March 5, 2007VOL. 45, NO. 5Oakland, CA

A visit inside Tanzania –
scenes of struggle, initiative and hope

These young girls greet visitors wearing traditional African scarves. One of their mothers is receiving home health services for HIV/AIDS.

By Mary Doyle
Special to The Voice

Tanzania is known for
its peaceful history
despite great poverty

In January, I traveled with a Catholic Relief Services delegation to Tanzania in East Africa. We left San Francisco on the feast of the Epiphany, flew 10 hours to London, and after a short layover, continued for 10 more hours to Dar es Salaam.

The first moments in this big city on the Indian Ocean were overwhelming: people jammed into buses going to work, men on bikes carrying stacks of fresh eggs, boys selling papers to the cars stopped in morning traffic, women in colorful African dress. We weren’t in Oakland anymore.

Tanzania, situated below the equator, is about the size of Texas and New Mexico, with 39 million people from 120 different ethnic groups. They speak Kiswahili and English. Over 40 percent of the people live on less than $1 a day.

Tanzania has a relatively peaceful history due partly to the leadership of its first president Julius Nyerere, a devout Catholic currently being considered for sainthood. The people practice Christianity, Islam, and traditional African religions. Small Christian Communities form the basic unit of the Church, and several leaders we met credit the SCCs for the vibrant life in the Tanzanian Catholic Church.

Most of our visit was in the region around Lake Victoria, where we visited programs funded by Catholic Relief Services (CRS). The approach of CRS is to fund local partners, developing local organizations and empowering the local leaders. CRS staff members provide guidance, training, and support for these growing organizations. Their work in Tanzania spans emergency aid, health care, agro-enterprise, and peace building.

St. Mary’s Hospital in Kibara dries its laundry outside. Catholic Relief Services funds AIDS programs through the hospital.

Amelia Kirahuka has been working as a nurse and midwife at St. Mary’s Hospital in Kibara since 1963.

Drug therapy,
pastoral care
make a difference for
Tanzanians with AIDS

Like other countries in Sub Saharan Africa, in Tanzania HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria threaten to derail years of social development. CRS is working with local Church and government groups to address the AIDS pandemic, which affects about 12-14 percent of the population.

Projects in Dar es Salaam and around Lake Victoria offer testing, training in drug therapy, antiviral drug therapy (ART), patient support groups, and projects to help patients return to work. The challenges of providing this integrated care are being overcome, and life-saving therapies are now getting to the poorest, many of whom live in rural areas.

I met Angela at Nyakato, a project supported by CRS and others, which provides these services around the city of Mwanza. This project grew out of a local parish and had many volunteers from the Small Christian Communities.

Angela had been near death with AIDS, isolated because many thought she was cursed or bewitched. The drug therapy and pastoral care she has received have brought her back to life and to her community; some call this the “Lazarus effect.”

Those who are living with AIDS are now said to be living with hope, and some of the stigma associated with testing and treatment is decreasing. Angela is developing a tailoring business with others in her support group, making school uniforms.

Funding from the U.S. government (PEPFAR) has been essential in funding drugs and helping local hospitals develop better care. CRS, which receives some of this funding, is expanding its work with those who have AIDS and is also assisting programs that help AIDS orphans.

Our delegation observed that the poorest patients also need food assistance while taking the AIDS medications. Funding for food needs to be developed by donors or governments.

There are at least 300 million acute cases of malaria each year globally, resulting in more than a million deaths. Around 90 percent of these deaths occur in Africa, mostly in young children.

Each of us in the delegation was taking anti-malarial medication, using bug spray daily, and sleeping under mosquito netting. The issue of malaria became very real for us, and we realized the importance of a simple thing like a mosquito net. During our visit to a very simple field hospital in Kibarra, the doctor commented that most of the people gathered that day for treatment had malaria.

Farmers in a savings and lending cooperative stand proudly with their money box that contains community funds and records. The box has three locks with three keys held by different members as a safety control on their financial resources.

