Returning to Tanzania in 2011

Reflections – November 3, 2010

Lasting change or dependency?
The question above is often raised these days about efforts to help the impoverished in places like Africa. How do we make certain what we do results in “Real Good, not Feel Good” support (this is the title of a very interesting paper by Martin Fisher of KickStart. If you would like a copy we can email one to you.)

WellShare, the organization we have volunteered with in Tanzania (East Africa) the last two years, has had their project evaluated twice by outside parties, and the reports were highly favorable. In addition, the feedback about our efforts the last two trips has led us to understand we have been able to make a real difference. And so, we are returning to Tanzania this coming January.

Our experience over the past 2 years has been very educational. We began preparing for our first trip to Tanzania by reading about the country and culture, including novels. This background gave us some idea of what life would be like there.

Our first two months were spent understanding the project, getting familiar with our new “home” and spending time in remote villages to see the project’s work on the ground. Having lived in Africa most of her adult life, Jolene, the country director, was a wealth of knowledge. We learned a great deal about Africa, Tanzania, development work, culture and government. Our work focused on helping to create income generation skills for young single mothers. We created tools and materials to help educate them on how to run and organize their small ventures.

These first two months helped us understand we needed to learn so much more if we were to have a bigger impact. There were the seeds of some ideas on income generating activities that might work for the young village women, but we needed to do more research to try to determine what might be viable. Another focus was trying to locate other NGOs working in Africa who could share their expertise and perhaps partner with us. While in Tanzania we had started reading about the issues around aid and development. We learned a lot about unintended negative consequences that can result when individuals or organizations try to help solve a village problem. This pursuit continued when we got back. We found that many experts believe that the dependency caused by aid is the reason Africa continues to be so poor. Sustainability is the key to effective aid, and is so often missing.

Aid and good intentions can create lots of problems that are not understood by those of us who have little experience in these countries. Sending cases of some product, say for illustration purposes, soap, seems like a worthwhile endeavor for those in the rich world trying to make life easier for village people. But what is probably not understood is that such a move may put the local soap producer out of business. Local livelihoods are lost and when the soap is gone there is no local producer to provide this product for the village. One must always question the impacts of any action taken with the intention of hoping to solve a village problem. Organizations sometimes come in to provide a solution without working with the villagers to identify problems the locals see and would like solved. In addition to ascertaining what the villagers want, adequate education must go with the solution. Without a sense of ownership and understanding of maintenance requirements, the village may get a new latrine, cistern or well, but no one will know how to maintain it and it will not be used. We were shocked to find out about the many unused wells in Africa despite the tremendous need for water.

As a result, we believed it was very important for these young women to have financial literacy, skills in the specific area of their project, along with marketing and business understanding so they would be empowered and truly prosper. One of the NGOs we met with in California seemed to be a good fit, but it wasn’t clear that they would be willing to work in our Karatu. During our second year in our district, through both purposeful and chance meetings, we were able to find some good connections with NGOs working in Karatu to get this process started. Because of our research, we were clear about how any partner organizations would have to function.

We discovered the importance of flexibility too. When we left here this January we had some ideas of what might be worthwhile projects. But once we got there, asked lots (and lots) of questions, and did the local research, we found that these ideas were just not feasible at this time. We did go with the intention of trying to find local partners and that is the piece that ended up working. We found it was important not to fall in love with our ideas because it is too easy to try to make something work that will not be sustained.

Sustainability
One of the WellShare staff spoke last year of his commitment to the organization. He said he had seen other groups that came and went with not much lasting effect. He felt WellShare was really making a lasting difference in people’s lives because they were thoroughly educating people, improving their health and behaviors, and that knowledge and change would stay with them and their villages long after WellShare was gone. We applied the same criteria. How will our efforts change lives over the long-term? How do we make ourselves unnecessary to these young women? How do we empower them to improve their own lives? When the WellShare project ends and the staff are gone will these women still have improved lives that impact their children and even their villages?

As an example, one type of project we are working to partner with is Farmer Field Schools, which are run by a couple of NGOs in Karatu. These projects provide extensive training in farming but the approach is classic adult education—the individuals in the group, with support from trained farmers, generate ideas or experiments to determine what will or will not work. They also form buying and selling groups to get better prices. So in addition to learning about farming practices to improve yields, they feel empowered, learn how to work together and see the importance of cooperative marketing and purchasing.

These basic life and business skills have been shown to carry over into other areas of village life. The participants have improved lives on many fronts as a result of having participated in this training. We heard of one evaluation that found family violence declined for those participating in this training since half of the group must be women and they now were viewed with respect. Once the NGO leaves, the skills learned and the new ways of working will stay as part of village life and have ongoing impact.

This is the kind of solution we wanted to be able to provide to these young women. And, it appears we are on the way to doing this. We feel very fortunate to have found an organization that has given us so much encouragement to explore efforts not in their original mission.


What about you?
If you are drawn to international volunteering, be clear about what you want to get out of it. For example, there are many wonderful organizations that offer international volunteer experiences whose major purpose is cross-cultural understanding. In evaluating any endeavor where you are looking to have positive impact, you should consider: need to ask: “Is what I am doing something that could be done by local people who need the work, if I just sent the money so they could be hired?”

With Habitat for Humanity the local people are required to put in sweat equity beside the international volunteers, creating a very powerful program. But we were in Peru after the earthquake and saw local men sitting around the square with nothing to do while the international volunteers were rebuilding. Two other important questions: “Will the people be left with any skills or resources that allow them to support themselves, change their lives, etc. without ongoing outside support?” “When the NGO leaves the location, will the benefits be sustainable or will they end?”

Now What?
Well, we are returning to Tanzania this January for 10 weeks to continue our efforts with the young women. We have found out that in four remote villages the microsavings organization we connected with is providing training in financial literacy and the women are saving for their projects, and other successes are blooming as well. There are 48 villages in the district, so there is still a lot of work to do. We will try to find other local groups or individuals who can help these women start and manage viable businesses.

Several people have asked about making a financial contribution. We would like to be able to provide the seed money for farmer trainers, seeds, chickens, etc. For example, we have estimated that it would take about $200-$300 to fund a village’s farmer field school for about 30 people. It seems such a small price to change a village’s life. If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution, please send it to:

WellShare International
122 West Franklin Avenue, Suite 510
Minneapolis, MN 55404

Please make certain the memo line says: "Tanzania STGs"

If it is easier, our you would rather send the check to us, that is fine also. However, please still make the check to WellShare with the memo line shown. Our address is 2010 Yorkshire Ave. St. Paul, MN 55116.

We will then be able to draw from that account as needed while we are there. In our blog we will write about how and where the money is specifically used. When we get home, pictures will be posted on line and, with luck, we may even be able to mark the locations on Google Earth!