Improving the Odds for Success Through Enriched Education Opportunities Like TEC

You might be able to imagine that getting an education in Tanzania could be a challenge. If you are a girl and if your family has little income, the challenge increases. If you belong to the Maasai tribe, it increases yet again. If you live in a rural area, triple the challenge. As a Canadian-born and educated woman, I can say that those of us living in this part of the world really have no idea what girls and women in Africa go through daily to realize their dreams of being educated.

Education opportunities have changed greatly for these three generations - mother, daughter, grandmother.

Developing countries are doing what the name says - developing. When I visit Tanzania it feels like systems and structures are about 50 years behind what we enjoy in the western world. There are many examples but I am thinking of things like health care, transportation and roads, and education. We can "see" inside so much of the world today thanks to wonders like the internet and smart phones and cable television. Watching news coverage of stories in places like Africa do you sometimes find yourself asking, how can people live like that? or why don't they change? or what's wrong with them?

Well, there is nothing wrong with Africans. They are developing and changing just as other countries have. They are facing enormous challenges and can use all the help they can get from those of us who have progressed through the development phases before them.

These girls thrive when given the opportunities for enriched education Canadian girls have. 

Receiving education is crucial to development and, while any education has the potential to open future possibilities for us, good quality education that provides both learning and confidence makes the greatest difference. Looking at the report cards of many students in Tanzania, some might be prompted to ask, what's wrong with these students? or why aren't they succeeding? We might falsely conclude that Tanzanians are not as smart as we are. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

The girls TEMBO sponsors are just like Canadian girls in secondary school. Except for a few differences: they live in rural villages in a country that is still developing, including the education system and teacher preparation; most of their families are economically very poor and secondary school is not free; they belong to the Maasai tribe where formal education has not been part of the culture and, if a family can send a child to school it is usually a boy; there are very few syllabus books for students to share; and all subjects taught in secondary school are taught in English - a third language the students have had very little exposure to - after speaking the Maa language at home and Swahili in primary school. I could go on about the hurdles Tanzanian girls have to face but I think you get the picture.

Mary Laiser does all the on the ground preparations in Tanzania for TEC.

Four years ago I was having a conversation during a project visit with Mary Laiser, one of the TEMBO staff  very involved in the education program. We were concerned about the failing grades of many of the girls and wanted to do something to help them succeed. We decided to offer the girls a chance to receive tutoring during their one month break in June. Mary made arrangements for the girls to be accommodated in Longido and be instructed by one of the teachers. The first week went well then the girls began skipping classes and failing the tests. We ended the program after the second week. The program was not what they needed and too much like what they got during the school year. The girls went back to school after the break and little changed.

I talked with Marian Roks, one of the TEMBO co-founders, and a life long teacher. I knew Marian had coordinated summer camps for many years for deaf students in Ottawa. These camps were both rich learning opportunities and enjoyable experiences her students looked forward to each year. Could something like this ever work in Tanzania? Why not, we concluded, since students are the same everywhere.

Marian Roks and some of the girls dressed in orange to celebrate
the Netherlands success in the 2010 Fifa  World Cup.

You need to know about TEC - the TEMBO English Camp - developed by Marian and Virginia Taylor. Virginia is on the Project TEMBO Board of Directors in Canada and she is also an instructor in the ESL Teacher Training Program at Carleton University in Ottawa. TEC takes place for three weeks in June, half a world away, and I am sure that, if you listen closely, you can hear and feel the joy it exudes right across the Atlantic Ocean. It's a program delivered entirely in English that we believe is really making a difference for the girls TEMBO sponsors. It's part formal instruction shaped around the girls' school curriculum; part informal instruction through activities like the camera club, or cooking, or sports and games; and a whole lot of fun that takes place through interactions and conversations with Marian, Virginia, and the growing number of Canadian volunteers taking part in TEC.

Virginia Taylor with two of the proud TEC graduates in 2010, the inaugural year.