Elizabeth, a farmer, received training in agro-business from Catholic Relief Services. She is a leader of the farmers’ savings and lending group (above).

Rick Fowler (left) of Stockton talks with a woman farmer who grows sweet potatoes. She invites her neighbors to work with her in her field and cooks them a meal in return. Daniel (right) is a Masai on the staff of Catholic Relief Services. He organizes and trains agricultural leaders.

Agro-enterprises improve
food security and provide
income for families

There are two seasons in Tanzania: wet and dry. After we arrived in Mwanza, the rain and thunder let loose, blowing roofs off houses and flooding the fields. The previous two years have been drought years, and this year is shaping up to be too wet. Too much rain drowns the corn, makes planting difficult, and of course, further damages the dirt roads.

Most people live a simple rural village life. Their mud brick homes have thatch roofs; they rely on small gardens and farms to provide food for their families. CRS is supporting important work in agro-enterprise, helping these small farmers to improve their food security and to develop markets for local consumption and export. Small changes in income and crop security make a big difference in their lives.

There is great concern in East Africa about a mosaic plant virus which destroys cassava and banana, both staple crops. CRS is helping communities plant resistant varieties of these plants. CRS also works with groups to introduce crops that can improve nutrition and provide some income for the family.

We met a group of farmers who were growing orange fleshed sweet potatoes considered a “woman’s crop.” The potatoes are grown for home consumption and for sale. The crop cuttings are also sold to other farmers. High in vitamin A and drought tolerant, the potatoes are improving nutrition and providing much needed income.

Another group of about 30 farmers we met had formed a SILC (Savings and Internal Lending in Community), a form of local microfinance which works well in areas without strong banks. They each contribute money weekly to the group and can take short term loans for their businesses.

One person had borrowed $10 to buy goods to sell in her store, another borrowed $50 for chickens he resold for a profit in town. These loans must be paid in full after 3 months and the accrued interest goes to the whole group. These very low income people have essentially created a bank for themselves and they were very proud of it.

More than 65 percent of the people in Tanzania live in rural villages such as this one outside of Bunda.

Bananas and papaya trees surround this clay brick home in a farming village near Lake Victoria where farmers grow corn and sweet potatoes. PHOTOS BY MARY DOYLE

CRS builds solidarity
between U.S. Catholics
and people in Tanzania

During our journey, I was very impressed with the CRS staff and their local partners. The CRS staff, both American and African, Christian and Muslim, were dedicated, creative, educated, and
heroic in their work.

Our CRS leader, Dan Griffin, reminded us that there are both joyful and sorrowful mysteries in Tanzania. The sorrowful mysteries were all too present -- the suffering caused by AIDS, by poverty, by inequalities between men and women.

Yet the joyful mysteries were many -- the “Karibu!” or “welcome” we encountered every day of our journey; taking time to linger over a handshake and make simple conversation; simply being present in the moment. I appreciated the incredible beauty and variety of plants and animals that were all new to me. I admired the sense of community, as well as the skill and work ethic of the people.

I asked Cardinal Pengo why the Church in Tanzania was thriving and he responded that they pray to a God whom they need. Our group reflected on this often.

I also learned on this trip that true solidarity goes beyond sending a check once a year, although the check is essential. Solidarity is about the bonds that link us together; it’s about a mutual relationship over time, about being committed to each other. That is what I saw in the leaders and work of CRS in Tanzania. They act for us and with us; they are our Church in action together with the people of Africa.

(Mary Doyle is diocesan resource specialist for social justice. For the Lenten season, she has prepared six weeks of materials for education and reflection on ending global poverty. See: http://www.oakdiocese.org/pastoral/SocialJustice/. She is available to speak to pastoral councils, parish meetings and other groups about Tanzania and the ways parishes can be in solidarity with our global Church. She can be reached at mdoyle@oakdiocese.org)

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