Resilience

Merikenoi with her father, in Kimokouwa

Today I am thinking of resilience and of indomitable spirits. How could it be otherwise with news of the first trip abroad for Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar since 1988. On this trip she is scheduled to be presented in Norway with the Nobel Peace Price she was awarded in 1991 but unable to pick up since she has been under house arrest until her release in November 2010. The shining example of people like Suu Kyi cannot be overstated during a time when so much bad news abounds.

The Africa I know is full of people who are characterized by this perennial quality of resilience. History has shown that no matter how much Africans have been oppressed, exploited, or subjugated by other humans; or how much their resource-filled land has been depleted by the need to survive, or by disasters that are either natural or the result of human activity, tens of millions of people, on this continent where life began, somehow find the grit to get up each day and begin again.

It is easy to forget that these tens of millions of people are made up of individuals just like us who have families and dreams for themselves and for their children. No matter where on this earth we find ourselves, or what colour our skin is, or what our religious beliefs are or our economic status is, we are all the same.

Women walk miles to gather firewood

A couple of years ago, during a time of persistent drought there was no water in the villages. Water trucks came regularly to Longido from Arusha – 100 kilometres away, or Namanga, Kenya – 30 kilometres away. People lined up with their brightly coloured plastic buckets to purchase what they could afford for their families. Joyce, who had saved some money from part-time work TEMBO had given her to do, knew her parents would be unable to afford clean water because her father had been injured and unable to work. So she purchased and arranged for water to be delivered to them, 13 kilometers away. My mind is full of images of women with bent bodies carrying home large bundles of heavy branches they have walked long distances to collect in order to cook an evening meal for their families. I also know a poor Maasai coco or grandmother who arranged for her granddaughter, Consolata – who lived 12 hours away – to come to Longido when she heard an opportunity for education sponsorship with TEMBO might be available. 

I find it deeply mysterious - what gets people out of bed in the morning, even when it appears that tomorrow will be just the same as today, filled with extreme hardship and little apparent hope – day after day and year after year. Psychologists say there are many factors, including maintaining strong relationships with family and friends. It's also important to have a goal and to take small actions to move toward that goal.

If there is anything I have learned from my Tanzanian friends it is that strong family relationships are valued above most things. We may talk about it a lot in Canada but Africans live as though their life depends on it. And it does. And it really does make a visible difference when it comes to meeting the countless obstacles they must overcome each day. Simply feeding and providing water for their families is the very real goal for so many women in Longido and Kimokouwa. In years to come, it will be up to their daughters who are now receiving education to address the structures that seem to make rightful access to food and water so difficult to achieve today. Having role models like Aung San Suu Kyi, and their mothers, will help.

Lost in the Blogosphere

A`beautiful sunset over the Serengeti

I am on the road now, nine hours from home. I spent some time over the last couple of days preparing the latest blog entry. I worked, as I often do, from Starbucks, and saved, previewed, then uploaded the post yesterday. This morning when I logged on, behold, no new post. I am over the frustration now and the self imposed pressure to re-create the entry. I can't do it. Next week will be here soon enough and I will be sure to create the post in Word first then copy and paste it into Blogger.

For now, I want to welcome new readers in Angola, Spain, and Sweden. Thanks for your interest in Walking With TEMBO and TEMBO's work in northern Tanzania.

You might want to read the comment this week regarding cell phone technology in Tanzania. It is under the May 9, 2012 post. Thanks to the reader who posted this and furthering our understanding of the important place mobile phones have in the everyday lives of Tanzanians.

Change Within One Generation - It's Possible

"We are fooling ourselves if we think we can improve the lives of the worlds poorest people without talking about the harmful traditional practices that affect millions of girls and women."  

Gro Brundtland and Graca Machel, The Elders 

There has been a lot of talk going on in advance of the G8 Summit being held May 19-20 at Camp David, just outside Washington.The Summit - which includes the heads of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States - will meet to focus on issues of global importance. What should be on the agenda? While so many very important issues could be discussed, there is one that has the potential to positively impact enormous change for so many people within a generation - including TEMBO sponsored girls and women. Will it come up? Sadly, probably not.

Primary schools throughout Tanzania are preparing to graduate students from Standard Seven in a few months. This is the time when students who pass the Standard Seven Leaving Exam become eligible for secondary school, the next important stage in their lives. Many students will be lucky enough to continue their education. For many other very young girls leaving Standard Seven, the next stage in their lives will be very very different. They will be getting married to older men and begin bearing children. These are not abstractions, they are little girls who have names like Neema, Upendo, or Loveness. If I close my eyes I can see their faces. Many will have been in Mary's Sara Juma class when they were in Standard Six. If you ever travelled to Longido or Kimokouwa you will have met some of these girls.

It's not just people like us who are horrified by the thought of mere children becoming wives and mothers. People like Archbishop Desmond Tutu and members of The Elders are among Africans who feel the same way. Archbishop Tutu says he feels as strongly about addressing the issue of child marriages as he felt about abolishing apartheid.

