Community Engagement

When we first arrived in Chipanga, we soon saw that the community had a different way of looking at the project than we did. With hindsight I can now reflect on certain reasons for things that members of the community did. However, at the time when we went to help dig the trenches for some water pipes, we were definitely not expecting to be met with a bucket of baga (alcohol) and people working bare foot. It’s fair to say that we were surprised and flinched every time someone from the community brought the pickaxe to the ground as it narrowly missed their bare feet. However, they didn’t have access to the safety equipment and good protective footwear that we had, and so we could hardly blame them for putting their toes at risk.

Although this was one of many shocks that we accounted in our first couple of week in Chipanga, we were positive that we would have as good a turn out for when we started our latrines at the Primary school.

However, unfortunately this was not the case and as I mentioned in another post (Primary Project) we were only joined by a few men who had been paid to help dig the latrines. They worked tirelessly, and although it was a little disheartening to not see any other community members around as we were keen to work in partnership with the community, it is understandable that their priority was to make a living for their family.

After the latrine holes had been dug and we were waiting to get started on the brick making, we came up with some ideas on how to engage the community. We decided that we needed to make a conscious effort to talk to people that we met when we were walking around the village. We also went to Church on Sunday, which was an interesting experience even if it was 3 hours long. We held a sports day in the community and it was really nice to see the whole community come together for our event. Improvisation was needed and an egg and spoon race became a potato and spoon race, and the day was finished with a big race.

Wheelbarrow race

egg and potato race

Our main turning point in our community engagement was when we held a tea party at our camp. After attending the women’s group, called Tushirikiane, we invited them to our camp to get to know them better. 

Due to a water majanga (disaster) we tried to cancel the tea party but the women weren’t having it and came anyway for our raison and biscuit party. We discussed our project and the need for their help, which came alongside explaining the concept of volunteering. After some more discussions about other issues in the village, we finished off the ‘tea party without any tea’ with some Gogo dancing.

 Gogo dancing

When it was then time to start making the bricks we were so pleased to see lots of the women and other members of the community helping out.

We continued to work in partnership with the rest of the community until the end of our time in Chipanga and they certainly helped make my time in Tanzania amazing!