteristics such as the up tempo rhythm and dancing type of music which reminds of Youssou N'Dour but with women vocal.

Also, there are Tanzania instruments that I would like to listen to (or play) when I travel to Tanzania like ilimba which is a thumb piano.

Music is a deep culture in Africa so there are many useful resources.

However, it is difficult to explain them without listening to them, therefore I would link some of the videos from YouTube.

(Youtube can be one of the very useful website in order to search about African music)

This is my first time seeing someone so confident in singing without making sure the tune before singing.

This music shares a similar sound with the one above even it is the music from the West Africa.

Asako Sato

Gender Equality in Tanzania

Gender equality has been one of its major aims for the government of Tanzania since its independence in 1961. The constitution prohibits gender-based discrimination, and the government has ratified various international and regional agreements and conventions dealing with gender issues⁽¹⁾. However, the equality in gender is yet to be achieved in the country.

According to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap report in 2010, Tanzania is ranked 66^th out of the 134 countries surveyed in the study. Although this research has some limitations on its scope, it gives us some insight into the problems surrounding women in Tanzania. It is remarkable that the percentage of enrolment in primary and secondary education and labour force participation does not show much difference among men and women. However, even though they have a same opportunity on the basic level, the research suggests that women is unlikely to have access to higher education or highly skilled employment. The percentage of legislators, senior officials, and managers of women to men is 16 to 83, and the enrolment in tertiary education is 1 to 2. Other ratings such as political empowerment is making a progress, though Ananilea Nkya of Tanzania Media Women Association (TAMWA) told the Citizen (Tanzania's English newspaper) that equal number in representation does not necessarily mean that women gained power⁽²⁾. Moreover, she criticised the government that the good policies for women empowerment are not being well budgeted and performed⁽³⁾.

However, underachievement of gender equality cannot simply be attributed to failure of the government policy implementation. Social Institutions and Gender Index by OECD Development Centre suggests the practice of customary and Islamic Sharia laws by judicial authorities results in limitation of legal protection for women⁽⁴⁾. For example, despite the government's adoption of the Land Act and Law of Marriage Act which granted Tanzanian women the right to have access to properties, customary and Islamic laws that undermine these rights prevail within the community and thus the ownership rights of women are strictly restricted. This hinders women's opportunity to engage in economic sector. Other practices, such as girls' early marriage, polygamy and female genital mutilation (FGM) are also traditions and are still common in Tanzania. The tradition is deep-rooted and cannot be criticised easily. Even though the government were to call for gender equality, we have to bear in mind that both men and women are closely surrounded by the society which retains various values.

Ayumi Kyoe

(1)International level: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action, Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW), Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number 3 and 5, Southern African Development Community (SADC) Declarations on Gender and Development and the Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (EGA) (UNFPA: http://countryoffice.unfpa.org/tanzania/2009/09/14/1301/gender/ , accessed 02/03/2011)

(2)http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/news/4-national-news/4997 (accessed 02/03/2011)

(3)http://www.genderlinks.org.za/article/tanzania-drops-in-gender-equality-ranks-2010-10-09 (accessed 02/03/2011)

(4)http://genderindex.org/country/tanzania (accessed 02/03/2011)

References

OECD Development Centre (http://www.oecd.org/document/23/0,3746,en_2649_33935_36225815_1_1_1_1,00.html)

UNFPA Gender Equality (http://www.unfpa.org/gender/)

World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report (http://www.weforum.org/issues/global-gender-gap)

Tanzanian Medical Situation

     45%→55.6%
What are these numbers?? The former is Tanzanian life expectancy in 1965 and the latter is the one in 2008 (The World Bank). Considering that World average life expectancy rose from 55.7% to 68.9% in the same period, it could be said the health care policy had achieved success at a certain level. However, there is room for improvement. This article tries to report the current situation briefly.

     The health policy has been influenced by political and development elements(detail: access to http://herkules.oulu.fi/isbn9514264312/html/x325.html). Tanzanian health facilities were mainly offered by the government. The main aim is to distribute the hospitals properly. This matters crucially because it is estimated that in Tanzania 70% of the population live in rural areas(http://www.tanzania.go.tz/health.html).

     The serious problems are following. As WHO points out, we can see the insufficiencies of human, financial and materials to provide essential health services. Whilst the solution of this problem is suggested in the The Health Sector Reforms Programme of Tanzania, the access to health care is also related to the distribution of income.The HIV infection rate in Tanzania was recorded as 7% in 2004 (2003 -2004 Indicator Survey, National AIDS Control Programme). This is quite high compared to the (about) 0.8 percent infection rate of the world (WHO). Another crucial issue is high prevalence of malnutrition: 21.8% underweight, 37.7% stunting of children(WHO).

     The role of women in Tanzanian health care improvement should be noted as well. I would take Medical Women Association of Tanzania (MEWATA) as an example here. MEWATA is an organisation established in 1987 'to address some of the issues of women’s health, to promote interests of women in the medical profession, to assist the development of promising young women professionals and to advance the health care of women and children.' They work in three thematic areas: 1Reproductive Health & Rights(eg.Breast & Cervical Cancer, gender inequality), 2HIV/AIDS and 3Health professional and institutional advancement(eg.shortage of human resource. women's career advancement).
     Practically they have conducted Breast Cancer Walk to enhance awareness about health and participated in National HIV testing Campaign. Likewise with grant from Japan, they will construct Well Woman Clinic in Dar es salaam.

