Category Archives: Community

  • 20 February 2023
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280 Mivengi planted by the Neighbours at SHIPO catchment area where the spring leads to Nyakamtwe River

Category : Climate , Community , Ongoing

Tanzania Forest Services Agency (TFS) in Njombe is providing seedlings of different tree species for
free so we could not miss the opportunity of taking some and gathering the neighbours to protect a
water catchment that for the last years is under pressure: maize plantations within the area,
construction of houses, a new fuel station built upstream, pines…

Equipped with hoes and boots, street neighbours, Lumena group members (Environmental group
from Melinze street) and staff working at SHIPO office headed early morning to the catchment area.
The area is quite broad: we started in the swamp and then continued planting along the households
of SHIPO street. 2.5 hours of getting muddy hands, some sweat and connecting with colleagues and
neighbours while doing something meaningful.

It might sound too typical: we need trees to act against climate change. But in fact, that is it: we need
trees. We need them to capture carbon, to protect the water sources, to maintain biodiversity, to
provide food for so many species, to maintain the local (micro) climate, to provide shadow…in fact, to
regenerate the Earth.

But we are aware that exercises like today´s are not enough. We need cooperation and agreements
among community members to manage commons like this water source. This catchment belongs to
two different wards: one of the sides is part of Mjimwema ward, while the other belongs to Njombe
Mjini. Today´s exercise only involved neighbours on one side. Apparently, talking to the other side
about protecting the area brings some tensions: they are different leaders, the land owners do not
live in the area…”changamoto” (challenge). That is why we need Multi-stakeholder Partnerships.
Tuendelee! #ClimateActionNjombe

  • 17 February 2023
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PROGRESS ACTIVITY FOR LATRINE CONSTRACTION MWEMBETOGWA B PRIMARY SCHOOL IN MAKAMBAKO TOWN COUNCIL

Category : Community , Education , Ongoing

1.0. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background information

Mwembetogwa B primary school is one of the schools built by SHIPO in cooperation with the community members of Makambako town ship around 2006 and handed over to the community. In 2007 the school was officially opened starting with pupils who were split from Mwembetogwa making this one to be Mwembetogwa B. Following the good infrastructures built, pupils have been performing better to make so many pupils be selected to join with secondary schools around Njombe Region and through out the country. However since SHIPO handed over the school to the community it has still been maintaining friendship through visitation.

In one of the visits SHIPO managed to learn that there is rapid increase of the number of pupils in the school, but the drop holes are not enough for the increasing number of pupils and even those available are of no good quality, there fore this made SHIPO find a need to support these pupils with building drop holes in cooperation with the community members.

During visits we realized some other things that are going well and some that might need to be considered for rehabilitation and the general school information as shown here bellow;

  • Head teachers name: Frowin o. Haule
  • School registration number: EM. 15709
  • Examination number: PS
  • Total number of pupils 589 (Male 270 and 319 Female)
  • The school has 11 teachers (2 Males and 9 Females)

 2.0 Good things observed;

  • All standard IV,V,VI and VII master 3R.
  • The school have 9 classes to accommodate the available number of pupils.
  • Pupils get lunch while at school contributed by parents as follows;
  • 40 liters of maize to every pupil per year.
  • 14 liters of beans for every pupil per year.
  • 10 liters of rice for every pupil per year and
  • 20,000/= every parent. This helps to buy salt, cooking oil, paying the cooker and the school watchman.
  • They have a borehole as a source of water for uses at school
  • The school have 2 blocks of drop holes, 1 for boys pupils and 1 for girls pupils, each block has 8 drop holes good for pupils use, and more over each block have 1 drop hole for the disabled pupils.
  • Lunch is provided at school through parents contributions (parents contribute maize, beans, rice, salt and cooking oil.

3.0. Challenges observed;

  • The school have 2 blocks of drop holes, 1 for boys pupils and 1 for girls pupils, each block has 16 drop holes to make a total of 32 drop holes in the school but they are not good for pupils use, and do not consider disabled pupils though they are not there in the school.
  • They do not have school library for reference books.
  • They do not have kitchen with dining hall where they can cook and eat.
  • No special room for girls pupils.
  • Books are also a challenge to meet pupils ratio.

4.0. Way forward

 SHIPO as one of the stakeholders in education and child protection, in cooperation with the community members of Makambako have so far started the processes of contraction of toilet at Mwembetogwa B. primary school as one of its contribution to the community in valuing education and child protection.