Recently, Marian, Virginia, and I met for coffee at Bridgehead Coffee House in Ottawa to talk about the June 2012 TEC program. The lesson planning has been well under way for a number of weeks with Canadian teachers and volunteers both in university and older. We talked about exciting new ideas to incorporate into the evolving TEC program, including important suggestions from Mary and Paulina in Tanzania. This year student teachers from Mt Meru University and in Teacher Training programs will be involved. It's part of the vision TEMBO has of making this education support program sustainable. Another addition will be including 15 students from Kimokouwa and Longido Primary Schools in a "Pre-TEC" program. This will allow TEMBO to help students become comfortable at reading and speaking English before they get to secondary school.

TEC has grown to the point that it would not be possible without the involvement of so many in Canada and the time, skills, and coordination of Mary Laiser and other TEMBO staff in Tanzania. This year we are especially grateful to the Ontario Teachers' Federation for a $5000.00 donation for TEC program expenses.

The education system in Tanzania is developing. Many feel it is not happening quickly enough. In February students at Ketumbeine Secondary School - where some of TEMBO's sponsored girls attend - "rioted" in protest of the poor quality teaching they were receiving. They publicly drew attention to an important reality: it is very difficult for rural schools in Tanzania to attract well trained teachers. This is not to say there are not good teachers in the countryside - it's just that there are very few of them.

All of us believe that the girls TEMBO sponsors can and will do better academically with help we can provide. We've got a lot to share thanks to the abundant and varied education opportunities we've had. And if some girls in Tanzania can gain confidence - through an enjoyable enriched learning program - that will help them do better in the classroom, then the time and effort running the TEC program is a very good investment.

The Slow and Steady Progress of One Small Project

Oyaya has years of experience and training to share with the KWGP women.

Here in Canada I can only stir up images of Tanzania, half a world away. But this is not difficult for me to do. I need only close my eyes and so many people flood through my mind. Today it is the women in the KWGP (Kimokouwa Women’s Goat Project.)  I am sure I am thinking goats because it is spring, or spring-like, in this part of the world where I live. It’s the time for renewal and rebirth and for new life bursting forth from the dark and cold of winter, and in very unexpected places.

I am transported back to Kimokouwa by looking at a photo I took of Oyaya, one of the coordinators of the KWGP, in early August 2011, during a seminar for the women in the goat project.  He is sitting in the soft late-afternoon light holding a baby goat on his lap as he smiles reflectively. Oyaya was unaware I was taking this photo from inside a nearby hut so he did not have time to be shy, as he might have been. Inside a small room in the Montessori School in Kimokouwa, women have been meeting all week to share ideas about goat care and where they might find food during the ongoing and worsening drought they have been experiencing for over six years. One of the women nursing a two month old child tells the others she planted some maize (corn) outside her boma and this helped her a great deal. First the maize and then the stalks provided sustenance. Others talked about places they had found food in the parched countryside and around the foot of Mt Longido. This kind of sharing provides hope for the women.

One of the young boys who takes care of the goats during the day.

The KWGP is one of the newer TEMBO initiatives and it forms an integral part of the Micro-Business arm of TEMBO (Tanzania Education and Micro-Business Opportunity.) The project was tailor made to suit the needs of the women in Kimokouwa where micro-business loans proved to be unsuccessful due to a lack of commerce in this very traditional Maasai village. The goat project enjoys widespread support from the women, their husbands, the village leaders, TEMBO Trust in Tanzania, and Project TEMBO donors in Canada.

The KWGP began in September 2010 with the first 15 women each receiving two pregnant female goats to raise. The ‘Isiolo’goats are a particularly hardy breed known for being drought tolerant, a very important consideration since Kimokouwa spends a good part of the year in severe drought. Each woman gives her first born female goat to another woman so the project will eventually be sustained from within. Male goats will be sold once they are a year old with the women keeping 90% of the money and the other 10% put in a bank account to help with expenses.

