What I am going to write about now, has become something close to my heart. After living here for ten weeks, have I grown very fond of the projects we are working for. I get proud of telling others what I am contributing with and what SEMA has already managed to accomplish in the 20 years they have existed. I got extra proud Wednesday the 12th of December. When the girls finish the nine months long course Bonga, they have the opportunity to sign up for Bonga Forum. Here SEMA helps them and guides them in how to start up a business. We in ACTNOW share an office with the people from SEMA that works with helping these girls, and on Wednesday the 12th of December they brought us out in field. We were going to get an overview on what they have managed to create, and we were going to teach them about Waste Management. The first place we went to, I couldn’t believe that it was made by girls who had initially dropped out of school and used to be very shy. We sat down and talked to them, laughed at our communication problems and ate the food they made. It was by far the best Tanzanian breakfast I have eaten. Six bongagirls made this little charming eatery together some time back. Everyone wakes up every day at sunrise to start cooking, and work until the sun goes down 13 hours later. Even though the hourly wages for each and every one of them are not something to brag about, it was so amazing to see how proud they were of what they had managed to start up and it gave them great pleasure to make money on their own. This is what makes me so proud of what SEMA does, and that by supporting Strømme foundation we can really make lifechanging difference to the lives of others.
Iselin
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Last week SEMA had the pleasure of getting a visit from Sagavoll Folkehøgskole. The office got the opportunity to show the projects, and we got the opportunity to spend time with some Norwegians again, which we loved! The reason for their visit to Singida, was because they had a fundraise for Strømme Foundations Bonga project, and they were going to visit one of the projects to see what the money was spent on. They were 18 students, one teacher, and one “stip”. The “stip” is by the way Audny who was last years Act Now student in Singida. So, we enjoyed having an expertise about both Singida and SEMA here to answer some questions for us. The group arrived on Monday and got what was supposed to be a brief review of SEMA and the projects. On Tuesday we went to a field called Mtinko and visited the Bonga girls there and saw the different areas the girls a specializing in. They can choose sewing, saloning, decoration and food processing. We were divided into groups and spent most of the day with the girls. After this we were divided into smaller groups to join the girls for home visits. The reason for this was to see how the girls lived and the girls could show us their backyard gardens they made with the help of Bonga. We got a lot of good conversations, and the students from Sagavoll said that this was the most eye-opening experience when it came to realizing the importance of the project. They got to talk to the girls about how Bonga creates dreams for the girls and how they get to fulfill some of their dreams as well. On Wednesday, we went to another field, Uhamaka. Here we visited the Bonga center and got an amazing welcoming with dancing and singing. We got to hear about what the girls where specializing in and got to see the backyard garden they created nearby the center. Later we had sports and games with the girls and jumped rope, played cannonball, volleyball and basketball. With some audience from the primary school beside the field, we played for a couple of hours before we headed home again. Thursday, we spent in Singida town, and visited some of the companies the Bonga Forum girls has created. The Bonga Forum girls has already finished the Bonga program and are now a part of the continuing program where they help each other build companies. The rest of the day we spent relaxing, and some of the Bonga Forum came that evening to braid some of the students for Sagavoll.
On Friday it was a farewell party for Sagavoll, done the Tanzanian way. We witnessed local dancing from local people, and not so local dancing from the SEMA staff, including us three… The evening continued with a dance from Sagavoll, food, speeches and SEMA giving gifts to Sagavoll in appreciation of the visit and the fundraising. We got to say a proper good bye and thank you the same evening to our new friends, and felt thankful for experiences, conversations and of course, we were very happy for a refill of out oat-stock and the Christmas candy, decorations and calendars they brought from Norway. Have a blessed December! Kristine Bonga Girls Empowerment Program This program was created to help girls, in the age group 13-19, learn basic literacy and numeracy skills, life and occupational skills. The program goes on for 9 months and then the girls get the opportunity to join Bonga Forum which is as program after finished Bonga. The program is supposed to help the girls learn about their rights in the community and encourage them to be independent and confident. Some of the things we do with the girls during the stay is to have English, computer and entrepreneurship classes. We will also will teach them about sustainability and waste management. SabaSaba Special School This school is not a part of SEMA’s projects but an extra project we have engaged in. This is a school for disabled students to learn either how to managed daily life or prepare for work later in life. There are also some students that are not disabled, but are a part of the electrical engineering program. This are the classes we have been teaching, and we have had English so far, and will continue with both English and computer. Vocational Training Center (VTC) This is a center located where the SEMA office is. Here there are boys and some girls that learn mechanical engineering and prepare for getting a job after the program. The things we do here is to have English and entrepreneurship classes. We have them both in level one and two. Community Vocational Skills Training (CVST) This project contains a lot of different trainings. Some of the trainings are at centers where they learn mechanical engineering, English and entrepreneurship. In other trainings they learn backyard gardening and how to grow different plants. The main goal of all the trainings is that the participants can get skills they can use