Mary Robinson, one of The Elders and the former President of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, was recently interviewed by Michael Enright of CBC News. In the May 6, 2012 broadcast she says The Elders chose to focus on child brides because it underscores the sense that girls are inferior and second class citizens in the world.  A girl is a commodity worth money that is paid in the form of a dowry. The reality is that the older the girl, the more expensive the dowry. So there is a great incentive for a father to arrange an early marriage so the dowry will not be so high. This year 10 million girls will become child brides and child mothers.

  It occurs to me in a very disturbing way that, if I had been born in many places in Africa, I would have been considered a liability to my father - a thing to be off-loaded as quickly as possible. Those of you in developed countries who are reading this, look at your daughters who are finishing primary school. The same would be true of them. Instead, you are doing everything you possibly can to ensure your daughters have every opportunity to achieve their dreams. In Tanzania - in Longido and Kimokouwa - the dreams of so many girls will not be realized for yet another year. Instead, what they are almost certain to experience now and throughout their lives is poverty, poor health, and inequality. It doesn't have to be this way and it shouldn't be this way.

"The world is now blessed with the biggest generation of girls in history. By ending child marriage, we can empower these girls to fulfil their potential and help to transform communities on an unprecedented scale. We have to start by talking about it."

Gro Bruntland and Graca Machel, The Elders

I hope you will read the informative short article, End Child Marriages Now written by Gro Bruntland, the first female Prime Minister of Norway, and Graca Machel, a former minister of Mozambique. I wish the G8 members would read it, too, then put the very harmful practice of child marriages on the agenda of their next Summit meeting.

For now, I applaud the wise parents -  in Longido, Kimokouwa, and throughout Africa - who are leaving the harmful cultural practice of child marriages in the dust bin of history where it belongs. They are the real change-makers. And I applaud those of you throughout the world choosing to work with organizations like TEMBO to provide secondary school education sponsorship and vocational training sponsorship. You are giving girls just like your daughters an opportunity to achieve their dreams, too. Could there be anything better than this?

A Letter to the People in Longido and Kimokouwa

Dear Friends in Longido and Kimokouwa.

Today I send you greetings on behalf of people all over the world who are reading about you on the Walking With TEMBO blog: people in Finland, United Kingdom, Belgium, Turkey, Latvia, Russia, Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, Malawi, Kenya, United States, Tanzania, and a lot of people in Canada.

It seems that there are people all over the world who are interested in what is happening to you in northern Tanzania. I am not surprised and you should not be surprised either. Even though you live in a rural area with very limited access to things like water, electricity, locally grown food, and good roads, people are aware of you and the joys and challenges you face every day. This is thanks to the internet that gives me the capacity to share stories and photos about your life with people who have phones or computers almost anywhere on earth. Isn't this amazing?

The Maasai also learn about what is happening in the world
by using cell phones that can access the internet.

What is it that your life has to say to others scattered all over so many countries? Well, through an internet journal like this one I am writing, I am able to share things with others that they will not read in the newspaper, or on many other web sites, or in many books or magazines. In this journal, or blog, people get to know you through personal stories. In the world today people hear a lot of news about the difficult life so many others are having in places where there is war or famine or drought or great suffering and poverty. Good people are often overwhelmed by all the needs there are and they ask, what difference does my small contribution make? They conclude their contribution won't really make the situation better and so they turn away.

I believe if others know individuals with names - not just large groups of people with so many needs - they will feel different. After all, your life is not just about difficulties and suffering. It is about courage, resilience, a rich culture, strong families who care about one another, and hope for a better life and dreams for your children that gets you out of bed in the morning. We are the same in many ways and we are also different. This is why I want people to know about you and why I am sharing your stories.

One of the ways we are the same, yet different, is in the area of ICT or Information and Communication Technologies. This week I was reading about the United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Review that took place in South Africa from May 3-4. The article I read was entitled "Skipping Lunch in Order to Afford a Mobile Phone". It said: 

"There are only two and a half years to go until African countries are expected to reach the MDGs, and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) will help the continent achieve this. Through the eight MDGs, countries around the world have committed themselves to significantly curb poverty and hunger, improve education and health, and create environmental sustainability by 2015."

I was very happy to read this article because it talked about what I know to be true: In Africa mobile phones are at the forefront of development initiatives. Your use of this technology is essentially different than how we use mobile phones in the Western world. Of course it is used for business here, but it is heavily used as a means of social interaction. Most people here have never heard of Mpesa and they do not know how many millions of people in Africa without bank accounts use the mobile phone to perform banking services and share money with family members in need.

The article goes on:

"In the slums of Kenya's capital Nairobi, 80 percent of people prefer to skip a lunch so that they can afford having a mobile phone. They are willing to make that trade-off because a mobile phone helps them to optimise their lives in the long term through better access to information and resources, including food. Access to information has become as vital as water and electricity.