5.0 Some photos taken at the site

Figure 1&2:  Contraction materials bricks and sand collected

Figure 3: The level of pit latrine dug up

6.0. Conclusion

Activities  for collection of sand, bricks, gravels, stones and building  the pit are still going on by SHIPO masons and  the community members of Makambako town ship as beneficiaries of the project.

  • 17 February 2023
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PROGRESS ACTIVITY ON ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION PROJECT AT ILEMBULA IN WANGING’OMBE DISTRICT

Category : Climate , Community , Ongoing

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background information

Southern Highland Participatory Organization (SHIPO) is a non-governmental organization based in Njombe Region. The organization works in three Districts which are Njombe, Wanging’ombe and Ludewa, SHIPO also works in partnership with other organizations in and outside Njombe Region in providing services to the community. SHIPO involves it self 100% to help the government in solving different challenges as part of its responsibility to the community, however SHIPO supports local communities in rural and urban in their efforts to improve their standards and alleviate poverty.

Some projects that SHIPO implements include building infrastructures like; class rooms, teachers houses, kitchen with dining halls, blocks of drop holes for pupils and teachers, building health centers, contraction of gravity water systems and bore holes and other simple technologies, provision of education on health, hygiene and sanitation, getting safe water, rain water harvest and retaining water into the ground.

SHIPO also has a long track of records implementing projects in the education and health sectors. HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, gender and good governance are cross cutting issues taken up in all projects.

More than that SHIPO works to struggle against global environmental issues-climate change where as on 16th December 2022, SHIPO with the community of Ilembula, started the process of establishing Moringa tree nursery at Ilembula village in Ilembula ward -Wanging’ombe District. The activity started with the initiation meeting where by a team of organized farmers who were ready and willing to cooperate with SHIPO in implementing the project were identified. Immediately    after the identification of organized farmers, training on nursery preparation was done, this was accompanied by planting of seeds in nursery. On 20th January 2023, the project was introduced to the government authority where by the District representative sent on behalf of the district Executive Director, ward officers, village leaders and members of the group identified during the initiation meeting attended the project introductory meeting at Ilembula ward hall. On 31st January 2023, there was a conduction of training on planting and management of the moringa tree, but also good governance training was done for the purpose of making proper supervision of the project implementation. On 13th Feb. 2023 a surprise visit was done just to see the progress of the project.

        1.2. Objectives of the visit

  • To see how people are motivated with the project by observing their participation in planting seedlings in farms.
  • To validate the supervision processes during distribution of seedlings to group members and leaders.
  • To validate the number of seedlings planted and geographically to know the fields planted with seedlings so as to simplify monitoring activities.

2.0. Achievements

  • People were found planting seedlings at their farms with a very high motivation.
  • People are collecting seedlings from the nursery to their farms ready for planting, is also a sign of motivation of people to the project.
  • 4144 seedlings were already distributed to community members by 14 Jan 2023.

2.1.   Challenges

  • Moringa tree is very much interested by animals like cows and goats some thing that was seen threatening its existence in farms.

2.2. Way forward

  • They went back referring to what was agreed in the training meeting, that if somebody’s cattle will be found eating moringa the owner will be responsible according to set out rules during the training and the owners of farms have fence their farms so as to maintain the safety of moringa trees.

Picture 1: Moringa tree seedlings are packed ready to be taken to the farm for planting, the packing goes hand in hand with registration of the name and number of seedlings taken.

Picture 2&3: Group member at their group farm planting moringa tree collectively & Monitoring of the planted seedlings by SHIPO staffs and community members representatives is going on.

4.0. Conclusion

The planting of moringa tree is still going on at Ilembula ward. The Ilembula village authority and  Ilembula village environmental committee having realized the necessity of moringa tree and the initiatives of the group members towards planting moringa tree, have decided to provide them with an area to plant moringa tree which will be owned by the group it self.

  • 13 February 2023
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ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION PROJECT

Category : Climate , Community

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background information

Southern Highland Participatory Organization (SHIPO) is a non-governmental organization based in Njombe Region. The organization works in three Districts which are Njombe, Wnging’ombe and Ludewa, SHIPO also works in partnership with other organizations in and outside Njombe Region in providing services to the community. SHIPO involves it self 100% to help the government in solving different challenges as part of its responsibility to the community, however SHIPO supports local communities in rural and urban in their efforts to improve their standards and alleviate poverty.

