Christina, the circumciser turned anti FGM activist

I was last at the Safe House in early January, just after the cutting season had finished.  Most of the girls who had sought refuge then were slowly being reunited with their families.  Sophia, the social worker and Rhobi, were painstakingly negotiating affidavits with the parents, guaranteeing that they would not cut their daughters or marry them against their will. With thirty four girls the parents refused to cooperate and so they remained at the Safe House.  At that time these girls were very shy, and many visibly traumatised by their experience.

So it is heart-warming to be back in Mugumu to see what a difference 5 months has made.  There are now computer lessons in a room of 30 computers donated by a London school, and girls on the tailoring course are now selling items they have made in a shop on the premises.  Girls who have never had the chance to go to school can now read and write.  Their growth in confidence is astounding. 

On Tuesday the girls performed a song they had composed about FGM to over 500 people at an event for International Day of the African Child. 

Ten of the girls passed their primary education and so attend the local secondary school.  Their headmaster and teachers told me although they have missed a lot of education they are trying so hard they are sure they will catch up.  I set up a projector

and raspberry pi computer with content from World Possible in both the Safe House and the school so they can access Wikipedia and Khan Academy offline, giving them a huge range of educational content.  I also set installed 200 Swahili and English e-books from African Storybook.  These were a great hit for girls who have never had access to books, as were the Swahili audiobooks and maths cartoons from Ubongo.

Word games my sister in law donated like scrabble and Headbanz where players have to ask yes no questions to guess the card on their head caused great hilarity and enabled girls to practice their English in a fun way...

I also met Christina, a circumciser, who has previously cut girls in the local village of Kebanchabancha.  She witnessed the anti FGM road show Rhobi organised in her village and decided to stop cutting and publicly destroyed her tools.  This cost her dearly, she lost her source of income her husband divorced her, and she has had to move away from the village due to the pressure of people trying to persuade her to change her mind.  However she told me she did not regret her decision and now plans to become a peer educator helping persuade other circumcisers follow her lead.You can hear her story here.

So, the tide is turning..

But the Safe House still faces huge challenges.  Now it is known as a place of refuge, the local police bring people here who have nowhere else to go..  Lucy, an albino rape victim, Sophia and Veronica, two abandoned children and Msambo with her baby, beaten so badly by her husband that she lost 3 teeth.

It still needs a perimeter fence, to stop people wandering in, a dining hall and kitchen, and a car, so that girls in the villages can be reached, and there is not a repeat of the incident in December when the car broke down so 5 escaping girls were captured by their parents..

So, if you are able to help, everyone at the Safe House, and the girls at risk of FGM in Serengeti would be extremely grateful..

A library on an SD card – for less than a fiver…

I met Omar in Itongoitale, a small village an hour out of Shinyanga.  He teaches Geography and History in the primary school here.

Itongolitale has no electricity and the only water supply is from ponds shared with cattle.  There is no mobile signal and only very occasional minibuses into town.  Some people have radios but batteries are scarce, only five people have solar.  So many people are entirely cut off from the outside world.  They rarely have the means to leave the village, and were not even aware of the Tanzanian election happening in October.  If there is a death, or other newsworthy event, in the next village, someone will walk the 15km to come and tell people face to face..

Malaria and water borne diseases are rife.  People don’t boil or treat their water and there has never been a deworming programme here.  I was told that the water was safe for them because they are used to it but it would be dangerous for me.

There are no computers in the village, and Omar has never used one.  But they teach IT in the school – by drawing pictures of keyboards and hard drives on the blackboard…

Omar told me he liked reading, so I asked him to show me his books.  He had three:  a Swahili/English dictionary, a photocopy of a university text book on African History, and a Geography text book for 13 year olds.  Yet Omar is very affluent by the standards of the village.  He has a smart phone which he uses when he goes into town each month to pick up his salary.  

I gave him a 16Gb sd card for his phone, with hundreds of ebooks in Swahili and English, plus health videos from Thare Machi on avoiding malaria and the need to boil drinking water. He promised to share this content in the school, and as we left he was proudly demonstrating it to a colleague..

A library on an SD card in a village without computers – cost:  less than £5..

Raspberry Pi in Masekelo

Bringing Wikipedia to a school without electricity

Masekelo secondary school in Shinyanga has many challenges: there's no electricity or water, so each pupil needs to collect 5 litres of water each day and carry it to school.  Until Tanzania Development Trust gave them a grant in November there were insufficient desks or chairs and many had to sit on the dirt floor.

