Visits to CARE Tumaini Projects and ARK School

Our Africa trip is winding down. Yesterday, Chris and Jerry left for the peaceful shores of Zanzibar. Sydney and I spent the day with staff from CARE International visiting two Tumaini projects. Tumaini means hope in Swahili. It was an interesting contrast going from our small grantees to organizations benefitting from PEPFAR money. Both programs follow specific funding guidelines, reporting requirements and continuous monitoring by CARE staff. The first one we visited, UMAKI, was about an hour out of Dar es Salaam in an area called Kibaha. It was actually located on a military base and at least one of the program managers was in uniform. I learned later the military plays a much different role in Tanzania. They have not fought in a war since Edi Amin left Uganda and have had no internal conflicts so they spend their time doing community work. The second organization, Jipeni Women and Community Organization, is closer to Dar but still felt rural. The program manager is a dynamic, young woman named Beatrice Janda. Both organizations are charged with indentifying people living with HIV/AIDs (PLHA) and most vulnerable children and orphans (MVO), providing psychosocial support, mobilizing communites, finding volunteers in each village and training them on home based care, food subsidies, transportation for receiving ARVs and education including uniforms and supplies so orphans can go to school. They cover large areas with populations of 50,000- 100,000.

Sydney left today after some whirlwind shopping and 10 minutes on Coco Beach (we had to see the ocean before leaving). Mama Rhoi (Executive Director of ARK Foundation) met me back at the hotel and took me to visit the Teens Against Aids(TAA) office at the ARK secondary school. Victoria (TAA office support) was meeting with two of the team leaders (Sargent and Leandra) from the TAA camp we visited on Tuesday. They were discussing how to follow up with participants to encourage membership and then went over the flipchart notes they had taken during the sessions. The three questions addressed during discussion were what is a teen? what is the role of community? and what are teen rights? The general theme across all groups was education, poverty and health(including HIV), having a voice in their family, the community and government, freedom/responsibility to organize and survival. Mama Rhoi's role with the teans and the secondary school are quite amazing. She motivated Charles Dingo to mobilize teens and start TAA, she continues to be their mentor. The secondary school was started by Ark. It sits on a piece of property donated by the government and provides education and room and board to about 300 orphans and most vulnerable children. It also houses a community nursery where single mothers working in nearby mines leave their children for care. Mama Rhoi is mom to many of the orphans living at the school.

This has been a truly exceptional trip and look forward to sharing photos and more information when we get back.

Linda