 

Some projects that SHIPO implements include building infrastructures like; class rooms, teachers houses, kitchen with dining halls, blocks of drop holes for pupils and teachers, building health centers, contraction of gravity water systems and bore holes and other simple technologies, provision of education on health, hygiene and sanitation, getting safe water, rain water harvest and retaining water into the ground.

 

SHIPO also has a long track of records implementing projects in the education and health sectors. HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, gender and good governance are cross cutting issues taken up in all projects.

 

More than that SHIPO works to struggle against global environmental issues-climate change where as on 16th December 2022, SHIPO with the community of Ilembula, started the process of establishing Moringa tree nursery at Ilembula village in Ilembula ward -Wanging’ombe District. The activity started with the initiation meeting where by a team of organized farmers who were ready and willing to cooperate with SHIPO in implementing the project were identified. Immediately    after the identification of organized farmers, training on nursery preparation was done, this was accompanied by planting of seeds in nursery. On 20th January 2023, the project was introduced to the government authority where by the District representative sent on behalf of the district Executive Director, ward officers, village leaders and members of the group identified during the initiation meeting attended the project introductory meeting at Ilembula ward hall. On 31st January 2023, there was a conduction of training on planting and management of the moringa tree, but also good governance training was done for the purpose of making proper supervision of the project implementation. This summary report aims to explain what was done during training meeting.

        1.2. Objectives of the training

Following the current global environment issue-climate change which is leading to occurrence of different disasters and the importance of moringa tree, SHIPO with the community of Ilembula decided to cooperate in planting moringa trees as a way of combating climate and perhaps in future the product be a source of income to the community members of Ilembula ward and the neighbour s. basically the training aimed at the following;

  • To train people on how to prepare farms, planting moringa trees and how to take seedlings from the nursery to the farms.
  • Train people on how to maintain and conserve trees, but here it focused on moringa trees the target trees in the area.
  • Training on the supervision of the project (Good governance).

2.0 Achievements

  • The training was attended by all expected/targeted members and potential for the success of the project.
  • The training was facilitated by the right experts of forests and environment from the District and SHIPO.
  • The training was also attended by a forest  retired officer who had great and interesting contributions towards his experience on moringa tree ( he calls a tree of great wonders in the world)

The picture above shows: Mr. Dauson Msumange, SHIPO Officer facilitating the global environmental issues-climate change


The picture shows trainees in groups discussing on how trees (moringa) is going to be maintained and conserved against cattle and other animals.
  • 13 February 2023
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PROTECTED AND CONSTRUCTED WATER COLLECTION POINTS AT JOSHONI STREET IN MJIMWEMA WARD-NJOMBE TOWN

Category : Community , Completed , Water and Sanitation

  • Background

AUARA (117B) project supports the Tanzania community to supply safe and clean water in rural and urban areas through providing materials to the people like tanks. Also ensure safety of different sources of water like Springs and rivers by fencing around sources.

Njombe Urban Water and Sanitation Authority (NJUWASA) is the responsible organ to supply water within Njombe town. However, the network is often not reliable, cutting down and breaking of water infrastructures are common. Although Joshoni street in Mjimwema ward is within the Njombe town council, often the neighborhoods do not get piped water supply, especially during dry period (June to December). This affects the households suffer from shortage of water service. 

Due to this situation, many neighbors’ fetch water using buckets from an open spring in the area. Several ponds have been dug to retain water and make it easier for the neighbors to fetch it. In the area, solid wastes are dumped and it is common to see livestock (cows, goats) grazing and some cultivation activities going on. These, significantly increase the risk of the water source to be polluted and hence not being safe for households’ consumption.

  • Objective
  • The main objective of the project was to hand over the protected and constructed three water points connected to the intake for Joshoni community members living near the area. 
  • Insisted the community to protecting the spring area through covering of the intake and ponds, making maintenance in fencing the area;
  • Tested the quality of water in three water points connected to the intake.



  • Beneficiaries, profile

The beneficiaries of the project are those who get water service from the spring area when the piped water is not available. 2,100 people now benefit from the project: 1,500 are neighbors of Joshoni street; 150 students from Mpechi Vocational College and more than 400 students from Mpechi Secondary school.

