Earlier this summer, a number of our Unite Scholars completed an internship at our Unite Food Program (UFP) Outpost in the Nankanga Village in the Lake Rukwa District of southwestern Tanzania. In this extremely remote area, there are no paved roads and there is no running water or electricity. Nearly everyone survives as subsistence farmers or fishermen (on nearby Lake Rukwa). In these villages countless children are not able to attend school due to extreme poverty and their family’s inability to pay for such basic items as uniforms and school supplies. Many of them can be seen in the photos and video links in this article just hanging around the UFP Outpost, which provides the only maize and rice milling machines in more than five surrounding villages. During our Unite Scholars’ time in Nankanga, they assisted the UFP Outpost staff with milling rice and maize and providing customer care; they attended agro-business training lessons led by a local missionary-turned-large-scale-farmer; they planted banana trees on our new UFP land; they served the local community, cruised on Lake Rukwa, and much more. Below please find a few highlights from this extraordinary and historic week for our Unite Scholars and teammates.
”Thank you Unite for this unforgettable experience at Nankanga. I’ll forever be grateful.”
~Unite Scholar Zaituni Ally
FOOD PROCESSING AND CUSTOMER CARE
Click HERE to see a one-minute video of the Unite Scholars processing rice at the UFP Nankanga Outpost.
Throughout this most recent harvest season, our UFP Nankanga Outpost has been receiving between 80 and 140 customers each day. Women walk for miles, some with their rice and maize carried by donkeys and others hauling their crops on their backs, to have their harvests processed. To meet this demand, UFP Outpost manager Baraka Saul has hired four full-time employees to operate the machines. Our Scholars provided much needed extra hands during this very busy season.
TEAK TREE FARMING
Click HERE for a one-minute video of the team at Ted Rabenold’s training program.
Our scholars spent a day with Ted Rabenold (an American missionary who has lived in Tanzania for more than 30 years) at his “Shamba Darasa” Agricultural Training Center in the Lake Rukwa district learning about teak tree farming, fish farming, planting and tending to papaya, avocado, lemon, and lime trees, and more. Ted and his wife Kim regularly host skilled teachers at their working farm who come to train local small-scale farmers in both the theoretical and practical aspects of horticulture, orchard management, environmental awareness and preservation, erosion control, animal husbandry, fish farming, beekeeping, innovative and sustainable resource utilization, and more.
“Mr. Teddy taught us about symbiotic agriculture. He grows different types of trees for both wood and fruit. He rears animals like chickens and pigs for food and uses their dung as manure for his trees. The water he uses o irrigate his trees he reuses to keep his fish alive. These are all very interesting methods to learn.”
~Unite Scholar Isaac Moses Mwimanzi
Teak tree farming in Tanzania. Teak wood is harvested after 20 years and sells on the local and international markets for high prices.
PLANTING BANANA TREES ON UFP LAND
Click HERE for a one-minute video of the scholars preparing the land for the banana trees.
The team learned how to plant and protect young banana trees that they transported to Nankanga from the Iringa District of Tanzania. (The trees were a gift from the mother of Ephraim, one of our Unite Scholars, taken from her small banana shamba in Iringa.) Our scholars dug holes, prepared soil by adding charcoal and layers of manure and compost, planted the trees, covered the holes, and constructed natural thorn fences around each tree to provide protection from goats, cows, and local wildlife.
“For me, I have learned the an amazing lesson that ‘everything starts from zero’.”
~Unite Scholar Isaac Moses Mwimanzi (above left)
SERVING THE LOCAL COMMUNITY
In addition to working at the UFP Outpost and on the UFP land, our Unite Scholars and teammates spent time serving the local community. They visited the Nankanga Secondary School where the headmaster granted them permission to meet with the students (in separate groups of boys and girls) and discuss both personal and academic issues and challenges.
“The students all gave us their undivided attention and shared with us many challenges. We did our best to help them, teaching them such tips as time management, cooperation, self-determination, commitment, serious struggle, and hard work.”
~Unite Scholar Enock Sambala (pictured below leading a class at Nankanga School)
Click HERE for a one-minute video of our Scholars working with the kids at the local Nankanga secondary school.
“We learned that these are the lucky kids in Nankanga. Most kids do not get to go to school as their parents deem school a waste of time and believe that their children’s only role is to work in their respective domestic environments.”
~Unite Scholar Ephraim Thomas (back left in green t-shirt)
“We talked to the girls about the different challenges they face. We told them to persevere, to never give up on their educations, and to do everything they can to reach their goals.”
~Unite Scholar Khadija Mkopi (above right)
“The majority of girls in Nankanga don’t go to school. Those who do lack even the most basic knowledge about health and feminine hygiene. Teenage pregnancy is also a critical issue because a majority of the girls are married off at a very young ages, some as young as 14. That really broke my heart.”
~Unite Scholar Zaituni Ally
In their moments of free time, our Scholars and teammates took turns reading books (donated by Unite and transported to Nankanga to serve as a small community library housed at UFP Outpost) to the local children…
…danced to engage and entertain, and…
…and played games with the many children who spend their days just loitering around the UFP Outpost.
COUNSELING WITH UNITE DOCTOR RAYMOND MGENI
In addition to their time spent working and serving, our Unite Scholars were given time with our Unite Doctor Raymond Mgeni to ask questions and receive counseling. Each of our scholars face many unique and extreme stresses in their own personal lives and with their families. Unite works to provide them as much care and individualized support as possible.
Unite Scholars Enock and Isaac in a private meeting with Dr. Raymond Mgeni during which time they could ask any question and share any challenge in a confidential setting.
TAKING TIME TO CELEBRATE THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS!
At the end of the internship, each Unite Scholar received a Certificate of Achievement to honor and acknowledge his/her hard work and commitment, and the team was taken on a cruise on Lake Rukwa. For most, this was their first experience on a boat of any kind. What fun!
