Tanzania

Butogwa Women's Health and Development

This community-based organization, tucked away in Tanzania’s northwest corner, aims to help local communities alleviate the suffering of orphans and vulnerable children by working closely with families and community leaders, educating people about child abuse and other harmful practices, and providing gap-filling services to keep children healthy and in school. Prior to SLF support, when the women of Butogwa Women’s Health and Development mostly relied on their own resources for assistance, the organization helped 26 children with food, clothing and vocational training. SLF funding now allows Butogwa to provide income-generating support and loans to 25 households (affecting more than 70 children), assist 25 particularly needy children with school-related expenses and follow-up support, and raise community awareness about what they can also do to help. SLF also pays for some administrative expenses and for the programme’s monitoring and evaluation.

Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief UMATU

In 2005, Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief (CPAR) in Tanzania launched UMATU — “Love and Hope” — when two HIV-positive women requested their advice on treatment options and positive living. Together, they started a weekly women’s support group that offers educational sessions for other people living with HIV; also income-generating activities, referral linkages with Karatu Lutheran Hospital and affiliated clinics, home care visits, and training on gender issues, counselling, good nutrition and sexual reproductive health.

UMATU is committed to abolishing stigma by encouraging people to know their HIV status, learn about their options, and for those who are living with the virus, join a treatment programme and be part of a support group that stimulates positive living, personal empowerment and human rights. The structure of UMATU involves several committees, a system of collective decision-making and dispute-resolution, and an active Executive Committee that is elected by all members. The group has been so successful (with 58 members) that it has spawned a second group that uses the same facilities but on different days of the week, and also includes men. Support from the SLF builds the capacity of UMATU’s members and ensures that their training, support and outreach will continue and expand to nearby villages.

Catholic Diocese of Moshi/ Rainbow Centre

The Rainbow Centre works through the structures of the Catholic Church and local affiliates to provide holistic care for the community, including home-based care, support groups for people living with HIV and AIDS, health care, income-generating activities, and HIV-education for Muslims and Christians.

The Centre`s programmes have come about in direct response to the needs of the communities they serve. The Jipe Moyo People Living with HIV support group, for example, had requested funds from the Stephen Lewis Foundation for refreshments and transportation for their regular meetings. The group decided that they would rather use the money to buy 100 chicks to raise and sell, so that they could generate an ongoing source of income. Jipe Moyo (which means, “give yourself courage”) now functions as a successful business with its own bank account and profit-sharing amongst its members.

Current SLF funding to the Rainbow Centre includes outreach activities, medical supplies (under a nurse’s supervision), nutritional supports, counselling, and home-based care to sick and impoverished people living with HIV and orphans in seven sites throughout Northern Tanzania. Currently, five groups of people living with HIV are receiving entrepreneurship training and follow-up support. Children in greatest need are given school fees, scholastic materials and uniforms. The Rainbow Centre generally directs its peer-education to youth and encourages open discussion as well as voluntary counselling and testing for all. Accordingly, the SLF pays for some staff costs and it works with staff and volunteers to help increase programme management skills.

Okoa Maisha Ya Watoto

Okoa Maisha Ya Watoto was started by a group of teachers in Northern Tanzania who realised that many vulnerable children and orphans were failing to attend school because they lacked basic school supplies such as uniforms, notebooks and other stationery. They have recently joined forces with the Stephen Lewis Foundation to assist fifty children. Of these, fifteen live with an HIV-positive parent, fifteen live with very poor grandmothers, and twenty are from child-headed households. To select these children, the teachers started with recommendations from the local government and then conducted a home-visit for verification. Most of the beneficiaries attend primary school, but some are at the secondary school or receive vocational training — for example, for electrical work, tailoring and hairdressing. Volunteers visit the children in their homes at least monthly for counselling and encouragement, and once a month they hold a “community mobilisation gathering” for training on issues related to good health and hygiene, gender rights and HIV prevention and care. Support from SLF also helps Okoa Maisha Ya Watoto equip and run its own carpentry training and income-generating programme. Finally, the project provides some office equipment and a partial payment for the organization’s treasurer.