to get a living. The things we do in these groups is learn some English and entrepreneurship and also observing and learning. Nutrition The main goal for the nutrition project is to improve the knowledge of what kind of nutrition children under two years should have. They also teach about backyard gardening and how to grow different vegetables right, and how to use if efficiently in the house and selling. We are learning how to teach about nutrition and also participate in the groups when they have them in the fields. Community Managed Microfinance (CMMF) These groups are supposed to help the participants learn about saving and loaning and how to use the money in an effective way. The participant save money and when they meet up, they put the money in a box and the participants can come with wished to loan so they can use it to get more income. This project helps a lot of woman I rural areas with economical empowerment. The things we do in these groups is to observe and learn for our self, and also share if we have ideas for improvement or encouragement. Mambo vipi? We have never in my entire life experienced that 4 weeks have gone by as fast as the recent 4 weeks. We really believe there’s a truth in the expression “Time flies when you’re having fun”. We were greeted at the airport by two really nice people from the office, who had a lot of patients since it took us two hours to get the visa. At that moment they had already driven six hours from Singida to Kilimanjaro airport. We are starting to get into the routines that are going to be out everyday life for the next five months. Maybe some of you are wondering what we are doing in our stay here in Singida. We are working at an office called Sustainable Environment Management Action, or more known as SEMA. Our work is going to consist of different types of teaching on the Vocational Training Center which is a part of SEMA’s program, on a special school and contribute in the Bonga groups. We are also going to participate in the work at the SEMA office and visit the different departments and go to fields. SEMA is focusing on youth and their rights and have different groups like Bonga, Comunity Based Vocational Skill Training (CVST) and more. On our second week here we got the opportunity to participate in the Bonga graduation, here the Bonga girls show what they have learned during the nine-month program. If you would like to read more about SEMA’s projects you can visit Strømme Foundations website here: https://strommeea.org/partner/sustainable-environment-management-action-sema/ We spent the first two days packing out and washing the house, something that’s neither exciting to write about or to read about. When we got to the office on Monday morning we got greeted with open arms, by both former Hald students and other colleagues. It didn’t take long until “hospitality” felt like a foreign word in Norway. It can’t compare. Everyone we greet either wants to invite us for food, or wants to give their number in case we face any problems. People we meet on the streets are also very eager to talk to us, even though they lack English knowledge. We are often met with a “Hello, how are you?” or “Good morning Madam”, no matter what time it is during the day. In Tanzania, there is a greater focus upon the elders, and you greet anyone who is older than you with “Shikamoo” as a sign of respect. Even though I (Kristine) have visited Tanzania many times before, I always get positively surprised by the kindness, helpfulness and compassion people have. Another thing that is different from Norwegian culture is the expanded families. For us it’s difficult to know if the person someone introduces as a brother, really is their brother. Before we left, we got the impression that Singida was a small place. But after some research we found out that Singida is bigger than Bergen based on population. Nevertheless, here they base the size of the city on infrastructure. And of we think like that as well, Singida can’t compare. Even though Singida is a small place they have two supermarkets on the same size as the shops at Norwegian camping spots. But we have made Tacos, and enjoyed a lot of ice-cream so we are not suffering by any means. Apart from the two supermarkets we are wandering around the local fruit and vegetable markets and the other day we bargained down the price of a pineapple with 2 Norwegian kroners and were very pleased with that. If there is anything we are struggling with here, it’s the meat. There is a lot of butchers, so it’s not that there is a lack of meat, we just did not know how to prepare it. The first week the meals were the biggest problem for us. In Norway we are used to eat five small meals a day, but here they eat three times and the portions are bigger. The first week we were constantly hungry and when we got the food we only managed to eat 1/3 of the portion because of the size. The food here mainly consists of rice, chicken, beans, vegetables, ugali and chapati. Ugali is a sticky version of mashed potatoes, but it’s made of corn flour, oil, salt and water. Chapati is what we eat for breakfast every day at the office, it can be compared to a tortilla, just with more oil. The use of oil is very different from what we are used to in Norway. When Mama Shose taught us how to make Tanzanian food we used over 4 liters of oil on two weeks. Another thing that is different is that people mainly eat with their hands. At first it was weird for us, but now we can’t imagine to eat chicken with knife and fork again. We have experienced a lot of Tanzanian culture during these four weeks. We got invited to the brother of our contact persons wedding, and got a greater role than we first had expected. We were lucky enough to contribute as maids and experienced a totally different type of wedding than what we are used to. To begin with, it wasn’t only one weddingparty, it was three. One of the ceremonies was to honor the mother of the groom, the next was a give away party for the groom, and the last one was the actual wedding ceremony. At the official wedding day, we got a flower bouquet and followed the bride and groom down the aisle. After church, everyone drove around town with blinking lights, honking, and a band playing on the back of a truck. Compared to Norway, there was almost no speeches, and a lot more focus on dancing, music and especially gifts. We had a great night with a lot of new cultural insights. Tutaonane tena! Kristine, Iselin and Thea |
Kristine
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