  •  Impact and sources of verification

The final impact of the project improved the living standards of the community of Joshoni street in Mjimwema ward. Thanks for improving access to clean and safe water in the spring area, the risk of health problems of the community members will be reduced. It will also be easier, safer and faster for the people (mainly children and old people)

Picture shows the guest of honor insisting the Joshoni community members to protect the spring water and giving thanks to SHIPO for good implementation of the project.
  • 6 November 2022
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Mgala Beekeeping

Category : Community

Mgala village is among the villages in Njombe Region.Mgala village is under administration of Njombe Town Council.Though it is administered by Njombe Town Council but geographically the village is in a typical rural area about 75km from Njombe town. Villagers are mostly practicing subsistence farming.Poverty is still a challenge in this village,its even more challenge to vulnerable groups like widows,orphans etc.Apart of having poor community members but the village is blessed of having natural forests and arable land. The Total number of people living in Mgala village is 370 where there are 142 men and 228 women.

Other objectives of the project include; Adding value to natural forest, Provide knowledge to poor women and foster parents on entrepreneurship and bee keeping skills, and to create small income generating projects through beekeeping in the village.

Project components

The project consists of two components:

1.Training of the Mgala Women and fosters parents Group on Entrepreneurship and beekeeping

2.Improving income generation activities through beekeeping.

  • 12 October 2022
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Sixteen days of unlearning, learning and relearning around climate change in Hamburg, Germany

Tags :

Category : Climate , Community

Abdallah, community gatherer at SHIPO, had the honour of representing Tanzanian youth in the 2022 DAKA Exchange Program as a climate change activist and environmental enthusiast. He was one of 10 youths selected for the program. The initiative links educators, social workers, and environmental and climate change activists from Hamburg, Germany and Tanzania. This was his experience:

I was pleased to discover that Hamburg is almost entirely green when I arrived. When I asked my hosts how they do it, they responded that the main factors contributing to the city’s green status are tree conservation and city planning. Because Hamburgers value nature, the necessity of conservation has been emphasized in all engineering and building designs, and each person is taking personal responsibility for it.

We spent the first week looking at some similarities between Tanzania and Germany with our Hamburg colleagues (Dar es Salaam – Hamburg in particular). We were able to investigate certain ongoing projects, such as waste management programs, educational programs, and community centres, and their functions in transforming social problems into workable and long-lasting solutions through cooperative systems.

Experiences from Week Two.

The second week’s activities were primarily focused on indoor workshop learning and practical workouts on a variety of subjects, including sustainability and education, climate change, decolonization and system changes for former German colonies in Africa, and mental health in relation to current affairs of crisis, COVID-19, and climate injustice. As we applied our daily community intervention activities, we were also given coaching on facilitation strategies, public speaking, and appreciative inquiry procedures during the learning sessions.

Night of networking and presentation for personal activities. 

We had the opportunity to interact with and network with invited experts, Hamburg City employees, teachers, and other stakeholders during this session. As a young climate activist, I was humbled to be given the opportunity to exhibit the work I love to do the most in my category. On that day, I discussed how community involvement and cleanups might help to address the issue of improper trash management. People gained knowledge from my presentation regarding waste and brand audit (WABA) and data exchange among the crucial community stakeholders.

Take home learning and opportunities.

1. I discovered the importance of community centres and open playgrounds in preserving urban environments and ecologies. I believe we can engage the regional authorities of Njombe within the “Multi-stakeholder climate action plan” to explore that and to incorporate it into their urban planning initiatives.

2. Networking with Hamburg-based transformational leaders who work in the permaculture, composting, and recycling businesses. The establishment of an upcycling centre, where residents of the neighbourhood drop off their used and/or unwanted items like clothing, books, shoes, and other home necessities, was one of the best ideas I’ve ever seen. When people in need pass by the shop, they can choose the items they need and donate any small sum of money they can afford or wish to.

3. First week of November the colleagues from Germany will also visit Tanzania, and it was advised that all youths from Tanzania who visited in Hamburg should also meet in person and have sessions for 10 days in order to make them (participants) from Hamburg to explore more about Tanzania and learn as we did in Germany. 

  • 13 September 2022
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Linking and learning workshop

Category : Community , Education

SHIPO led a linking and learning workshop on participatory approaches in community development for Tanzanian organizations that work with Wilder Ganzen. The goal of Wilde Ganzen is to help poor people become more self-sufficient in their basic needs. Persuaded that by allowing communities to set their own priorities, they become change agents rather than recipients of aid. In this case, Wilde Ganzen has started a movement aimed at ending poverty from the ground up and promoting community-based development.

