Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Kigoma, Tanzania

We arrived in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania excited to catch a flight to Kigoma, a region in the northwestern part of the country to visit a Jane Goodall Institute Tanzania project working with small farmers to promote sustainable agriculture. Unfortunately Precision Air, one of only two airlines that flies to the remote region, has suspended all flights for the next several weeks and the other airline is all booked.

No worries, we headed to Zanzibar instead....

Zanzibar is a place known for beautiful beaches, but the thing that I liked most about my visit there was the food. Everywhere you look there's a bounty of fresh vegetables, fruit, and, most importantly given the island's history, spices. Zanzibar is one of the "Spice Islands," a group of islands that supplied cloves, coriander, nutmeg, pepper, vanilla, and other spices to Europe in the 17th Century.  Today, those spices are grown much the same way they were then-organically, without the use of chemical pesticides and artificial fertilizers, in response to consumer demand. And they're still grown on large plantations, but instead of slaves planting and harvesting the crops, local Tanzanian farmers use intercropping to grow many of the spices along with fruit trees and vegetables. The spice farms are also benefiting from tourism-I paid a shockingly low $12 for my day long trip to the spice farm, which included a wonderful (and spicy!) vegetarian lunch and a trip to a pristine and deserted beach.

The Tanzanian government, however, controls much of the land where the spices are grown and also where they are sold. Vanilla grown in Zanzibar, for example, is not used on the island or even in mainland Tanzania, but is grown exclusively for export. And Zanzibar is also the world's third largest supplier of cloves, the main export from the island.

When we arrived back to Dar Es Salaam we did have the opportunity to meet with Pancras Ngalason who is the Executive Director of Jane Goodall Center (JGI) in Tanzania and he explained how the Institute has evolved since it began in the 1970s. They've gone, according to Ngalason, beyond research to address questions of livelihood.

JGI started as a center to research and protect wild chimpanzee populations in what is now, thanks to their efforts, Gombe National Park. But in the early 1990s JGI realized that if it didn't start addressing the needs of the communities surrounding the park, their efforts to conserve wildlife wouldn't work. JGI first started by planting trees in the region, but soon found that communities cut them down, not because they wanted to, but because they needed them for fuel and for making charcoal. It was at that time, says Ngalason, that we "thought beyond planting trees" and more about community-based conservation.

JGI started working with communities to develop government- mandated land use plans, helping them develop soil erosion prevention practices, agroforestry, and production of value-added products, such as coffee and palm oil. They like to say that their products are "Good for All"-good for farmers by providing income, good for the environment by protecting natural resources, and good for the consumer by providing a healthy product.

They're also working training community health practitioners about reproductive health and HIV/AIDS prevention, educating youth, establishing micro-credit programs, and working with UNICEF and USAID to supply clean water to communities.

We then hopped on a bus to Arusha, Tanzania to meet with the World Vegetable Center...

As hunger and drought spread across Africa , there's a huge focus on increasing yields of staple crops, such as maize, wheat, cassava, and rice. And while these crops are important for food security, providing much needed calories, they don't provide much protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, calcium, iron, riboflavin, thiamin, niacin, other important vitamins and micronutrients-or much taste. "None of the staple crops," says Dr. Abdou Tenkouano, the World Vegetable Center's Regional Director for Africa, "would be palatable without vegetables." And vegetables, he says, "are less risk prone" than staple crops that stay in the field for longer periods of time.

Because vegetables typically have a shorter growing time, they can maximize often scarce water supplies and soil nutrients better than crops such as maize which need a lot of water and fertilizer.

Unfortunately no country in Africa, according to Dr. Tenkouano, has a big focus on vegetable production. But that's where the Center steps in. Since the 1990s, the Center (which is a part of the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center based in Taiwan) has been working in Africa to breed cultivars that best suit farmers' needs.

Despite the focus on staple crops, vegetable production generates more income on and off the farm than most other agricultural enterprises, according to the Center's website. And unlike staple crops, vegetable production is something that benefits urban and rural farmers alike (See our posts on urban farmers in Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya).