Oyaya is one of two TEMBO staff dividing his time between providing security at the TEMBO Guesthouse as an askari or watchman, and using husbandry skills to help the goat project succeed. Oyaya has some veterinary training which comes in very handy. Sanjoy, also a TEMBO security staff and a traditional Maasai herder, shares the task of visiting the groups weekly to provide assistance to the women, and to track the growth of the project.

Medicine is carried in a plastic pouch and dosages are recorded.

Sanjoy goes up the hill to give a dose of medicine to a goat.

Talk about new life springing from dark places! Not much can survive in Kimokouwa but these goats are proving to be the exception.  The KWGP is now entering the second tier or program level. The first 30 goats have now grown into close to 60 making it possible for new women to join the project. Females are being passed on to new members and the males are ready to be sold at the weekly market with most of the income going to the women.

I have travelled with Oyaya and Sanjoy by motor bike around the foot of Mt. Longido to Kimokouwa early in the morning, as day is breaking, to visit some of the women. We need to get there before the goats are led out to graze for the day by the young boys. It is a chance for me to get first hand accounts from the women about how the goats are making a difference in their lives. On the visits Oyaya and Sanjoy often dispense medicine to sick goats. They are in close contact by cell phone with the women between visits so they are kept up to date on not only sicknesses and other challenges, but also good news stories and pregnancies. I was with Sanjoy one day when he received a call from a very distraught woman saying a cheetah had taken one of her goats. In fact, it was a goat that had regularly provided so much milk for her family. Times like this serve as a constant reminder that the women share life and space with wild animals always on the lookout for food, especially during times of drought. In cases like this, or when a goat dies due to unavoidable sickness, TEMBO will replace a goat during the first year.

More than 40 women, many with babies, attended a 4 day workshop
 on goat care in August 2011.

The women talk of having milk for their children and this is one of the immediate benefits, and a plus. Having a couple of litres of milk to mix with maize flour to make porridge in the morning can feed many. This may be the only food some have until nightfall. We did not calculate this into the possible gains a woman would receive when we began the project. We focused on the income she would receive once or twice a year when the goats were sold for food. The women are also proud to be able to “own” something in a culture where it is the men who typically have this right. The men promised they would allow the women to use the proceeds from the sale of the goats to feed their families and they are doing this.

The KWGP is enjoying success and this is due, in large part, to the hard work and dedication of Oyaya and Sanjoy. The women aren’t the only ones who take pride in this project. You can see it in the eyes of these two men and hear it in story after story they tell about their interactions with the women and their goats. You can see it, too, when Oyaya proudly shows us a certificate he received when he attended a course to further his knowledge of veterinary medicine - his initiative and his expense - at an agricultural college during his annual leave. All of the women of TEMBO, including me, are deeply greatful to Oyaya and Sonjoy for their commitment to making the KWGP a project that is improving life for so many women and their families in northern Tanzania.

Worlds Apart and Worlds Together

Paulina and Kokoyai in Kimokouwa.

The other day I came across this photo of Paulina, TEMBO Trust Project Coordinator, and Kokoyai, a young mother living in Kimokouwa I have known since she was 10 years old. The photo is a couple of years old - Paulina, who usually wears Western-style clothing, now has her head shaved, like Kokoyai. At a glance it's a photo of two young traditional Maasai women. If you've visited the TEMBO project area you know these women live very different lives - actually "worlds apart." Still, both play a very important part in the telling of the story of TEMBO and the work we do. I find myself thinking how these two women live "worlds together," too, each telling an important part of a larger story. It's a story about evolution, modernity, and the oh so fragile balancing act of moving forward in a world changing at lightening speed while still being true to a cultural heritage filled with richness and beauty. How will they keep it all together?