Pastoral Activities and Services for People with AIDS Dar es Salaam Archdiocese (PASADA)

Founded in 1992 by the Dar Es Salaam Roman Catholic Archdiocese, Pastoral Activities and Services for People with AIDS (PASADA) offers a wide range of life-saving services including voluntary counselling and testing, home-based care, diagnosis and treatment of opportunistic infections, prevention of vertical (mother to child) transmission, community education and awareness and support groups for people living with HIV. PASADA also offers several support programmes for orphans and vulnerable children and their caregivers to help them cope with the psychological, social and economic consequences of losing their loved ones to AIDS.

The number of people reached by PASADA's home-based c are services grows every year. Now operating out of 22 sites with three nurses and over 700 volunteers (150 of whom are full-time, and some of whom previously benefited from PASADA’s support), PASADA currently assists approximately 12,000 clients in their homes annually. PASADA recognizes the valuable work of volunteers by providing a transport allowance that enables them move within their catchment areas, bicycles to facilitate their transport needs and “tools of the trade” such as waterproof shoes, hats and home-based care supplies. Many volunteers are also motivated by the regular training sessions they undergo, which give them a sense of belonging and respect in their communities. At the same time, it is also true that these  home-based care volunteers are just as poor and disadvantaged as the people they serve. Thus, SLF now assists by paying the salaries of the three  home-based care nurses and the cost of the volunteer incentives, training sessions and transportation expenses. Additionally, SLF supported PASADA’s efforts to assist volunteers with small-business training and micro-finance loans and expand its outreach sites.

Tumaini Rombo Project of the Sisters of Kilimanjaro

Tanzania’s Rombo District is nestled alongside the slopes Mt Kilimanjaro and consists of 65 villages with a population of about 300,000.  Although this remote area is very beautiful, its citizens are extremely poor. If HIV or another illness strikes a local family, then their situation becomes truly desperate. Inevitably, the children suffer most of all.

Tumaini Rombo is a faith-based organization that is guided by the gospel message and a strong desire to undertake works of mercy for humankind. The Religious Sisters of Kilimanjaro work with local volunteers to combat HIV and its effects by educating the community about prevention, providing counselling and referral, and offering home-based care to sick and vulnerable families in the community. The organization works also closely with the local hospital (for example, in promoting HIV testing and treatment) and with groups they have established of people living with HIV. But the Sisters reserve their biggest love for the children – mainly orphans living with widowed mothers or elderly grandparents.  In addition to their other services, Tumaini Rombo tries to ensure that these children can complete their primary education and, wherever possible, continue with secondary school. Because of the costs involved, however, keeping the older orphans in school poses the biggest challenge.  

SLF funding helps Tumaini Rombo by supporting 150 secondary school students with school materials, uniforms and all fees. In addition, it pays for some administrative costs, home-based care expenses, and the supplementary food and soap that Tumaini Rombo distributes to 180 individuals who are living with or are directly affected by HIV.

Zanzibar Association of People Living With HIV/AIDS (ZAPHA+)

Since 1994, the Zanzibar Association of People Living With HIV/AIDS (ZAPHA+) has been dedicated to the empowerment of people who are infected and affected by HIV in Zanzibar. It has almost 1,400 members, with weekly support group meetings in all ten districts of Zanzibar and Pemba Islands. Most ZAPHA+ members are Muslim women who face significant stigma and discrimination in their traditional communities.  ZAPHA+ offers medical, health, nutritional, economic and emotional support services, plus a psychosocial support programme for its child members.

Starting in 2006, the Stephen Lewis Foundation helped ZAPHA+ implement their nutritional project, with the main objective of helping members understand how healthy food helps them maintain a healthy body. Members participated in nutritional counselling sessions and weekly cooking lessons at selected sites – where everyone attending the support group meeting subsequently shared the food. Three years later, they expanded the programme to all ten districts, teaching their members how to prepare low-cost healthy meals, and adding peer education on positive living, HIV prevention and care. Current SLF support includes the cost of transport, some salaries and programme expenses to make the nutrition programme a reality.

• Project descriptions last updated April 2011