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Country Updates

Tanzania

CST Director Ms. Noelah Msuya handing over copies of Simplified National Strategy for Inclusive Education to SQA Officers.

On December 3, 2020, RELI Tanzania members participated in an event organized by Child Support Tanzania (CST) to mark International Day for Persons with Disabilities (IDPD). During the event, the Guest of Honour, DC Paul Ntinika urged the Regional Education department to speed up due diligence processes and make sure that the CST inclusive school obtains a permanent registration by January 2020, which will allow them to operate as a legally registered primary school. Following the directives from the guest of honor, the office of School Quality Assurance (SQA) visited the Early Childhood Assessment and Learning Development (ECALD) Centre owned by Child Support Tanzania (CST) on December 15, 2020. The visit by SQA marks an important achievement of advocacy done by CST through different interventions at both local and national levels by using both individual and network influences. The registration of CST Inclusive School will highlight the beginning of the promising journey championed by CST and other stakeholders including RELI Tanzania towards the attainment of fairly, decent delivery of inclusive education in Mbeya. This is the only ECE Centre in Southern Highlands of Tanzania that offers education, and rehabilitation services for children with disabilities in an inclusive setting. It has 75 children (37 are children with disabilities ranging from physical disability, intellectual, visual, special learning difficulties, and hearing impairments.) RELI TZ is thankful to the hub (Haki Elimu) and WPF for the support accorded to them to enable their participation. Representatives from thematic groups of RELI Tanzania participated in this event to support CST in their efforts to provide quality education to all children.

PWC staff and Ngorongoro District Council at Ololosokwan ward in Arusha.

Women at Ololosokwan Ward in Ngorongoro District and Monduli District community members (respectively) during mass campaign.

To mark the 16 Days of Activism in fighting against Gender-Based Violence (GBV), the Pastoral Women Council (PWC) in Arusha engaged with communities, violence survivors, local government officials, and other stakeholders to encourage, raise awareness, and deliberate on their contribution towards fighting GBV. However, in marking the 16 days of ending GBV, here are some of the activities and achievements: One-day mass campaign meeting at Ololosokwan village with all women and men as well as Local Government representatives such as court users, social welfare officer, police gender desk education officers who spoke and sensitized communities on solutions to end GBV. Sensitization meetings on GBV through communities’ meetings in their village at Kirtalos, Ololosokwan, Mondorosi, Losirwa, Engusero Sambu, Njoroi, and Soit Sambu as well as on market places through the use of public address systems. Printed a few T-shirts with an International message from the government advert on 16 days of activism “Tupinge ukatili wa kijinsia mabadilkiko yaanza na mimi”. Live radio talk show at local radio which is Loliondo FM radio which has high coverage of 300,000 (Data from Loliondo FM station). A door to door campaign to end violence against women and children. Promoting accountability from Local Government including working closely with PWC legal officers to emphasize speedy processing of complaints, which can be lodged by the victims with the police precinct officer or through the office of the public prosecutor, aimed at establishing urgent protective measures when necessary. Awareness-raising campaigns with a central focus on the importance of other people not turning their backs on cases of spousal abuse including various forms of child abuse. Neighbors, relatives, and friends can make a difference in such situations.

Left: Mr Ntazoya handing over the simplified and translated NSIE to Ms Halima Sangali (Statistics and Logistics Officer for Tabora Municipality).  Right: Mr Ntazoya handing over the simplified and translated NSIE to Ms Feliciana Muyaga (Special Educational Officer for Tabora Municipality).

On December 22, 2020, a team of college representatives from the Archbishop Mihayo University College of Tabora (AMUCTA) paid a visit to various offices that deal with special education at Regional and Municipal levels. The team includes; Mr. Ezra Ntazoya (Assistant Lecturer), Mr. Emanuel Hema (Technical Assistant-Special Education, Languages, and Linguistics), and Mr. John Lukonge (Assistant Technician at Fr. Bergman Audiology Center). The purpose of the visit was to disseminate the simplified and translated National Strategy for Inclusive Education (NSIE) and share the views on the status of inclusive education in Tabora Municipal. On behalf of the Regional Educational Officer for Tabora Region, Ms. Kifu thanked AMUCTA team for visiting her and sharing the NSIE copies. She encouraged them to keep visiting her office whenever the team needs clarification of various educational issues at a regional level. On the other hand, Mr. Sichome (Municipality Educational Officer-Adult Education and coordinator for Inclusive Education for Tabora Municipal) appreciated the efforts made by AMUCTA in inclusive education and special education. He requested the team to cooperate with his office whenever there's a need for information on inclusive education at a regional level.