     As it was discussed above, even though they have some tasks, there are some movements to try to solve this problems. Grass roots have also played important roles as well. I would like to write another article to focus on different aspects of Tanzanian medical situation in one of these days.

*If you are interested in traditional heals, this material would be helpful: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8348785

Kei Funakoshi

References
International Medical and Technological Universityhttp://www.imtu.edu/researchpolicy.htm
The government announcement (http://www.tanzania.go.tz/health.html)
MEWATA (http://mewata.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1)
World Bank (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN?cid=GPD_10)

The role of education in developing countries-Part One-

Education has always been playing a significant role in developing a country. Without a qualitative education, states could hardly be politically and economically sustainable, and also the education makes people’s life easier in terms of health, technology, rights and status of women and other elements that construct a society. The Millennium Development Goal 2 declared to achieve universal primary education. ‘Ensure that all children, both boys and girls, are able to attend and complete a full course of primary schooling.’ 

Tanzania where the number of children at primary school has dramatically increased has shown a potential of achieving the MDG. Since 1995, Tanzanian government has worked to improve its country’s education level, and by 2002 tuition fee for primary school was abolished and the government made school compulsory. Although enrolment of children aged 7 to 13 at primary school was 59% in 2000, it has risen to 95.4% in 2010. This substantial growth has proven a high potential of the government, and the government now believes that the MDG can be achieved in the near future. Despite the hope for the bright future of the country, Tanzania still has problems with education. The number of children who enrol in primary school has increased, the quality of education is, however, still doubtful.

Although enrolment of children at primary schools in Tanzania is 95.4%, it is said that the real enrolment figure is 77% and of these about 20% completes primary education. Now we have to look at the quality of education systems in Tanzania.

One of the causes that prevent children from schools is the cost for schools. Since Local Government Reform Act of 1998, local school committees gained responsibilities to organize primary education, and less developed regions have been given preferences in opening secondary schools or receiving assistance to do so. However, 18.7% of the population in Tanzania live on less than $1 per day and many parents in district areas want their children to stay home and help their work. In addition, because tuition fee for primary education was abolished, parents are expected to contribute to other costs, such as uniform, a cooker for lunch, the cost of the school guards, in some schools, a donation to the Aids bereavement fund for pupils who have lost one or more parents. Even after tuition fee for primary education was abolished, parents still have to be able to cover other costs for schools. 

Another cause that makes children out of school is a security for children, especially girls. Some female students have to walk more than a mile to get to their school, and on their way, they have to be careful of rapists. If they become pregnant, they have to leave school and can never come back as punishment under the Tanzanian law. Toilets in schools are mixed and often without doors causing girls embarrassment especially when they hit puberty. In rural areas, half of the pupils fail to qualify for secondary school and with 3000 girls dropping out because of pregnancy. 

Quantity has been also one of the main problems. School facilities cannot keep up with the need of the massive growth of enrolment; overcrowded classroom, shortage of books, teachers and toilets, corporal punishments, and lack of water and electricity. Now a ration of one teacher is to 63 pupils while UNESCO says it should be one teacher to less than 40 pupils. A cause of the lack of teachers may be that there is a small incentives to become a teacher because people may prefer to become lawyer or a doctor. Of those reasons, it is still difficult that education in Tanzania is decent in terms of quality.

It is significant to look very carefully at quality of education especially in rural areas in which many poor people live in order for them to seek for their own potential that leads to their own country's development, and therefore their own lives.

The gap of the government's recognition of the quality of education and civilian's recognition of those will be the next focus.

Junki Nitta

Reference

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/mar/10/schools-worldwide-tanzania
http://www.nationmaster.com/time.php?stat=edu_chi_out_of_sch_pri&country=tz
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2010/sep/14/mdg2-education-tanzania
http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/2010/feb/23/primary-education-africa
http://www.tanzania.go.tz/educationf.html

How important is economic integration in East African countries - introduction-

10 years after the establishment of the East African Community, it collapsed for various reasons in 1997. One of the reasons was because of difficulty in balancing the power of countries. Kenya, for instance, demanded to exert more influence in decision-making process. Another reason was that they had different ideologies for economic system. While Tanzanian government preferred more socialistic system, Kenyan government sought capitalism for example. Likewise, it was challenging to integrate the East African economy without political integration at that time. However, East African community revived again after a gap of more than 20 years.

Some, especially among politicians who are old enough to remember the previous experience, are still skeptical about the integration of East African countries. However, process for economic integration is moving forward dramatically. One of the key issues being discussed in terms of economic integration is Custom union. Custom union is regarded as the third stage of the economic integration. Therefore, it is very crucial for East African Community to establish custom union in order to achieve further economic integration. In principle, three conditions have to be met in order to achieve custom union. First of all, they need to have common external tariffs on import from other country. Secondly, among member countries, trade transactions have to be done under the same procedure. Thirdly, trades between member’s countries need to be without tariffs.

As of now, there is still much room for improvement for custom union of East African community. They set the common external tariffs on imports from non-member country, but they still have quite a few exceptions. These exceptions have to be reduced to achieve more integrated economy. Nevertheless, economic integration still remains important and need to be driven forward given that it can foster the investment for public goods, especially infrastructure, within East African Community. This might realise the economic growth and reduction of poverty.

Following articles will explore in detail about economic integration currently ongoing in this region.

Naoya Saito

reference

 

http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/download/100.pdf

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/worldview/100302/east-africa-integration

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/east/East-Africa-to-Begin-Economic-Integration-Thursday-97334219.html