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Project news
Now we grow bananas, papayas, sugarcane, cassava, sweet potato, cowbeans, millet and sorgum
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April 25, 2012 - Today we have met several farmers in Marimanti in Tharaka district, east of Mount Kenya. One of them is Lucy Karimi Roberc. She says: Before we could grow very little in this place. We were dependent on rain only. Rains sometimes came sometimes not. If rains did not come, we could not plant anything, so we had no food for long time. Now we have irrigation water from the river coming every day. Now we grow bananas, papayas, sugarcane, cassava, sweet potato, cowbeans, millet and sorgum.
As we now produce more than we need ourselves, I sometimes go to the market and sell, but it takes 2 hours to walk
there, and I have to carry all by myself. I think I might save money and buy a bicycle next year. Anyhow, our lives here has changed dramatically since we got irrigation water. Both my husband and myself have continued with our schooling also. Our children are in kindergarten.
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Partner news
Swedish Mission Council (SMC) visited Tharaka, Kenya
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February 28, 2012 - IAS Kenya is implementing a Gravity Flow Irrigation project in Marimanti, Tharaka District. During the year 2011, a Dam was constructed across River Kathita, funded among others by the Swedish Mission Council (SMC), Linas Matkasse, Erikshjälpen and Mockfjärd Fönster. Tharaka District is one of the districts that are within the Semi-Arid area of North Eastern Kenya belt that never have enough rain throughout the year. The Dam is to assist the farmers irrigate their farms in order to attain food security. On the 12th February, 2012 Mr. Mikael Wiking of the Swedish Mission Council (SMC) visited Tharaka District to see the impact of the Gravity Flow Irrigation Project.
Mr. Mikael Wiking (middle) touring the farms together with Project Coordinator Mr. Bernard Omondi (left) and Country Director Mr. Douglas Mwiti (right).
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Pressrelease news
Big need for special education in Tanzania
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December 15, 2011 - Only 2 percent of the disabled children attend shool in Tanzania . But not very often you see that consideration is taken regarding children with a handicap. The need for special teaching is enormous, and an analysis shows that the authorities are welcoming the expert knowledge from International Aid Services.
Joeli , aged 8 years, has reduced eye sight. He should have started school last year, but the family has given up. How can he learn something, when he cannot see what the teacher writes on the blackboard? And even less read the books, which are passed around in the classes.
Mirjam , aged 11 years has not seen a school from the inside either. She is a girl and therefore lowest in the hierarchy in the family with lots of children. Furthermore she got a minor brain damage at birth. She has to stay home and look after her smaller siblings.
This is the situation in Tanzania, where only 2 percent of all children with a handicap have an opportunityh to go to school. Joeli and Mirjam are not really persons, but examples of hundreds of children with psychical and psychological handicaps in Tanzania.
Education for all
Tanzania has joined the goal ”Education for All”, which among other things build on the Millennium Development Goals and UN's Convention on Human Rights about the disabled rights. Unfortunately they are far behind from bringing the goals into reality.
- The curriculum of the schools does not show consideration for children and youth with handicap. Disabled children do not always get enough time and necessary aid tools for their exams. They do not always get interpretation, if they have reduced sight or are blind, says Anders Jacobsen, who is national director for International Aid Services in Tanzania.
The organisation has more than 10 years of experience with special education from Somalia and they are now launching a special education programme in close cooperation with the Tanzanian department of education. Only 12 percent of the 15,000 schools have a special education teacher. There is only one teachers seminary in the contry, which covers the special education area, and only 300 teachers per year get extra training. That is why International Aid Services want to help launch a distance learning programme, which can train special education teachers where they already live and work. We also need to establish resource centres in the districts, which can support the teachers.
Untreated disabilities get worse.
But the children also need to get direct help. There is a need for centres, where they can be checked and cleared by doctors, psychologists, physiotherapists and educators. And get information on what form of teaching and aid, which is needed for their challenges.
- It is important that the child gets an elucidation from a young age, so it can get the necessary help in order to develop physically, mentally and spiritually, says Anders Jacobsen and continues:
- Many children grow up with a little disablilty, and because it does not get checked and adjusted, the child gets serious problems as he/she grows up, and these problems could have been completely or partly avoided.
About 10 percent of the world's population lives with a disablilty according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). UNESCO has come to the conclusion that 80 percent of these llive in developing countries (2005). The majority of these live in the least developed countries, including Tanzania (2006). Only 2 percent of all disabled children in Tanzania are attending school today. This number also includes children, who experience barriers in other areas in connection with education.
Girls are also vulnerable
The sensational numbers are a result of a comprehensive study report induced by International Aid Services. The study includes the regions Rukwa, Mara and Kagera, and the cities Dar es Salaam and Arusha.
The report shows that about 17 percent of all children between 0 and 4 years old are considered as 'vulnerable' . About 5 percent or 930,000 are 'especially vulnerable'. And it is especially the girls. In the primary school boys with special needs have a greater chance to complete their education than girls, as a disabled girl is even worse off.
There are 7,271,198 children in all between 7 and 13 years old in Tanzania (2007). Different studies have shown that between 1 and 10 percent – 72,000 to 700,000 - are disabled. If only an average of 2-5 percent of the children at the compulsory school age are disabled, it means that 150,000 to 350,000 children should have extra help or access to special education.
Wide backup
The school leaders in the study report all agree, that including education will improve the learning for all students. But they also express the need for changing the general attitude towards disbled people within the local community.
The consultant also spoke to students with a special need at the different schools and found out that they generally liked to attend the same school as 'normal' children from their neighbourhood. Yet they suggested that the schools are designed in order to meet the needs of students with i.e. wheel chairs.
The chiefs of the visited districts also think that special education should be implemented as soon as possible. The road is thus cleared in order for International Aid Services to help the many children with special needs and those who do not yet attend school.
Facts:
Before the end of 2014:
- the three focus areas Kagera, Rukwa and Mara must have at least 6 counselling groups for children with special learning needs
- must have at least 3,000 children and youth with special learning needs in the three regions receiving relevant support in order to complete primary school
- must have at least 500 functioning school teachers doing extra training in including teaching
Goals for the first stage of International Aid Services' special education programme in Tanzania
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Project news, April 25, 2012
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