In Kimokouwa, Kokoyai is part of the Maasai people who choose to live a very traditional lifestyle. Though they cannot follow the rains to graze large herds of cattle like they once did, due to government laws restricting their movement, the people still live in mud huts, eat a simple diet, dress in colourful shukas, and observe tribal norms and customs. Kokoyai attended Kimokouwa Primary School, as mandated by the government, and she and her father opted for Kokoyai to marry when she finished Standard Seven rather than continue her education. She and her husband, Philipo, currently have two boys. According to custom, Philipo is free to have as many wives as he wants. Kokoyai  also belongs to the KWGP (Kimokouwa Women's Goat Project), coordinated by TEMBO Trust.

The power stick carried by men, now with the pen representing education.

Paulina grew up in a Maasai boma near Mt. Kilimanjaro where observing traditional customs and practices was very important for her father, too. He wanted Paulina to marry after primary school. Paulina wanted desperately to continue her education. With the help of her mother, her brother, and others Paulina succeeded in completing secondary school and earned a full scholarship to the University of Dar es Salaam. Paulina's father attended her graduation ceremony and gave her a pen and a notebook as a gift, symbolizing his wish for her to continue to study, if it was her wish. He had come a long way and was embracing change.

Over the years, I have observed striking images expressing the reality that the Maasai are struggling to hold two realities, two worlds together. The world of the 21st century is knocking at the door of the Maasai in Tanzania. It is a tenuous time filled with tremendous possibilities and wrought with danger too. There is a lot at stake. As in any culture, some practices of old need to be discontinued and left behind in order for people to move forward. Women like Paulina, because of the education they have received, have a pivotal role to play in reshaping the new world of the Maasai. Knowing how to change, what to let go of and what to keep, is best done  from within by those who understand and cherish the world of the Maasai. These strong voices must be heard over the noise and values of other societies that threaten to consume and assimilate them as they have done to other tribes and other peoples throughout time.

Receiving a cell phone message: Kokoyai's father, Paulo, is in his 80's and embracing change. 

Kokoyai and the Maasai of Kimokouwa and Longido, and throughout Tanzania, have a right to a traditional life if they so choose. Paulina, and many other educated women and men like her, are using their skills to help keep everything in balance: saying thoughtfully to the Maasai 'yes' keep this, it is good, and 'no' this practice is harmful and outdated and it must go; and to those outside who would exploit or deceive the Maasai they say 'these are our rights by law, our education has taught us so.' Those of us fortunate enough to have been allowed to play a part in this unfolding must only play a supporting role, actively enabling women like Paulina and Kokoyai to take center stage.

Celebrating the Girls and Women of TEMBO

The girls and women I know in Longido and Kimokouwa are some of the strongest and most resilient people I have ever met. This year, on International Women's Day, March 8, I celebrate and give thanks for their lives.

Our lives are worlds apart in many ways. Most Tanzanian women live without the conveniences and blessings I often take for granted: running water, electricity, affordable quality education, good medical care, abundant food, and so much more. It is good that I can leave the comfort of my own life and culture to live in their world when I can. It helps me to put so much in perspective. I always return home feeling so much more grateful for what I have been given simply because I have been born in Canada.

Members of the KWGP group, their husbands, and village leaders.

Since my first visit to Tanzania in July 1998, I have watched little girls grow into beautiful young women and mothers. Some have chosen to remain in their bomas as traditional Maasai; some have had no say in making decisions about their lives; others have had courageous mothers who have pleaded on their behalf that their daughters might go to school; and there is a growing number of girls who have both parents wisely including education opportunities knowing that the world is changing for the Maasai as it is for people everywhere.

And isn't the world in transition? Few on this earth are not caught up in the fast moving current of change knocking at everyone's door. The women I am thinking of today want life for their daughters to be different than it is for them and they are willing to pay a high price to make this happen. They walk miles in search of firewood and water, spend long hours selling foodstuffs under the hot African sun to earn small amounts of money, and have had their lives given value by the number of cattle their husbands have "paid" for them.