The government has decreed that every secondary school must have science laboratories by the end of February.  No money was provided for this ; they should come from.parental contributions alone.  When your parents are subsistence farmers this is challenging.

The school has few text books or resources and a dire shortage of maths and science teachers,  but the dedication of its headteacher and staff now mean they have the best results of any government school in the district.

When I visited in September the dynamic headteacher,  Steve Mihambo,  told me of his dream of a computer room,  once they had power.

So I brought a Raspberry Pi computer, run from an external battery, with a 32gb SD card with content downloaded from WorldPossible.  This includes Wikipedia schools edition,  2000 maths and science videos from Khan academy,  800 classic books and various health resources.  A wifi stick in the Pi means any nearby smartphone, tablet or laptop can access all this content.

I demonstrated this to the teachers and school board on the 5 donated tablets I'd brought,  plus a couple of staff phones.  They were astounded.  "It's like a miracle", said the board chair.  "Now we are in the 21st century", added a teacher. 

You can follow the progress of this project, and the school in general, on their Facebook Page.

If you would like to know more,  or have an unneeded tablet or laptop you'd like to go to a good home,  please email me at j.chapman@tanzdevtrust.org

Investing in honey production in Zeze village

Transforming rural lives with bees..

I first met Benedicto by chance in September and was very impressed by the cooperative he founded and his meticulously costed plans to avert poverty in his village by developing agriculture.  I returned to Zeze this week and spent two nights in the village finding out more.

Zeze is 41km from the nearest town and electricity supply.  Water is problematic.  Almost all of the inhabitants are farmers growing maize and beans, with an average annual income per family of around 300,000 shillings (£112).   This explains why many of the children have ragged clothes and no shoes.

Benedicto and his group have many plans to raise income, including growing more lucrative crops such as Moringa.  Currently his immediate concern is to put in hives before March 15th when the bees begin to swarm. He has worked out that by sourcing the wood from one farmer and carrying it on foot to the local fundi he can get the hives made for around £20 each.  He estimates each hive will generate 30 litres of honey and he has already found buyers willing to buy in bulk.  Therefore when he harvests in October he should be able to make a good profit that can be used to support projects in the village. 

His problem is capital.  He has identified

150 good sites for hives. Currently he has funds for 15 hives.  He would like to set up at least 40.  Therefore he is offering anyone who invests £20 in a hive now a return of £25 in November when the honey is sold.  That's a return on investment far better than your bank, and a good cause to boot..  

If you would like to invest in a hive in Zeze village, or to know more about this project please email j.chapman@tanzdevtrust.org.

5 girls bodies thrown into the bush

An update from our FGM safe house in Mugumu, and the girls who didn't reach it

I  first met Rhobi in September at the Safe House in Mugumu which was then a building site,  and had the privilege of witnessing some of her anti FGM work in the surrounding villages.  At these girls spoke movingly of the dangers of this traditional practice and their desire to avoid being cut.

Driving into the lit up compound which is the Safe House today with Rhobi,  we were met by 32 laughing girls running to hug Rhobi shouting mama, mama.

These are the lucky ones.  During the cutting season which ended on January 15th,  there were 134 girls sheltering here.  They had run from their homes, often at night,  with just the clothes they were wearing.  Often they had been beaten by their fathers for their refusal.  One 10 year old, Bhoke,  was found lying on the ground unable to stand as her legs had been so badly cut by her father's machete. She spent 2 weeks in hospital

and he is due in court today.

Other girls failed to escape.  Seven girls escaped and a volunteer was bringing them to the safe house when his car broke down and their relatives captured them.  Two of them managed to escape again.  They ran all through the night and managed to reach the safe house, but the other five were cut. 

Five  girls in Machochwe village died during the cutting.  As is the custom, their bodies were thrown into the bush at the edge of the village as they are thought to be cursed.  Their families are not allowed to grieve or ever mention them again, it is as if they never existed.  One girl from Machochwe, Elizabeth, managed to escape.  She is desperate to continue her education and wants to be a nurse.  She fears if she returns she will be badly beaten by her father and married immediately.  

The cutting season began on 8th December and ended on January 15th.  The 134 girls in the safe house had a graduation ceremony as alternative rite of passage, at which they sang songs they had composed about the dangers of FGM and their desire for an education.  After this 102 girls returned home, after their families had signed an undertaking not to cut them.

Of the 32 girls remaining, 22 will start on a tailoring course this week.  The other 10, who have passed their primary exams , are desperate to continue their education.  They know that if they return home they are in danger of violence and will not be able to go to school.  Today we will meet with the District Education Officer to try and secure secondary school places and try to find the approximately £45 needed  for their school fees and uniforms. If you would like to support this please click here.

