Mary Hawa
World Lineage Witness team
"OUR ENVIRONMENT, OUR VOICE"
Global institutions talk about poverty as the situation in which a person or family is unable to get even the minimum basic needs of life such as food, clothing, education and shelter. So, regarding with this idea, poverty is the state of having not enough money to satisfice basic needs and their quality. The classic example is a homeless person who has no money or assets.
On this side, poverty could be caused by lack of education. However other factor that causes poverty includes the problem of high rural population and this factor relate poverty to the environment, specifically in the way environment is seen.
In terms of biodiversity Tanzania is a very rich country and this characteristic puts somehow the country as one of the finest in the African Continent.
Until these days, this biodiversity gives richness only to the government, which by the way, is not helping the people.
Tanzanian richness is also due to the beautiful and strong cultures like the Maasai culture, the Hadzabe culture and the Sandawe culture. Those are the remining cultures that still live in Tanzania. Our government has taken tourism as a source of income for them. They just show what they want to the tourists, so, in that way, tourists are kept from the truth and the idea of poverty remains in their heads.
In rural areas Tanzanian government depends on funds from the World Bank, but, in many aspects, such as constructing infrastructure and donations, the government also depends on volunteers. Although there are many volunteers they are still not enough.
In my village tourism came to the orphanages as volunteers. Our mamas say that not all of the people living in Arusha that opens orphanages for kids have a real helping intention. Let me give you an example:
Once the tourists go to the orphanages as teachers they are said that children come from a very poor family, so, the mzungu (tourist) offers as volunteer.
Sometimes people working in orphanages get their children to these centers as orphans and mix them with real orphans, so for instance volunteers could sponsor the child thinking that he or she is helping an orphan.
You know, here, there is a teacher (owner of an orphanage) and in his center there are certain mzungus which came when they reached over the promised to sponsor the kids who are performing well at their studies. Among those kids my little brother got a chance of sponsorship, but that teacher told my mother that if she wants to get a volunteer she must paid 250,000 TZS (96.5 USD) or he is going to lose the chance. If my brother loses the chance, then the opportunity would be given to a child which parents are able to pay the money. So, due to the little money my mom gets from the sales in the market my brother lost the chance.
Also, favors are given to women working at the orphanages, by the owners, so, their income grows because they already have a salary but also get an extra income if they get sponsors for children. So, women keep the secrets of fake orphans and get sponsors for their relatives or friends claiming that they came from a poor family. That’s how they get volunteers to take care of their children expenses, this doesn’t mean that the parents are poor, it’s just that they are escaping their responsibilities as family parents.
So, these people can get extra food or extra money for those bad practices. This situation causes that women working at the markets have much less benefits than those working in orphanages. Mamas working at the markets have low incomes. The things they sale can be easily damaged due to the lack of costumers and a proper place for storing their goods. Besides, they have to pay a tax in the market to work, this tax is about 0.25 USD while the profit per day is about 2.11 USD.
This is the way women find in volunteers (in the street) a chance to grow their income so that they can take care of their families, giving them food, clothing, etcetera. The main reason for this situation is because men at home leave their responsibilities as the family father.
In the other side, children wish to be in private schools due to the good environment, teachers dressing style, the kind of food they eat and the kind of treatment they get, you know, in private schools children are given the chance to speak and express their feelings but in public schools they don’t. In public schools, most of the times, when you try to speak, the teacher says that you are having some bad attitude and then they say: “even if you hate me I`m still going to get my salary”. Sometimes in public schools children can be punished for no good reason but in private schools at least you will be given the chance to explain yourself.
So, it’s a must being aware of the children environment before sponsoring them. If you are volunteer ensure that the kid is a real orphan, there are many ways such as the parents’ death certificate or at least with some information coming from neighbors around. You must take care that they are not friends of the owner of the orphanage.
In order to make a real change in Tanzania you must learn Kiswahili before your arrival. This will give you the opportunity to talk with the kid and to know his or her real life. Kids never lie!
I think that Tanzania is not in poverty, local adults are the ones making the country looks poor so that they can avoid their responsibilities. Tanzania has so many resources and people can't work depending on charity, you know, once a person starts speaking about volunteer and sponsorship local kids can be affected in a psychologically way by putting this type of ideas on their minds.
Poverty isn't real in Tanzania, people is the one making Tanzania poor.
World Lineage team in Tanzania