Join us online for an independent evaluation of the Africa Bridge Model
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Kisondela Ward – Independent Report
We are excited to announce an independent report that dramatically validates the
effectiveness of our work for the most vulnerable children in Tanzania.
Authored by MarketShare Associates and the Ray Marshall Center of The University
of Texas at Austin, the report is a data-rich, quantitative study:
“The results of the Kisondela Wellbeing Survey demonstrate that the Africa Bridge (AB)
model has the capacity to transform the lives of Tanzania’s most vulnerable children and
significantly alleviate extreme poverty.”
“AB’s interventions have improved results for the vast majority of measured indicators
over baseline:”
Extreme poverty reduced from 74% to 46%
Food shortages dropped from 95% to 33%.
Household assets increased from 456 items to 849 items.
Home construction improved. The number using cement bricks rose from 4 to 85.
Home lighting increased from 7% to 45% – a factor in a child’s ability to study.
Livestock ownership increased 300%.
“The study found that beneficiaries reinvested their money in a variety of enterprises. This
suggests that the Africa Bridge approach encourages a mindset of entrepreneurialism
and growth.”
Special thanks go to our staff, volunteers, partners and financial supporters for their
remarkable commitment to the vision. Thank you to This Is My Village members!
We encourage you to join our effort or to consider supporting Africa Bridge through
donation or partnership. Please contact us at info@africabridge.org for more information or to view the full 43-page report with a detailed analysis of current effectiveness and opportunities for growth.
Building Bridges for Children – Part 4 by Barry Childs
Children who live in households experiencing extreme poverty survive on one
meal a day, receive little education, and have virtually no access to healthcare. It
does not have to be this way.
Africa Bridge combines a volunteer psychosocial support initiative with a unique
form of income generating co-operative that increases family incomes up to five-
fold giving the heads of households choices to transform the wellbeing of the
children in their care.
What makes the Africa Bridge model sustainable and unique are the following
critical elements:
I Creating and maintaining an unwavering focus on the most vulnerable
children.
II A contractual transfer of activities to local leaders within 5 years.
III Building on the inherent strengths and characteristics of small rural
communities.
IV The sustainable and generative nature of the co-ops.
The Cooperatives
The Most Vulnerable Children’s Committees, in consultation with the local
community, recommend which villagers qualify to become members of the
agricultural co-op. This is based on aptitude and ability, as well as the needs of
children. Africa Bridge staff and the Ward Steering Committee assess the types
of livestock or crop that would be suitable for the village. Obviously, local weather
conditions, soil quality and terrain are dominant considerations. Tanzania has a
tropical climate, but the highlands have a cool season in July-August. The
temperature varies depending on the altitude. Chilly nights are not unknown. In
the hotter zones, avocados, for example, does not thrive. Some potential crops,
such as cocoa, are not suitable because of the slow growing time; there would
not be a return within the five years of an Africa Bridge project. Typically, there
are between one to two agricultural co-operatives for each village.
Prior to starting the coop there is an intensive training program. This begins with
education on governance, fiscal management, and administration, -such as
running meetings, decision making, and taking minutes. The next unit is technical
agricultural advice related to the crop or animal that the co-op selects. Africa
Bridge staff work closely with co-operative members to coach, and embed the
training and the values of the co-op.
Co-ops initially receive a grant from the Africa Bridge organization. In the case of
a dairy co-op, Africa Bridge may buy, for example, 12 cows and one bull. The
first calf born is donated by each farmer back to the co-op; the second calf is
sold, and part of the proceeds go to the Most Vulnerable Children’s Committee.
Every calf born after that belongs to the owner of the cow, and they are
responsible for taking care of her. But this process always happens within the
context of co-op membership. We have found that that assigning an individual to
each cow fosters a direct sense of responsibility and is more effective in practice.
