Southern Highland Participatory Organization (SHIPO) is the initiator of a tree planting project at Ilembula ward based on Moringa species for ecological restoration, climate change mitigation and adaptation. In collaboration with Sustainable Environment and Habitats Resilience Group farmers (SEHR), and local communities in Wanging’ombe district organized and carried out an event geared on December 9th and 29th, 2023 whereby education and tree-planting was core activities for furnishing the event. More than 3,440 Moringa plants were successfully planted in the community farms. A special thanks to Igula village government who generously provided 6 acres of land for the plantation and being instrumental in making this project possible. Additionally, SHIPO’s involvement in the whole process of organizing, training facilitation, providing Moringa seedlings and labor force showcased their sincere commitment to environmental sustainability.
Multi-stakeholders Partnership Project in Climate Action, Njombe started in September 2023 by carrying out stakeholder engagement activities, raising awareness and participating in different climate, and environmental related programs. To enhance uptake of regenerative technologies to participant communities, pilots’ programs was to be co-designed, and managed as commons. Regenerative garden is among the pilots which was co-designed and now managed as commons by participant communities, other people come to work, learn, and replicate the same to the areas. The plot contain four segments; animals segment (rabbits & chickens), agro-forestry, kitchen garden, and composting segment (for production of compost manure). Congratulation to participant communities who work, get some token in exchange of effort and time they spend (to be refunded during harvest time), and all who have considered to replicate the technology.
We always say “karibu sana ujifunze namna ya kutekeleza kilimo rejelevu katika eneo dogo 20m*30m ili kujiwekea uhakika wa chakula salama, kutunza mazingira and kujiongezea kipato”.
The event was initiated by SHIPO, and jointly facilitated by climate action Njombe stakeholders, and Njombe town council (NTC). Cleanup activities were carried out at National Housing Street, specifically at one of the illegal dumping places located near the stream. About 300 people participated in the event and successful collected about 3000Kgs of wastes.
Community members together with SHIPO staff holding together a cleanliness exercise.
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
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.
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.
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.
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