Penina with her mother, daughter, and extended family.

I laud all the girls and women in Longido and Kimokouwa who have the audacity to dream for something better then they have today. I honour the women able to make small positive changes in their homes and families as a result of their participation in the micro-business program. And I honour the girls requesting education sponsorship and working hard to daily overcome great obstacles simply to stay in school.

Future generations will reap the rewards of your hopes and dreams, hard work and quiet sacrifices. And leaders will come from among you, even in your lifetime. I know this because I know you. You are a part of a great momentum composed of so many mothers and daughters all over the world. You are not alone. Happy International Women's Day!

Some of the TEMBO sponsored girls at the TEMBO English Camp, 2011.

Early Pregnancy and Education

The new school year began early in January and TEMBO Trust staff successfully enrolled 18 new girls in Secondary School. If I close my eyes it is so easy to see their faces even though I was not in Tanzania when they were selected. Physically the girls are very small, in so many ways still children with their whole lives ahead of them. Since they passed the mandatory Standard Seven Leaving Exam at the end of Primary School, and have qualified to receive sponsorship by TEMBO, the girls now have the opportunity to continue their education. The challenges they will face on this new journey are going to be enormous and the girls deserve all the help we can give them.

Some of the TEMBO sponsored girls.

One of the greatest challenges they will face is avoiding early pregnancy. In Tanzania, if a girl becomes pregnant she will not be admitted to Secondary School. It's an old law that many, both within and outside the education system are trying to change, including TEMBO Trust staff and trustees. To understand the difficulty the girls face you need to understand African culture and, in particular, the Maasai culture. Among the Maasai, sexual activity at a young age is seen to be normal and even welcome. This is especially so in families where parents have received little or no education.

Most of the girls TEMBO sponsors belong to the Maasai tribe that populates the northern part of the country including Longido and Kimokouwa. Like many other African tribes, the Maasai depend upon extended families to sustain their lifestyles. There is a lot of hard work to do. Multiple wives with many children and large cattle herds has been typical until recently. The new reality of continual drought is prompting many Maasai to now switch to herding goats. Nonetheless, the children participate in caring for the animals. While the young boys are with the herds the young girls are helping run the households – walking long distances each day to fetch firewood and water, caring for the young, cooking and keeping the boma tidy. Add in the reality of early death - often in the mid 40's - and it's clear that large families are a way of ensuring there is always a ready workforce.

There is an alternative to girls simply following in the footsteps of their mothers and remaining traditional Maasai. It is formal education. In fact, many women want their daughters to be educated and have lives different than theirs. More and more, Maasai men are allowing their daughters to attend secondary school. Common practice is if a girl receives sponsorship she will be allowed to go to school, and if a girl is in school she will not be given in marriage to a man. For the most part this works and girls are protected from early marriages – at least until they finish Form 4 or Grade 12. But not always.

Sponsorship includes providing everything for living at boarding school

At the beginning of January 2012, the new school year, three of the girls TEMBO has been sponsoring have been turned away from school because of pregnancy. The girls returned to their bomas to give birth. For most girls in this situation, the next step will be marriage to an older man in exchange for cattle given to the father of the girl. Guess what? These girls are not some small exception. Consider these statistics from the website The Elders:

• Every day, it is estimated that more than 25,000 girls under the age of 18 are married. 
• 100 million more girls – around 10 million each year – will become child brides over the next decade.
•  In the developing world, one in three girls is married before she is 18; one in seven before she is 15.
•  A girl under the age of 15 is five times more likely to die in childbirth than a woman in her twenties.

These numbers are staggering! They also have names and faces. If at all possible, TEMBO will look for a private school to send the girls to to continue their education. This will depend upon whether or not money is available since private school sponsorships are a much more expensive option. 

Girls are learning to speak for themselves.

There is hope for change and in the next post you will hear about small actions that are making a big difference.