Looking back at the Year 2016
In 2016 we were able to complete all our projects as originally planned despite unexpected additional costs. The financial overview of the revenue and expenditure of upendo in 2016 is available on the subpage finances. There you also find the organizations that have enabled many of these projects through their contributions, and we are grateful for the support of our work.
Our most important project partner was again the ECLAT Development Foundation in the Simanjiro district in the north of Tanzania:
- At the Secondary School in Emboreet in 2016, infrastructure activities were the most important. On the roof of the school solar panels now ensure that the school has electricity. Batteries in an isolated and cooled room will store the electricity for the night hours. In the residential buildings and in the school kitchen, fresh and clean water flows out of the water taps, and the fermenters at the toilets supply biogas for cooking thus replacing firewood, which is becoming ever scarcer. Thanks to the permanently installed loudspeaker system, major events are now possible in the cafeteria. On a large screen films and the like can be shown via a beamer – a means which teachers also like to use for training purposes. The guests can sit on one of the 650 modern chairs, and for the cafeteria there are now plenty of tables.
- At the primary school in Emboreet nothing had been repaired since its construction about 50 years ago. And now the classrooms have been renovated. Since there were no functioning toilets at the school (!), we also have built new ones for girls and boys.
Near Iringa (Central Tanzania) we were able to build a dormitory for boys at the secondary school in Kilolo, so that the boys are now living on the school grounds and can not stay so easily away in the city. - For the women’s work of ECLAT: see below.
- For the PAULA water container in Sukuro: see the report below.
- And – last but not least – ECLAT now also provides its own off-road vehicle (Landcruiser) for the many tasks in the villages and elsewhere.
Additionally in 2016 we again realized projects with the PAMS Foundation – projects dealing with the conflicts between humans and nature:
- protection of cornfields from elephants by pepper-chilli fences in Emboreet and the Ngorongoro region;
- improved protection of the Maasai`s cattle against lions at night in the area of the Tarangire National Park. Consequently fewer lions are killed;
- environmental and nature conservation at secondary schools in the area of the Tarangire national park.
Women’s work of ECLAT
Of course, upendo also supported the women groups 2016. Philomena Kiroya currently manages about 75 women’s groups and about 45 of them have already received financial support. At the end of last year and earlier this year, more women were given financial support; from 11 women groups each received just under 1000 euros. Since Maasai women do not have their own property this money means much to them. They are to learn to do business independently and to earn their own small income. After some time, they will have to pay part of their profits back to ECLAT – so that more women groups can be financially supported.
Installation of the PAULA water container
Clean drinking water for Sukuro
In 2016, thanks to a special donation, we were able to ship a “PAULA water container” to Tanzania. In addition to the tanks with special membranes for the filtration of polluted and impure water, the container also contained a solar system. This is now used to operate the plant in Sukuro, a village without public power supply not far from Emboreet.
The village is situated on a lake that was built during the colonial period. Every day thousands of cattle, sheep and goats, walk into the shallow lake in order to drink thus polluting the water.
Consequently it is cloudy and contaminated with germs. But also people use this water as drinking water which entails severe consequences for their health.
After many technical and bureaucratic hurdles, we were finally able to install the system in Sukuro at the beginning of December. From a pontoon in the lake, sea water is now pumped into the conatiner and filtered there. And the population can tap hygienically clean water from the storage tanks next to the container.
TANAPA is building the administrative building
Upendo places great importance on the fact that we do not undertake our construction and renovation work in public schools acting individually, but that the Tanzanian state is taking part in its responsibilities and possibilities.
The administrative building built by TANAPA at the secondary school in Emboreet
We are proud to report that in recent months in this way, the administration building with the staff rooms was built at the Secondary School in Emboreet: TANAPA (Tanzania National Parks), an authority which is responsible for the national parks and which for example collects the parking fees from the tourists, spends a portion of its income for infrastructure projects in the neighboring areas of the national parks. Thus TANAPA has begun only at the end of October with the construction of this building. Now, middle of Feburuary, it is already finished and the teachers have moved from the classroom which until now had been occupied as a teacher’s room.
Encouraging Development
At the beginning of January Toima Kiroya informed us that at the moment many parents seaking hi advice. They complain that their children were not selected to attend secondary school or high school. This is a new and enjoyable development: so far the parents have not looked after the school education of their children, let alone complained about not having the opportunity to send their children to school.
Photos:
(1) Rüdiger Fessel (May 2016)
(2) Onesmo Toima (December 2016)
(3) Fred Heimbach (December 2016)
Translation German – English: Marita Sand
