the Olive branch for children
soins de santé
TOBFC coopère avec les gouvernements locaux et de district pour apporter une éducation de la petite enfance de qualité aux communautés rurales.
Le TOBFC a créé 30 jardins d'enfants Montessori (chacun étant une « salle de classe Casa ») et a achevé la construction de 17 bâtiments scolaires Montessori, pour les enfants qui, autrement, n'auraient pas d'éducation « formelle ». Plus de 2 000 enfants sont actuellement inscrits à la maternelle Montessori dans ces écoles. Nous fournissons chaque année à nos écoles de nouveaux matériaux pour leurs salles de classe Casa et une formation d'experts pour les Tanzaniens qui enseignent dans ces écoles. En outre, TOBFC met en œuvre des initiatives de santé pour les enfants inscrits dans les écoles, notamment des campagnes de lavage des mains, de vermifugation et antifongiques.
Notre programme Montessori est unique car il s'associe à chaque communauté pour favoriser l'investissement et le soutien communautaires, garantissant ainsi son succès. Afin de faire construire une école dans leur communauté, les dirigeants d'une communauté doivent approcher TOBFC et faire une demande pour le programme Montessori. La communauté doit fournir une structure initiale et/ou un terrain où TOBFC peut construire une école. Une fois que cela est établi, la communauté est responsable de mettre sur pied un comité scolaire composé de membres. Ce comité sélectionne ensuite un enseignant et décide de la contribution de la communauté au salaire de l'enseignant (1000-3000TSH/par famille). De plus, la communauté contribue à la construction de l'école, par exemple en participant à la construction ou en travaillant pour fournir des matériaux pour la construction. TOBFC couvre tous les autres coûts supplémentaires associés à l'école, y compris le reste du salaire de l'enseignant, le mobilier et le matériel pédagogique pour les salles de classe Casa.
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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.
