Stewart showing the drip irrigation project

Some news from our coastal project area just South of the Pangani river, in Kikokwe. A volunteer recently started a small vegetable garden by installing a drip-irrigation system out of locally available materials.  This garden is operating as a showcase for the community of Pangani, demonstrating how to improve the quality of people’s daily diet with very little investment.

Back home in the United Kingdom this volunteer is a teacher and with his memories still fresh he started collecting some lesson materials like pencils and coloring books which he sent to our ARF headquarters in Arusha. As soon as someone went out again to the school in Kikokwe, we handed over the materials to the primary school there. 

Needless to say the kids appreciated this donation, as showcased here in these pictures.

Looking forward…

Whilst taking a walk across the school grounds with one of the teachers and the chairman of the village we asked about a building adjacent to the school that has been a shell for the past 2 years, slowly being claimed back by nature. This turned out to be a government funded building for the accommodation of the school’s teachers. Unfortunately, due to a lack of funds and building materials this was never finished. To date the teachers have to travel – 4 km by foot – cross the Pangani River twice daily to go to work!!.

With very little money and man power (volunteers ) this building can be finished in a short timespan; we will contract back in the local fundis (engineers) to oversee the building works, assisted by volunteers and people from the local community, further enabling employment in this very poor area.

 

Together with the community leaders, we have come up with a list of priorities for the development efforts in the coming year:

  1. Finish the teacher’s accommodation.
  2. A small water project to pipe in water from the newly constructed dispensary (less than 1km).
  3. Design and construction of an adventure playground and a football field for the kids. 
  4. Further development of a drip irrigation project for the school (as in our proof-of-concept) to enrich the daily dietary intake for the children (many vegetables are not found in the Pangani area) and to generate community income (see below).
  5. Power supply to the school and Kikokwe village, possibly with government assistance. The nearest facility is 4km away in Pangani town, far above the budget of any family sending their kids to Kikokwe. 
  6. Look into computer education and facilities for the school, given that the nearest possibility for the community to enjoy these services is in Pangani village.
As you can see, quite an ambitious agenda but all points mentioned are to the direct benefit of the kids and their community, either directly, by generating income and/or employment or indirectly, by facilitating the improvement of education available to the community. As always, you can help us, either by simply including a visit to the project area in your Tanzanian safari, by donating money or items (think of study or sports equipment) or by volunteering your time and knowledge to assist the community in achieving their goals. In return we guarantee you’ll have an experience that will stay with you for life!

Vegetable garden…

We’ll continue with the drip irrigation system – experimenting with salads and other vegetables not normally found in the area. We’re talking with a community womens group about the fair trade sales of these to the nearby lodges that up to now have to travel to Tanga to source these food types, generating income and employment for the local community. We’ll keep you posted on developments there!

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