Four HBA Students Head East to Tanzania and Kenya
L to R: Kinleigh, Jesse, Jackel, Kathleen
From Kathleen’s blog: http://kathleenheadseast.blogspot.com/
Western Heads East is an innovative initiative that responds to a key global issue – combating HIV/ AIDS. The program engages students in applying research to real problems for direct humanitarian benefit. In 2002, the United Nations Special Envoy issued a challenge for Canadian Universities to take an active role in addressing the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa. UWO responded by creating a community development project in Mwanza, Tanzania, a highly underserviced area of Subsaharan Africa with one of the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates in the world. The project involves students from a variety of faculties working to address the nutritional and economic needs of those directly affected by the pandemic.
The cornerstone of the Western Heads East initiative is a nutrition program based on probiotics. Probiotics are “good bacteria” that deliver health benefits to their host. They have been shown to:
1. Alleviate a risk factor for HIV infection in women
2. Lower mortality and morbidity from diarrhea in patients with AIDS
Since 2004, Western has been sending interns like moi to work with women’s groups to teach probiotic yogurt production, support local project development, and seek subsidies to provide yogurt free of charge to people living with HIV/AIDS. The original project is situated out of Mwanza, Tanzania, where interns have been working with a women’s group who are now licensed as an NGO called Tukwamuane. They have become an important segment of the Mwanza community and aim to become the Regional Headquarters for East Africa to provide training to women in other communities within Tanzania and in neighboring countries.
Another main objective behind this grassroots project is the empowerment of women – in this case I am referring to the “yogurt mamas”. The yogurt mamas have grown to contribute to the health of their communities, draw an income for their families, stimulate significant economic development and to become a hub of social support within their communities. The yogurt mamas from the Tukwamuane Women’s Group consist of 10 females who work together at the community kitchen in Mabatini, just outside of the Mwanza city centre.
Plans for the Future
Right now we are assessing the possibilities of project expansion within the Mwanza area through an increase in production and distribution at the current site in Mabatini and through the development of a larger production facility. An increase in production and distribution will assist in maintaining the distribution of the probiotic yogurt to people living with HIV/AIDS and will generate enough profit to sustain the project on its own without external assistance.
Why Yogurt?
Yogurt was chosen as the means for delivering the probiotic bacterium for the WHE project because Africa has a long history of fermented foods. It is also quite easily digestible and nutritionally dense as it is a good source of protein, fat, carbohydrates, and calcium.
My Job
So on to my part… I am responsible for outlining a micro-finance model for the replication of the community-based enterprise in other rural communities in Tanzania. I will also be working with local institutions to assist in the design and the implementation of a micro-finance model to enable the development of additional kitchens for the production of probiotic yogurt.
In the biggg picturee, I will be documenting the requirements and benefits of micro-finance for scaling up the Mwanza-based kitchen as a social franchise. I’m going to be focusing on the processes and accounting practices for managing the credit by individual members of the kitchen and by the new kitchens.
One of the more challenging aspects I am anticipating, is the resistance of the women to want to change anything. They seem to really enjoy the way things are and are not keen on expending their time training other women. Thus far, I am understanding this to be somewhat of an entitlement issue…they are proud of the business they have created and don’t want other women’s’ groups to copy them.
Read more from Kathleen and the other students at their blogs:
http://kinleighheadseast.blogspot.com/
http://kathleenheadseast.blogspot.com/
http://jesseheadseast.blogspot.com/
http://jackelheadseast.blogspot.com/
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