With this movement, there is hope that these organizations will be inspired and enabled to work on long-term poverty reduction not only for themselves but also (where possible) in collaboration with local communities.

Download and read the full report:

L&L workshop reportDownload

Boresha Elimu updates Q1 & Q2 2022

Tags :

Category : Community , Education

Summary of activities implemented grouped under project outputs

Improve Parents Engagement on Education Process of the Children

From April to May 2022, SHIPO, in collaboration with the Mbozi District Welfare Office and the Police Gender Desk, held a one-day public awareness meeting in 7 villages identified as having high child labour and violence against children’s rights. By June 2022, School Reports indicated an increase in parent attendance at quarterly school meetings from 1,174 (569-F; 695-M) parents in 2021 to 1,819 (848F; 971M) parents by June 2022.

  • One among the public awareness meeting at Naulongo and Sambewe village at Mbozi DC

In April to May 2022, SHIPO held a one-day strategic meeting with child rights and protection commit-tees in the mentioned vulnerable 7 villages to discuss how to address child rights and protection challenges by identifying children at risk and developing a plan to address issues at the school level.

Increased school attendance among girls and boys

From the 20th of May to the 17th of June 2022, 280 girls clubs members, 400 girls and boys (200F; 200M) child rights clubs, and 400 girls and boys (200F; 200M) health and environment clubs students in 20 schools received a one-day refresher training. They are based on the ability to recognize safe contraceptive devices for managing MHM in schools and at home, as well as safe methods for storing and disposing of used menstrual equipment, the relationship between menstrual hygiene and health, the concept of safe menstruation, and menstrual biology. Also, 400 boys were trained about gender competencies including MHM knowledge. 

  • The picture above shows the clubs members after the training reading the posters concerning child rights and protection

Improved teaching quality in target schools

The purchase and provision of 31 desks since May 2022. Regarding the type and size of commonly produced desks, the desk-to-student ratio in this Grade-I decreased from 1:5 in an unusual ratio to 1:3 in a normal ratio so as to an improved learning environment observed where 93 boys and girls (47F; 46M) Grade-I students at Igamba Primary School who were seated down during learning in class benefited.

  • The LGAs at ward level, teachers and students at Igamba primary school receiving desks from SHIPO
  • 31 January 2022
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TRAINING OF TRAINERS WORKSHOP ON PLANNING AND DESIGNING RURAL WATER SUPPLY NETWORKS

Category : Community , Water and Sanitation

From the 6th to the 11th of September, the ToT workshop took place at SHIPO building, Njombe, with the participation of 18 RUWASA project designing team members from the Southern zone: Njombe, Iringa, Mbeya, Songwe and Rukwa regions.

The main goal of the workshop was to train theoretic-practically engineers and technical people from the Southern zone of Tanzania on planning and designing rural water supply networks with the aim of filling in their knowledge gaps and of capacitating them to transfer that knowledge to their colleagues.

Experts from relevant institutions in the sector of water in Tanzania facilitated the training: 2 trainers from the Project Design Department in RUWASA HQ, one trainer from the Water Institute and one trainer from Nyasa Basin Water Board. In addition, an expert from Integrated Engineering Associates (IEA), Cameroon, acted as a coach for trainers and organizers during the training.

The six-day training consisted of 3 days of theory and 3 days of practical work. Common knowledge gaps in reporting and technical issues were the focus of the theoretical part. The practical part started with a site visit to a real project in Nyombo village (Njombe DC). With the relevant data taken from the field, the trainees designed the water supply system. Afterwards, divided in teams, the participants designed projects from their regions. This was done with the close support of the trainers. Finally, each team developed and presented their plan on how the peer to peer learning is going to take place and how they are going to design their projects.

The participants showed a lot of commitment and interest and according to the evaluation, in general, the participants were very satisfied with the workshop as it will help them develop professionally.

Next steps

In the coming months, SHIPO will follow-up and monitor the activities carried out by the different teams according to their action plans. the knowledge-transfer to their colleagues and the quality of the project designs.

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About SHIPO

We are a Tanzanian NGO based in Njombe and operates throughout the Tanzanian mainland. Our NGO is specializing in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Microfinance, Agriculture and Irrigation and having more than 12 years of experience working in rural communities by facilitating projects based on the priorities, needs and capacities of rural communities as well as the private sector.

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