Tanzania Fund

The Tanzania Fund has been concentrating on 2 areas prior to TASU. These are education and local livelihood groups.

Education

Tanzania Fund has made a number of contributions to the development of education in Shinyanga. Following debt relief in 2000 primary education was made free however at this time Tanzania did not have the infrastructure to support so many in education.

In 2005 the average class size was 71 pupils.

Tanzania Fund has contributed to help fighting these problems by:

· Providing teacher training. Teachers in Tanzania often lacked any sort of training so Oxfam set up a scheme called EQUIP. EQUIP develops teachers abilities to cope and educate large classes by developing interest and child-centred methods. 944 teachers have so far been trained by EQUIP.

· Providing schools resources. The building of classrooms, providing textbooks, and also starting a school feeding scheme in which parent contribute 25 pence a month for their child to be fed at school. Likewise Oxfam is currently funding a School water scheme in which large tanks collect water in the rainy season to supply the school during the dry.

See the latest report on progress in the EQUIP education programme in Shinyanga.

Livelihoods

In one school Tanzania Fund paid for a staff canteen to feed teachers who work long days due to shortages of classrooms, teaching one class in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Oxfam in Tanzania

More information from Oxfam

See how much we've raised

TAHEA (Tanzania Home Economics Association)

TAHEA is a national organisation with a branch in Shinyanga which helps orphans and women obtain a decent standard of living.

· Orphans – provides funding for orphans to go to primary school by paying for uniform and, even after they leave, providing training in sewing to offer them a profession and income.

· Women – TAHEA provides loans and advice to small businesses largely for women and the widowed. The success of these groups was shown by their ability to buy goats, which in Tanzania are a status symbol, almost never obtained by women. Likewise TAHEA provides advice on women’s rights, for example, widows often lose all possession to their husbands families' as part of their cultural tradition. TAHEA helps these women challenge their in-laws in court and regain their lives and possessions. TAHEA has given employment to 300 women who would not otherwise be employed.

YADEC (Youth Advisory and Development Council)

YADEC improves the lives of young people by offering them professions.

· It gives training for carpentry, masonry and tailoring.

· Advice on HIV/AIDs and drug abuse.

· Groups young people together to set up businesses.

· Provides loans.

Loan repayments are high for YADEC, and they provide loans to a variety of young people’s businesses.

The Tanzania Fund has supported 136 savings and credit groups with about 1,000 youths in Maswa, Bariadi, Kishapu, Shinyanga Urban and Rural Districts in Shinyanga Region.