In the case of a co-op with livestock, one or two of the co-op members are
trained as “nurse practitioners”. These local experts monitor the health of the
animals and know when to call for specialist intervention from a vet. The breed of
cow selected is high-yield and valuable, with registered lineage. There is a
market for the calves in Tanzania, and a farmer may receive up to $300 dollars
for a healthy calf. The manure from the cows is converted into compost to
enhance crop yields for arable produce.
Control of disease is a major issue for animal projects. For this reason, all
animals are housed in shelters, preventing the acquisition or spread of diseases.
Co-op members are trained in maintaining good animal hygiene, disease
prevention and use of critical vaccinations.
With avocados, the capital pay-out works differently. Paying back into the co-op
the initial loan of 50 seedlings is done in the form of cash, enough to buy 50
seedlings. In addition to the seedlings, members receive funds for insecticides
and fertilizer. As with the dairy co-op, they contribute to the MVCC. As it takes
time for an avocado tree to mature and yield fruit, there is a tapered, three-year program for repaying the contractually agreed loan and payments into the MVCC. In the first year, the avocado harvest is small and the trees only reach their prime after 15-20 years.
Agricultural produce of the co-ops has included maize, pigs and chickens as well
as dairy cows and avocado. Any profits on agricultural assets are reinvested, and
new members are encouraged to join, so the project is growing and regenerative.
Each co-op creates a savings fund, to provide loans for emergency needs – for
example, taking a child to hospital, or veterinary treatment for a cow, and co-op
members receive training on financial accounting and governance.
The general principle is maintained: co-operative members pay back into the co-
op so that new members receive agricultural assets. The co-operative grows in
membership and collective wealth, and becomes financially generative and self-
sufficient. It can grow without further grants from Africa Bridge. It is a profitable
local co-operative enterprise that funds humanitarian work and creates
opportunities for children. It is not dependent upon distant donors.
Each farmer within the co-op is an individual entrepreneur. We find that this
approach encourages a deep engagement with the project, and creates an
incentive for economic growth and development, including diversification. So,
while they are part of a co-op, the co-operative element is limited to a savings
fund with loan facilities and contributions to help vulnerable children. Once an
individual has repaid their loans and made their contractual payments to the
MVCC, they are free to retain profits, improve quality of life for their families, and
reinvest as they judge appropriate.
Development and growth
The Africa Bridge approach encourages a mindset of entrepreneurialism and
growth. The co-ops add members and scale during the five years of establishing
the programs and subsequently. The concept is one of sustainable growth and
supporting the children and the community, not scaling up as an end goal.
While there is a co-operative element, the individual farmer is free to retain profits
and reinvest, should they choose. Some co-op members have expanded their
businesses, often with remarkable success. For example, some avocado farmers
from Africa Bridge co-operatives formed an association, including non-Africa
Bridge farmers, and identified four buyers for the UK market. They expanded
their sales, including exports, with the achieved a price rising from 390 Shillings
per kilo to 1,250 Shillings within a few years, transforming their business’s
fortunes and the quality of life for their families. In a similar initiative, Africa Bridge
dairy farmers pooled resources for storage and refrigeration facilities and
negotiated to become suppliers for a yogurt company. I was on a flight between
Tanzania and South Africa and my breakfast tray included a yogurt produced with milk from yogurt enterprise. It was the most memorable airline meal I have ever received!
Other examples of diversification include setting up retail and hospitality outlets,
a corn-milling service, a community bank, and a rental service of a commercial
rotavator to farmers. Through setting up and running their own small business,
individuals have developed skills, confidence, and entrepreneurial flair, that
enable both diversification and resilience. In the early days of Africa Bridge three
pig co-ops were affected by swine flu. The stock had to be destroyed, but within a short space of time some co-operative members had established different businesses. For example, Granny Mary opened a pub and built two successful shops. All the children in her care were healthy and attending school.
Building Bridges for Children – Part 3 – Barry Childs
Children who live in households experiencing extreme poverty survive on one meal a day, receive little education, and have virtually no access to healthcare. It does not have to be this way.
