Former classmates from university support farmers in Tanzania

She is a graduate of International Development Studies at Palacký University in Olomouc and a member of the nonprofit organization Maendeleo, which is run by graduates of that field of study. Why she decided together with her classmates to take part in this time- and financially demanding project supporting local farmers in Africa is explained in an interview by Zuzana Břehová.

When Maendeleo was founded, it was initiated by two young people: Martin Schlossarek and Gabka Freislerová. Both studied a master’s program at the Department of Development and Environmental Studies (KRES), and in the summer of 2011 they also traveled to Tanzania for an internship, with support from the department through the Vavroušek scholarship. Martin spent three months collecting data for his thesis on the topic “The Causes and Consequences of Poverty in the Utengule/Usangu Area,” talking with people in villages and thinking about how he could help them get out of the cycle of poverty. From the research and the interviews, what Maendeleo does today eventually emerged: purpose-linked loans for people to support the development of small-scale farming and entrepreneurship.

A year later, Zuzana Břehová (another KRES student in Olomouc) also joined the organization, and thanks to Maendeleo’s activities she has so far spent more than seven months of her life in Tanzania.

Today, eight young people are actively involved in Maendeleo. They meet every week after school or work and do everything that is needed in any nonprofit organization. They do it for free as volunteers, in their spare time. Zuzana Břehová explains how their organization works: “Administrative costs are minimal, so most donor money can go directly to helping people. In Maendeleo, you get to ‘try out’ many things – from organizing charity events, PR, donor relations, and administration, through communication with the Tanzanian team, to implementing activities directly in the field. Volunteering in this way often offers things a large and established nonprofit might not.”

The primary source of funding is private donations from people in the Czech Republic who appreciate the association’s activities and want to support them. The second source is regular charity events organized by the nonprofit.

Thanks to Maendeleo’s membership in the Czech Coalition for Biodiversity Protection, which is part of the nonprofit platform FoRS, these young people can draw on knowledge and experience from other similarly focused organizations.

Priority in development cooperation – local agriculture

Zuzana Břehová explains how the region for development cooperation was chosen: “In sub-Saharan Africa, most of the population still lives in rural areas, and most rural people make their living from small-scale farming. They are the poorest inhabitants of the region, and Tanzania is no exception. They depend on farming, and the main harvest determines the course of their whole year, including whether their children will go to school or what kind of nutritious food they will be able to eat. We support people in what they already do; we just help them become more efficient and at the same time more careful with the soil. If they manage to get out of poverty, they could then themselves improve many things around them for the better.”

Professional education is an integral part of Maendeleo’s project called “Supporting Farming.” Through it, young Czechs provide microloans to self-help groups whose members grow rice directly in Tanzania. The purpose of microcredit is to enable farmers to put into practice as much as possible what they learn in this educational program. On the courses, for example, they discuss what fertilizers to use and the differences between them; how to create and apply compost properly, how to fertilize their fields with it; and how to handle seeds before sowing. Financial literacy lessons are also part of the education.

“Education is not just theoretical. A large part of it happens directly in the fields. For farmers who previously followed only their ancestors’ methods, it is important that they try the new methods themselves and can see the benefits with their own eyes,” adds Maendeleo member Zuzana Břehová.

Support for women farmers through microloans

“When you want to do business in agriculture, you need to carry out each stage—from plowing and planting to crop care—on time. A person cannot handle all this alone, so they have to pay laborers. To make farmers faster and more efficient, they use oxen or small tractors for cultivation, but often they do not have either at home. Whether they use organic or synthetic fertilizers, those also cost money (as opposed to using none). With a microloan, Tanzanian farmers can afford the costs related to moving from traditional to recommended field practices,” Zuzana Břehová explains the importance of microloan support.

The example of farmer Ashura is probably the most obvious “success story.” Two years ago, she ended her participation in Maendeleo’s projects, saying she no longer needed that help—because she is now able to maintain higher yields and income on her own. She therefore offered her place in the group to another farmer who needs it more.

In the project “Supporting Farming,” there is a rule that at least half of each eight-person group must be women. “The two best-performing groups are led by women, and one of them, Suzana, is also the mostly elected chairperson of the local partner organization Wakulima Maendeleo, in which all the farmers and farm women we support are organized. This personally pleases me very much, especially because it happened voluntarily, without us having to intervene at all in the election process for chairperson,” Zuzana Břehová says with satisfaction.

Sustainability of the organization and replication of the project

In terms of sustainability, the organization prioritizes financial sustainability above all. “We are gradually preparing our Tanzanian colleagues from partner organization Wakulima Maendeleo to be able, in the near future, to take over and continue the activities without us. Among other things, this means they need to be able not only to maintain the current annual budget, but also to find new funding opportunities so they can continue growing as a cooperative and welcome new members,” Zuzana Břehová explains.

Last year, the farmers organized in local organization Wakulima Maendeleo entered the NAFAKA local organization competition, supported by the United States Agency for International Development – USAID, and won a small tractor with a trailer. Representatives from NAFAKA praised the thoroughness and organization of the activity and the farmers. Conversely, the farmers thanked the members of the Czech association Maendeleo, saying that thanks to trying a similar grant competition with them one year earlier and based on feedback and the assessment of submitted proposals, they were able to orient themselves much faster. They knew what was expected of them.

Members are also considering copying Maendeleo’s Tanzanian projects and replicating them elsewhere—they would like to build on their experience. Naturally, this would only happen if a needs assessment were carried out again for the new location and it was analyzed whether microloans are indeed the most suitable tool for support and cooperation there.

“We are now focusing mainly on handing over the current state of the projects into the hands of local people. Their future functioning without our interventions would be, for me personally, a fairly unprecedented success in development cooperation, not only in the Czech Republic... We set ourselves this goal: in the area where we operate, to become unnecessary as quickly as possible. If everything goes well, this could happen 10 years after Maendeleo’s founding, i.e., in 2021,” Zuzana Břehová concludes as a wish for the whole organization.

Text: Boba Markovič Baluchová Photo: Zuzana Břehová and Martin Schlossarek OZ Maendeleo: www.maendeleo.cz