Twelve more girls arrived during the night..

Our Safe House struggles to cope with the demand from girls refusing Female Genital Mutilation in December's cutting season..

Rhobi Samwelly, our local rep in Mara province, is an FGM survivor herself, and the drive behind our successful Safe House campaign.  A week into the cutting season, with the building unfinished, they are struggling to cope with 80 girls seeking refuge, with 12 arriving last night alone..

Here is a message I received from Rhobi via What's App this morning..

The situation is challenging! The safe house can accommodate 40 girls but now we have more and we are still receiving girls in order to protect them. So we are also using the Vocational Training Centre classes to accommodate other girls. We have only 40 mattress. Still the safe house doesn't have a kitchen or dining hall. 

The situation of girls when arriving is not good, that some they don't have shoes, with torn clothes,  some are psychologically affected. So we need some basic needs like clothes, shoes, toothbrushes, soap,  sanitary towels etc. Another challenge is that the safe house doesn't have a car which could help managing collecting girls from different areas without breaking down while the girls are inside! This is very dangerous in the bush girls could be taken away to their parents for FGM.  The increased number of girls in the centre affects everything planned eg. food, bedsheets, blankets  etc. I would like to thank the local churches and mosques which are contributing food for girls in the centre. 

Some of girls are orphans  and are in secondary schools in their wards! Their relatives threaten them if they refuse to undergo FGM and threaten not to pay their school fees and other needs. We thank the government for provision of security from the villages where the girls are collected to the safe house. 

The girls received at the safe house are still in Secondary schools and primary schools. We have started to provide tuition for them at the safe house but we still do not have enough funds to pay the teachers.
Thank you very much for the supporting of the safe house as it is important for girls protection. We have received nine girls from Tarime district. 

We would be happy to receive more support in order to overcome the challenges. 
If you would like to support the Safe House you can do so here.  

And here is a message from one of the girls at the Safe House:

My name is Angelina Nginge, I am  15 years old and I come from Magatini village at Kenyamonta Ward in Serengeti district. This year my father wanted to conduct FGM on me. Due to the trainings that I got at school on the effects of FGM through the Anglican church Diocese of Mara, I decided to escape from home with the help of one of my teachers. I went to the safe house with the help of my teacher who provided a bedroom to sleep on the night I escaped home .Currently I am a form  one student at ACT-BUNDA Girls secondary school. I sincerely thank the ACT MARA for the safe house if it was not for them I do not know where would I have gone.

A tale of two teenagers, studying by candlelight

Grace is 15 and she wants to be a doctor.  She walks 3 hours each way to school from her village in rural Tanzania.  When she gets home she has to collect water and firewood for cooking before she can study by candlelight.  Sometimes her parents can afford kerosene for a brighter light but this hurts her eyes and makes her cough.  Her parents are subsistence farmers and cannot afford a £6 solar light.  There are 72 students in her class and they haven’t had a science teacher for 6 months.  There are a few text books in her school which she copies from when she can, but they often use English words she doesn’t understand and there is no one to help her.

When I met Grace in her school in September she had never used a computer or the internet.  I brought out a hard drive packed with downloaded Open Educational Resources like Wikipedia, Khan Academy and health materials, collated by World Possible so they can be used offline.  Grace was transfixed by the videos explaining the circulatory system.  She loved being able to stop and rewind the bits she didn't fully understand first time.  On Wikipedia for schools she was mesmerised by how clicking on links brought up so much detail and how she could look up words she didn't understand with a simple click. She said with access to such information it would be impossible to fail.

Lucy is also 15 and aspiring to be a doctor.  She too studies by candlelight, but that’s because the smell of the scent helps her concentrate. She has a computer in her room but generally prefers using her iPad.  Her science teacher posts useful links on the school intranet and she often collaborates on homework with her friends on Facebook.

I am going back to Tanzania in January to help more girls like Grace, taking with me taking with me donated tablets that I will pre-load with Open Educational Resources content - if you have any surplus devices lying around please let me know and I’ll ensure they are put to good use!

I am also buying £6 solar lights - if you would like to buy one as a good gift this Christmas there is information here. and you can buy one here. 

I volunteer for Tanzania Development Trust, a small volunteer run charity - all donations are spent entirely on projects.  

If you have a tablet that you would like to see put to good use in Tanzania please email me: j.chapman@tanzdevtrust.org