We have also seen how cashew nut farmers in Ivory Coast access international market information and prices through their mobile phones to optimise their sales. It works, even if it's just via text messages."

Once, I was visiting Kimokouwa and Paulo was busy using his cell phone while others around him were talking. I learned that he was communicating with someone far away about the burial preparations for someone who had just died. It would not be possible to do the work we do in Longido and Kimokouwa without the use of mobile phones. Often TEMBO staff will call Penina in Kimokouwa to ask her to notify the women about meetings we need to have. And there are other ways that mobile phones are used to improve life:

"Text messaging can, for instance, be used in the health sector to track an epidemic like malaria. There is also the possibility to have free "call me" services or free call numbers. Those are mobile experiences with reduced costs.

There are also examples of training community health workers through text messages ... You can have simple educational quizzes on mobile phones or exchange advice and help with diagnosis between doctors in health centres and community health workers in remote, rural areas. Mobile broadband access will of course bring many more possibilities, such as training of nurses and community health workers on mobile devices, like tablets."

The KWGP - Kimokouwa Women's Goat Project - involves women who live in very remote areas. When the goats they are raising get sick, cell phones allow the women to call Oyaya or Sanjoy in Longido to talk about what to do to help the goats. I know that people living in the bomas can notify others when dangerous animals are in the area. TEMBO KWGP Coordinators were able to arrange for goat sales recently when 10 goats were sold from the project.

Oyaya has been trained to provide veterinary care to goats.
A mobile phone allows him to provide valuable assistance to the women
even though they live in very remote areas.

It is very important to share news like this so that those living in Canada or the US or Europe see how a technology we use here so often for social communication is used for so much more in Tanzania and throughout Africa. If we don't share these stories misunderstandings can happen. I have talked to North Americans who wonder why Tanzanians spend money on cell phones when they cannot afford to feed their families. Well, now they know that cell phones can actually help parents better feed their children and ensure school fees get paid.

The ways that so many of you in Tanzania and throughout Africa are utilizing mobile phone technology are well documented on the internet. I want to direct Walking With TEMBO readers to a couple of web sites where they can learn more about how important mobile phones are to Africans: the bank in the phone and the mobile wallet revolution. This second link asks the question, "Can the developing world teach the developed world a think or two about technology?"

You sure can. And about a few other things, too. I hope the world keeps reading about your remarkable lives.

A Village Photo Tour

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words. It's true when it comes to describing Longido and Kimokouwa. In today's blog post I want you to get a feel for the places I write about - the place where TEMBO is located. This will give you some idea of the homes people live in and the business activities they are involved in. First is Longido, then Kimokouwa.

Above and below are photos of typical fruit and vegetable markets that are scattered around Longido.
Women buy produce in Arusha or Namanga and bring it to the village to re-sell.
Almost nothing is grown locally because of the persistent drought.

This woman can purchase better quality produce because of the loan she receives from TEMBO.

Here is a used clothing store that carries a bit of everything.

Chinese exports have even found their way to places like Longido.

A common sight is groups of women with their children selling food, 

bead work, or firewood, as they are here. 

Since there is no electricity food is cooked and water is heated

over wood or charcoal fires.

There is a very crude machine for milling corn inside this building. Maize flour is used

for making chapattis or ugali or stiff porridge. These foods are staples.

Women purchase corn kernels and bring them here for grinding.

There are perhaps a dozen butcheries located in Longido. Meat is slaughtered just outside town

and brought to these shops for selling. Goat is most commonly purchased. 

Beef is also available. Ten male goats from the KWGP (Kimokouwa Women's Goat Project) 

were recently sold generating an income for the women who raised them.

The meat would be sold in places such as this shop.

What village doesn't have a Hardware Store? 
Oftentimes you might be limited in what you can get for a project or repair.
It's amazing what works in a pinch!

Here is the Post Office. If you ever send mail to Longido
it ends up in this building.


A Beauty Salon? There are a few of them.


Here is a cement house with windows and screens. This is a very nice house
and is complete with a small garden. These are certainly scattered throughout Longido.
People who live in a house like this would have a steady income.

Many villagers live in accommodation like this.

Or like this. Entire families will share one or two rooms.

This is the pharmacy in the local clinic. The clinic provides very basic health services
to the local people - treating malaria and respiratory problems is common.
So is treatment for burns.

Kimokouwa is 13 km north of Longido. It is home to traditional Maasai herders.
Cattle and goats are everywhere.

You won't find any shops here, and none of the 'cosmopolitan feel' of Longido.
Just bomas and mud huts, like above, spread throughout the countryside
that are home to extended Maasai families.

Water for family use is still drawn primarily from deep, open, man-made wells.

A common sight in your backyard are animals like giraffes or elephants.
This photo was taken from inside a boma during an August 2011 project visit.
The Nursery School in Kimokouwa is in the background.

It's all about the people who live here. You won't find any better anywhere else.