Africa Bridge combines a volunteer psychosocial support initiative with a unique form of income generating co-operative. This increases family incomes up to five-fold, giving the heads of households choices to transform the wellbeing of the children in their care.
What makes the Africa Bridge model sustainable and unique are the following critical elements:
I Creating and maintaining an unwavering focus on the most vulnerable children.
II A contractual transfer of activities to local leaders within 5 years.
III Building on the inherent strengths and characteristics of small rural communities.
IV The sustainable and generative nature of the co-ops.
There are no street children in a village. All children live with a family.
There are no street children in rural villages.
It took me a while to realize that in Tanzania, street children were only a phenomenon in cities and large towns. There are no street children in rural villages. When I first started working in the village of Idweli in 2002 we decided to build an orphanage for vulnerable children. The children did very well at the Children Center. The children were well fed, received healthcare and their academic results improved. However, the Center divided the community. There was only enough space for about a third of the children who needed to be housed there. Furthermore, the community could not support the upkeep of the Center, making them dependent on outside funding.
I came to realize that the issue to be solved was not finding homes for most vulnerable children. These children already had homes in the community. The issue was the income of the families housing vulnerable children. Most of these families were living in extreme poverty. Their income was under $2 per day. They could not afford to feed, clothe, educate and provide healthcare for the entire family.
Villagers have an innate understanding of agriculture.
Life in a village is dependent on agricultural activities. Most of the small plots of land support a mix of different crops grown at a subsistence level with perhaps a few chickens, a goat or even a cow. Some land is devoted to a specific cash crop such as potatoes, corn or beans. However even these crops have very low yields per acre and are vulnerable to the vagaries of the weather, diseases and fluctuating market prices.
The Africa Bridge coop program recognizes the strong social structures and relationships within the community and strives to expand and leverage them. With this realization Africa Bridge started income generating co-operatives. These cooperatives have enabled villagers to raise their incomes and the to transform the lives of the children in their care and themselves.
An example: A typical Tanzanian cow purchased in the village costing about $50 will yield about one to two quarts of milk per day. However, a high-grade cow costs $200 to $400 and with good dairy management can yield 10 to 30 quarts per day. Africa Bridge coops provide high-grade cows, so families can move beyond subsistence farming, to being able to sell their outputs for a profit. This access to knowledge, a support system within the co-op and capital dramatically increases family incomes transforming the wellbeing of the children.
Barry’s Building Bridges for Children -2
BUILDING BRIDGES FOR CHILDREN (II)
Children who live in households experiencing extreme poverty survive on one meal a day, receive little education, and virtually no access to healthcare. It does not have to be this way.
Africa Bridge combines a volunteer psychosocial support initiative with a unique form of income generating co-operative that increases family incomes two to five-fold giving the heads of households the choices to transform the wellbeing of the children in their care.
What makes the Africa Bridge model sustainable and unique are the following critical elements:
I Creating and maintaining an unwavering focus on the most vulnerable children.
II A contractual transfer of activities to local leaders within 5 years.
III Building on the inherent strengths and characteristics of small rural communities.
IV The sustainable and generative nature of the co-ops.
II A contractual transfer of activities to local leaders within 5 years.
AB recognizes that for the program to succeed, the responsibility and ownership of the program must reside within the community. After the Future Search meetings are completed, a 5-year Collaboration Agreement is drawn up outlining the responsibilities of Africa Bridge and the community. An end date and quantifiable deliverables are set. All parties sign this 5-year Ward Collaboration agreement which forms the guidelines for the Ward Steering Committee.
Members of the Most Vulnerable Children’s Committee and Co-ops are given intensive training in real time for up to three years to ensure they have the capacity and confidence to take full responsibility for the 5-year program.
