The Olive Branch for Children
Gesundheitsvorsorge
TOBFC arbeitet mit Kommunal- und Bezirksregierungen zusammen, um ländliche Gemeinden mit qualitativ hochwertiger frühkindlicher Bildung zu versorgen.
TOBFC hat 30 Montessori-Kindergärten (jeweils ein „Casa-Klassenzimmer“) eingerichtet und den Bau von 17 Montessori-Schulgebäuden abgeschlossen, für Kinder, die sonst keine „formale“ Bildung hätten. An diesen Schulen sind derzeit über 2.000 Kinder im Montessori-Kindergarten eingeschrieben. Wir statten unsere Schulen jährlich mit neuen Materialien für ihre Casa-Klassenzimmer und Expertenschulungen für die Tansanier aus, die an diesen Schulen unterrichten. Darüber hinaus führt TOBFC Gesundheitsinitiativen für Kinder durch, die in den Schulen registriert sind, darunter Händewaschen, Entwurmung und Anti-Pilz-Kampagnen.
Unser Montessori-Programm ist einzigartig, da es mit jeder Gemeinde zusammenarbeitet, um die Investitionen und Unterstützung der Gemeinde zu fördern und ihren Erfolg sicherzustellen. Um eine Schule in ihrer Gemeinde bauen zu lassen, müssen sich die Leiter einer Gemeinde an TOBFC wenden und eine Anfrage für das Montessori-Programm stellen. Die Gemeinde muss eine erste Struktur und/oder Land bereitstellen, wo TOBFC eine Schule bauen kann. Sobald dies feststeht, ist die Gemeinde dafür verantwortlich, einen Schulausschuss aus Mitgliedern zusammenzustellen. Dieses Komitee wählt dann einen Lehrer aus und entscheidet über den Beitrag der Gemeinde zum Lehrergehalt (1000-3000 TSH/pro Familie). Darüber hinaus trägt die Gemeinde zum Bau der Schule bei, indem sie sich beispielsweise am Bau beteiligt oder daran arbeitet, Materialien für den Bau bereitzustellen. TOBFC deckt alle anderen zusätzlichen Kosten im Zusammenhang mit der Schule, einschließlich des restlichen Lehrergehalts, der Möbel und der Lernmaterialien für die Casa-Klassenzimmer.
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Why TOBFC Started the Better Fuel Choices Program
Many households, especially those led by vulnerable women, continue to use wood fuels to prepare meals because they cannot afford to purchase cooking stoves and tanks that use cleaner fuels. Other families have found the lack of access to gas tanks prevents them from switching from wood to gas cooking. Our community research reveals that a family of four uses the equivalent of 20 large trees per year for cooking.
Collecting and cooking with wood fuel contributes to environmental degradation but also has many other negative impacts on women’s health, ability to work and food security. Vulnerable women spend hours every week securing firewood or charcoal. Women must then spend more hours preparing wood fires and cooking – time that could be used instead for engaging in business or agricultural activities. Long cooking times and access to wood fuel make it difficult for mothers to provide breakfast for students before they go to school, resulting in many missed meals and impacting educational success.
Our Mobile Medical Clinic connects to hundreds of women every year suffering from pulmonary diseases. Burning wood and charcoal creates particle pollution and releases toxic air pollutants. Fine particles can trigger heart attacks, stroke, irregular heart rhythms, and heart failure. Our Mobile Medical Clinic also serves many women with eye issues, including acute conjunctivitis and cataracts linked to cooking with wood. The types of chronic conditions that women experience from cooking with wood and charcoal convinced our staff that TOBFC needed to start an education program for all women and communities on the benefits of cooking with gas and to help vulnerable women switch.
Through our other Community Care programs, TOBFC identifies female-headed households that are using firewood and charcoal for cooking and connects them to the Better Fuel Choices program. These vulnerable women are supplied with a new gas cooking stove and gas tank and trained how to safely use the stove. Women using these new stoves report better health and many also find it more affordable, once the capital cost of the stove is overcome.​
Some families in rural communities can afford the purchase of a gas cooking stove, but the lack of stores to refill gas tanks can be a barrier to purchasing new stoves. To improve access to gas tank refills, TOBFC now operates two Kutunza Gas Stores that are centrally located for a number of villages.
Once vulnerable women are provided with gas stoves and tanks through the Kutunza Gas Store program and there is easier access to tanks for rural communities, gas cooking is sustainable for almost all families. It is estimated that shifting a total of 2,000 households to gas will save approximately 40,000 trees per year.
Better Fuel Choices directly addresses a key environmental issue and through that action helps to tackle complex community challenges. This Climate Care program also contributes to supporting gender equity, women’s health, and financial and food security for families.
