Needs Assessment Part 2: The Children's Findings

Here are excerpts from a needs assessment carried out in 2008 in a slum in Morogoro, Tanzania, by two dozen children and young people. The assessment was part of a Participatory Community Development project funded by the Baring Foundation and the John Ellerman Foundation of London. The local partner is the Faraja Trust Fund, primarily an HIV and Aids prevention NGO. The focus was on how to stop or slow down the migration of children and youth to the streets.

Please visit the Faraja Trust Fund's website: http://www.farajatrust.org/


THE STUDY FINDINGS

A: THE CHILDREN GROUP

This is a group of children that was collecting information from the children on Kwa Mahita Street. The children were under the guidance of an adult for security purposes as well as for proper information documentation.

Direct observation:
The children group walked and visited Kwa Mahita Street in order to observe the people, surroundings, resources and general environment in the community. The following are their findings:

CHILDREN GROUP FINDINGS

Housing Conditions
Kwa Mahita community is one of the streets at Chamwino slum area. The area is not officially surveyed. Houses in this community are in poor condition, most of them are small mud huts, trees and roofed by grasses or hard papers. Some of the huts are in bad condition to the extent that can fall at any time. During the rainy season, water trickles from the roof to the ground. Therefore are few modern houses. There is very small space between houses.

Environment and Sanitation
Kwa Mahita community like other communities in the Chamwino slum area is unsanitary. There are no dust bins or designated areas for keeping garbage. As a result the residents contaminate the environment with garbage. The situation puts the residents in this area in jeopardy of frequent outbreaks of cholera and other infectious diseases.

Toilets
Only a few families have permanent toilets. Most of residents have no permanent toilets. They have built their toilets adjacent to their houses/huts and they are poorly constructed i.e. made of grasses, pieces of corrugated iron and nylon papers, no doors, no roofing and with mud floors. This makes them unfriendly to users as well as being dangerous especially during the rainy season when they do overflow or collapse. These toilets are also used as bathrooms.

Transport and Communication
There is one major mud road called Mahita which joins the main road to Morogoro town. This is the only road that is passable throughout the year. The rest of the roads are poor and impassable especially during the rainy seasons. The area is accessible by private town buses commonly known as dalaldala which provide services from a neighboring street called Tupendane to Morogoro town about four to five kilometers away. Most of the residents use bicycles as means of transport.

Health Services
In Kwa Mahita there is no health centre or dispensary except a few drug stores and unknown number of traditional healers. The residents face a lot of problems as far as health services are concerned. The most affected are pregnant women who are about to deliver as they have no options except are forced to go to the nearest public health clinic located about 5 km away. Another private hospital is located about 8 km from Chamwino but is too costly for the majority of Chamwino residents. The health status of the population is poor due to moderate to severe malnutrition. The major cause is poverty which makes them no able to afford a balanced diet. Some of them eat only once per day




Markets and Shops for Food Stuff
There are neither markets nor shops. There are few kiosks (magenge) that sell small food stuffs. The residents have to buy food stuffs and other items from Mwande street, Tupendane or Mawenzi market located about 4 km away.

Family Relationships
Though it was quite impossible to know about family relationships through direct observation, the children observed one family that couples were fighting during daytime. The woman was complaining over her husband’s behavior of drinking too much local beer. Production activities at the family level at Kwa Mahita are mostly done by women while men drink local beer (gongo) at local bars known as pombe shops on Tupendane street.

Child Sex Work
Many children aged 12 and above practice sex work especially at the Tupendane pombe shops. Many children hang around the area some selling food, fish or other goods while waiting for their customers, mainly drunk persons. After getting their customers, they go to nearby guest houses to entertain them for short time bases.

Child Labour
During the morning many children were seen going towards Morogoro town, possibly to Mawenzi market or Morogoro central market where they work for little payment until evening. Some children were seen along Ngerengere River digging sands, making bricks and carrying bricks or water for payment which is about sh.300 (about 0.23USD) a day. In other places, children were seen collecting iron scrappers for sale. In quarry mining areas children were seen digging and loading sand into trucks. Girls were seen selling bananas, vegetables and food stuff in the area.

Video Shows
The group observed about 8 huts that show videos on the neighboring Street of Tupendane. These huts/sheds (commonly known as mabanda) are made of sticks, papers or nylon papers with roofs of palm leaves. They are open from 8:30 am until 11:00pm. Many children were seen in these video huts and some were outside peeping in. These were children who could probably not afford to pay the entrance fee of 50Tsh (0.03 USD). Each banda has the capacity to hold 60 people. In some of the mabanda that the Children Group was able to enter and observe, there were adults too, but half of the spectators were children aging from 3 years and above. They were watching action pictures restricted to viewers over 18 years old.

Activities Done by Street Children in the Streets
Children were seen peddling vegetables, fruits, plastic bags and food stuffs. Some were working as child laborers at Ngerengeree River, quarrying and pottering. Along the rivers, some children were busy washing cars and selling and abusing drugs. At the Tupendane pombe shops some girls were selling food stuff and some child sex workers were waiting for customers.