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Learning new skills and building viable business models enables Tanzanians to enrich their communities.
Empower Tanzania, in tandem with local Tanzanian organizations, works to establish and grow sustainable economic development.
Encouraging sustainable economic development in Tanzania requires different tactics in different areas. Some locales, such as Hedaru, require improved infrastructure and basic resources to increase economic development. In other areas, such as Shighatini, natural resources are more abundant, so learning new skills and establishing businesses are the focus of development activities.
Current Focus Areas in Economic Empowerment
- Small business development for women (especially HIV/AIDS widows)
- Farming as a family income source
- Grain production, Livestock, Poultry and Horticulture
- Community based knowledge transfer and marketing
- Improvements in grain storage, irrigation, infrastructure, agro-processing
- Access to clean water
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Gunge Safi Project: Strengthening Rural Economies Through Farmer Associations
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 "Gunge SAFI !" is the shout whenever the people of this small village meet to talk about the new ETI water/agriculture project. It means Gunge is GREAT! in Swahili, and it expresses the hope that this tiny little rural village has, since the project began.
The project encompasses 4 small villages near the Pangani River, in one of the driest areas of the Kilimanjaro Region in NE Tanzania. Gunge, Checkereni, Gama and Katahe contain a total of about 1200 people, and are roughly 10 miles from the nearest commerce center....a significant thing when you walk everywhere. In spite of their proximity to the river, the land is painfully arid. The walk through the desert to reach the river is full of predatory animals, the water is not clean, and the river contains crocodiles. This is not a situation you want to put your wife and children in every day, and yet it is the only choice they have.
More about the Gunge SAFI project...
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 Mwanga Parish of the ELCT (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania), Pare Diocese, and Peace Lutheran Church, Pella, Iowa, of the ELCA, SE Iowa Synod, cooperated in drilling a deep well about seven kilometers northwest of Mwanga, Tanzania. The well is centrally located about 2 1/2 kilometers from three villages that have no water source. In the past, villagers drank contaminated water from a hole dug in the bed of a dry stream and took their cattle ten kilometers to drink. The animals were watered only every other day. The Mwanga Parish secured the land on which the well was drilled, and local residents cleared the land. The well was drilled to 86 meters and has a solar pump and solar panels since there is no electricity in the area. A house for a guard and a storage tank were built, as well as a watering trough for cattle.
More about the well at Mforo...
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 One of our partners, St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church of Ames, Iowa, recently completed a 4-year water rehabilitation project in Hedaru, Tanzania. Based on a watershed survey done by the local water engineer, and coordinated by the Hedaru Village Water Committee, headed by Village Chairman Clement Ngoka, this water project was designed to rehabilitate a nearly 40-year-old water system that was in poor repair and did not adequately serve a population that has outgrown it.
More about the Hedearu water rehabilitation project...
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Who knew that a GOAT could save a life?! In Hedaru, where the pilot project for ETI's Nanny Project is currently underway, 20 very excited farmers know this!
The Nanny Project was conceived at the request of the local farmers, and in partnership with Hedaru Lutheran Church and St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in Ames, Iowa, in 2009.
Tanzania is a semi-arid climate, presenting some real problems for farmers trying to grow enough food to feed the local population. One thing that is severely lacking in the drier areas of the Kilimanjaro Region is dairy. It takes approximately 40 litres of water per day to keep a Tanzanian cow producing only 5-10 litres of milk, so the poor cows are in direct competition with the humans for the scarce water....hence, the lack of dairy.
Enter, the GOAT!
More about the Nanny Project...
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Agricultural Development in Shighatini
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 Most Shighatini families are subsistence farmers. That fact translates into a financial challenge for the parish as they try to maintain buildings and pay salaries using offerings from parish farm families who also have medical bills and school fees.
To help become more self-supporting, the Shighatini Parish asked Bethesda for assistance with three priority projects to boost farmers’ incomes: poultry (broilers and layers), dairy (value-added milk processing), and corn (production and storage). In addition, they established a 10–member Agriculture Club of local farmers willing to work toward their entrepreneurship goals.
More about Shighatini's agricultural economic development programs...
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