Kenya

RELI members are planning to collect data that will be used to establish the status of schools after reopening post-COVID 19. Development of tools was done by a small group and shared with the larger team for input. The tool was uploaded on KOBO collect for data collection to be real-time. A training to introduce the members to the tool was conducted on Tuesday, January 12, 2021. The exercise will begin after the national exercise on learning assessment by KNEC.

The Equity and Inclusion thematic group is planning to carry out a synthesis of initiatives undertaken by RELI members during the COVID 19 period when learners were at home. RELI members will be called upon to share the approaches they used to keep the parents and learners engaged during the period. The process of sourcing a consultant to support this initiative is underway.

The learner-centered teaching thematic group is currently working on developing learning materials to be used by parents to engage learners at home. The learning materials include drawing of murals bearing education content in community spaces that are used by learners. This activity is in partnership with Uweza group which is an art group based in Kibera and uses proceeds from their artwork to pay school fees for learners as well as creating a means of livelihood for the youth in the community.

The equity and inclusion thematic group in partnership with KICD and UNICEF will begin collecting data on parental engagement and empowerment during and post-COVID 19. The purpose of this exercise is to document PEE approaches that worked to support children's learning during the school closure period. The data collected will greatly contribute to crafting models that can be replicated to support learning during disruptions. The exercise will commence on January 18, 2021.

Kudos corner

Congratulations to Shule Direct (a RELI TZ member organization) on their recognition as the newest members of the Million Lives Club (MLC) 2020 cohort, Vanguard category. MLC recognizes and raises awareness of innovators and social entrepreneurs who have scaled to serve at least 1 million clients or who are rapidly approaching this milestone. MLC is made up of three cohorts of innovators and social entrepreneurs who are improving the lives of those living on less than $5 a day: The MLC Vanguard celebrates those who have directly impacted 1,000,000+ clients with their innovation. MLC Voyager recognizes innovations expected to impact 1,000,000+ clients within 18 months. MLC Pioneer highlights innovations that have scaled up to meet the needs of a significant proportion (i.e. 40%+) of their target populations. The announcement for all the new Million Lives Club members took place on December 10, 2020, at the Devex World conference. Being members of Million Lives Club provides great benefits for Shule Direct such as: International profiling and celebration of our innovation and achievements through the press, partner communications materials, the Global Innovation Exchange platform, and MLC-branded sessions at key stakeholder events. Greater visibility of (and potential support for) our innovation among country-level ecosystem partners, global investors, and supporters associated with the MLC initiative. The opportunity to connect with other innovators and social entrepreneurs, sharing challenges, and learning from each others’ scaling journeys as well as valuable capabilities, market insights, and relationships.

Change of guard:

RELI Tanzania's country leadership has been taken over by Mr. Gaudence Kapinga from Haki Elimu. A development practitioner with over five years’ experience working in the civil societies in Tanzania. He holds a bachelor's degree in Community Economic Development and MA in Cooperatives and Community Development both from Moshi Cooperative University. Gaudence has remarkable experience of working in multi-stakeholder projects including civil societies, government departments, and the private sector. In his previous role at World University Service of Canada (WUSC), he successfully led the establishment of tailor-made training programs for safari tour guides in Tanzania to help them acquire qualifications to attain tour guide licenses in collaboration with the College of African Wildlife Management (CAWM). As a sector program specialist for the Uniterra program (2015-2020) in Tanzania, he led the initiatives to challenge gender norms in the tourism and agriculture sectors, and as a result, women and youth show promising trends to engage in income-generating opportunities in cultural tourism and fruits and vegetable subsectors. He also used radio programming to disseminate information on the best practices in collaboration with the local partners and radio stations. In the education sector, Gaudence worked with WUSC in Tanzania to implement an innovative remedial education model that combines academic support with peer support and life skills in girls-only safe spaces.

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