I just completed the first week at my internship. I haven’t provided many details of my internship, so here they are: I am interning at the Iringa field office of a US-based international development organization called Africare. I am assisting the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Team to streamline and improve the M&E procedures of a project called Pamoja Tuwalee.
According to Africare’s website, Africare is the largest non-governmental organization (NGO) working exclusively on the African continent. Since 1970, Africare has worked in 36 countries promoting agriculture and food security; health and HIV/AIDS prevention; water, sanitation, and hygiene; emergency humanitarian assistance; women’s empowerment; civil society development and governance; and the environment. Currently, in Tanzania, Africare has many projects, but I will be working exclusively with the Pamoja Tuwalee staff at the Iringa field office.
In Kiswahili, “pamoja tuwalee” means, roughly, “let’s care for them together” with THEM being orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) and most vulnerable children (MVCs). The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates 1.3 million children in Tanzania have been orphaned due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In Tanzania, children are considered orphans of HIV/AIDS if they’ve lost a parent (or both) due to AIDS. Pamoja Tuwalee is a five-year United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded project being implemented in Iringa, Njombe, Dodoma, and Singida regions by Africare; Dar Es Salaam, Morogoro, Coast, Ugunja, and Pemba regions by FHI 360; Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Tanga, and Manyara regions by World Education (WEI); and Kagera, Tabora, Mara, Mtwara, Lindi, and Mwanza regions by Pact Tanzania. So, the program is being implemented in different capacities in almost all regions of the country.
Pamoja Tuwalee is a comprehensive (and holistic) approach to improving the lives, status, and health of orphans and vulnerable children in Tanzania. The Africare approach includes community mobilization and sensitization, household economic strengthening and interventions education support, access to basic health care, food and nutrition, child protection and gender-based violence prevention, psychosocial support and care, and home improvement support. Surprisingly, Africare is not involved in the direct implementation of the program activities, rather Africare contracts with sub-grantees to conduct the program activities. There is a sub-grantee in every district of the four regions where Africare is responsible for implementation of Pamoja Tuwalee. Africare provides capacity building and technical support to sub-grantees through site visits, training, and consultation.
I spent my first week learning about the project, meeting the Iringa field office staff, learning about my role in the project, and getting settled in the office. Next week, I will be traveling with the M&E Coordinator from the Iringa office to Dodoma to conduct a review (an informal process evaluation) of the Dodoma office’s M&E procedures. The Iringa and Dodoma M&E Coordinators have experienced difficulty receiving accurate data from the sub-grantees. So, we are traveling to Dodoma to provide a fresh set of eyes to critique the M&E procedures and the Dodoma M&E Coordinator is traveling to Iringa to do the same here. We will visit all of the sub-grantees in Dodoma and Singida regions to observe their work, discuss the M&E procedures, and discuss possible improvements in the process.
Thanks for reading. Be well.