The newly formed co-ops learn about governance and elect co-op leaders, who over the next few years assume leadership of the co-ops. Every co-op member signs a contract making them responsible for the care of the agricultural assets they receive. Local government leaders cosign this contract and agree to ensure that they will steward the co-op members contractual obligations along with co-op leaders. Members of the Most Vulnerable Children Committees (MVCC) receive training to increase their knowledge on psychosocial interventions and providing paralegal support.
For example, members of the MVCC learn how to ensure each vulnerable child receives a birth certificate. We in the US would not think this is significant. We assume every child gets a birth certificate at birth. In Tanzanian villages most people do not have a birth certificate. A birth certificate is only required if you want to open a bank account, attend high school or receive medical help. These are both uncommon practices in a village. However, if there is a dispute about a child’s inheritance, a child without a birth certificate has no rights. Hence, the MVCC ensure they get birth certificates for every vulnerable child in the community. MVCC members learn about children’s and women’s rights and communicate this information on to the villagers. The services provided by these volunteers are extensive. I am always humbled when I listen to members of a village MVCC give a monthly report on their activities.
Tunsi Belaga, Corn Co-op, Lufunbi Village: “After our monthly co-op meetings the women would stay on and discuss how we could start our own businesses. After our first harvest we began to realize that we could grown better corn than the men. If we could grow better corn than men, then we could do anything better than men.”
The leadership of the project shifts from Africa Bridge to the Steering Committee, the MVC Committees and the Co-ops.
Women become more entrepreneurial and confident. They start new businesses and emerge as respected community leaders.
Barry’s Building Bridges for Children -1
BUILDING BRIDGES FOR CHILDREN (I)
Tanzanian children who live in households experiencing extreme poverty survive on one meal a day, receive little education, and virtually no access to healthcare. It does not have to be this way.
Africa Bridge combines a volunteer psychosocial support initiative with a unique form of income generating co-operative that increases family incomes two to five-fold. This gives heads of households the choices to transform the wellbeing of the children in their care.
What makes the Africa Bridge model sustainable and unique are the following critical elements:
I Creating and maintaining an unwavering focus on the most vulnerable children.
II A contractual transfer of activities to local leaders within 5 years.
II Building on the inherent strengths and characteristics of small rural communities.
IV The sustainable and generative nature of the co-ops.
I Creating and maintaining an unwavering focus on the most vulnerable children.
When starting work in a new community, Africa Bridge’s first activity is to meet with children ranging in age from 10 to 22 years. These three-day Future Search meetings give the children the opportunity to explain their understanding of the reasons for their predicament, their current realities, and their dreams for the future.
This is an opportunity for us to listen to and to understand the context within which the children live. It is a sobering experience. I remember at the first of these meeting in 2002 I was talking with a Gloria from Idweli who was obviously suffering from malnutrition. She had a pot belly and a reddening of her hair. I asked her what she wanted most in her life. Bearing in mind her circumstances and condition, I expected her to ask for food. She did not. She looked me in the eyes and said “I want to go to school”. I will never forget that child. Children living in extreme poverty mature early and have a clear vison of what they need most in life.
After the children’s meeting we meet with
community leaders and representatives from the children’s meetings, for another three days. The children and adults agree on priorities, develop a 5-year action plan, and form a Steering Committee along with a Most Vulnerable Children’s Committee (MVVC) for each village. The Steering Committee includes children and local government officials and it guides the 5-year plan for the group of villages. The Most Vulnerable Children’s Committees identify families caring for most vulnerable children; provide psychosocial and paralegal support; and continually monitor the wellbeing of the children.
This focus on children engages the whole community and in particular women. Women understand that the Africa Bridge program is giving them choices to be able to care for their children. Women living in extreme poverty do not have the financial resources to feed their children adequately, provide an education or healthcare. Women are a key factor in the sustainability the AB model. Women ensure that the community builds a bridge for their children’s future.
Furthermore, the unwavering focus on the wellbeing of children unites and integrates whole community around its most critical asset, the future of their children.
Africa Bridge Blog 