In addition, vegetable production is the most sustainable and affordable way of alleviating micronutrient deficiencies among the poor. Often referred to as "hidden hunger," micronutrient deficiencies-including lack of Vitamin A, iron, and iodine-affect some 1 billion people worldwide. They lead to poor mental and physical development, especially among children, and cause poor performance in work and in school, further crippling communities already facing poverty and other health problems.

But by listening to farmers and including them in breeding research, the Center is helping to alleviate these problems.

Introducing a new weekly series where we recommend one song, or compilation of songs, from a country in Africa, brought to you by our awesome friends at Awesome Tapes From Africa. Today's selection is from Zimbabwe.

There is a great diversity of music to be heard in Zimbabwe but one classic is John Chibadura and the Tembo Brothers. This music feels like nothing but good times.

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About 20 men sat on chairs at the HIV/AIDS Resource Center in Katuna, Uganda, intently watching a match between Manchester United and Chelsea on a small television. Along with the pool table, board games, and additional television downstairs, soccer games provide a much needed distraction for the long-distance truckers who have to wait for their vehicles to be cleared by customs before entering Rwanda.

But just eight months ago, instead of television and camaraderie among workers, the easiest diversion for truckers was sex. Katuna is one of many towns along what is known as the Northern Transport Corridor--a span of highway that stretches from Mombasa,Kenya through Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and all the way to Djibouti.

In the past, the truckers were often delayed for days on the border, giving them little to do. Boredom--and drinking--often led to unsafe sex with prostitutes at the truck stops along the highway. As a result, truck drivers have one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in Eastern Africa. Unfortunately, the virus doesn't stop with them, and is often spread to their spouses.

Now, thanks to the work of the Solidarity Center , a non-profit launched by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organziations (AFL-CIO) to empower workers around the world by helping them form unions, and Uganda's Amalgamated Transport and General Workers Union (ATGWU), which has about 3,500 members in Uganda, the amount of time truckers spend on the border has been reduced from days to just hours. The union has worked through bargaining with the government to reduce the amount of time it takes their paper to go through which reduced the amount of free time they have on the border.  When they don't have as much free time, they're not as likely to engage in unsafe sex.  

According to Romano Ojiambo-Ochieng, ATGWU General Secretary, the union and the Solidarity Center has set up four resources centers in Uganda under the ROADS (Regional Outreach Addressing AIDS through Development Strategies)  project with Family Health International (FHI) and funding from US AID. These resource centers "provide alternative activities to truck drivers as they wait for their travel papers to be processed." Many of the things truckers can do at the centers are educational, getting information about how to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, as well as working conditions, workplace safety, and reproductive health.

The Katuna resource center, like many others dotted along the transport corridor, offers training and education to truckers and sex workers, and provides reading materials like pocket guides explaining sexually transmitted infections and the dangers of letting them go untreated. More than 150,000 truck drivers and community members have received prevention services, care and support information through one-on-one or community group outreach.

The Center also provides free testing for truck drivers, already more than 5,000 of them to date. "We are having truck drivers waiting for trucks to be cleared, coming to the recreation center to access our services," says Edward Oboth Ofumbi, coordinator for the resource center in Katuna. "In the process they end up getting tested for HIV...some of them come thinking that they are really infected but they are actually not infected." And some, says Edward, then change their behavior by using protection. They also direct infected truckers to local medical services, and reproductive health information for both truckers and their spouses.

In addition, the Center builds solidarity among truck drivers, providing a place for them to channel their industry grievances, while also successfully encouraging them to join unions. Low wages, lack of benefits, and long absences from home put truckers at high risk of HIV infection; improving their working conditions through collective bargaining is an important part of the prevention strategy. "These {people} are a very vulnerable group," says Edward, "because they don't have time with their families and they also don't have access to medication because all the time they are in transit."

Maseruka Ayubu, a trucker for fifteen years, travels monthly from Mombasa to Katuna, carrying cement--and also food aid to refugees in the Sudan. He said that the resource is important "because instead of having girls and having sex - we are putting our minds here...". Maseruka has also become a volunteer peer educator at the Center, teaching other truck drivers about the need to be informed about their sexual health, helping them organize, and letting them know the importance of their union. He says that instead of hanging around bars where you can be tempted by risky behavior, the resource center is a safe and fun place to be around others.

Other resource centers have also been opened in Kenya, Tanzania, Southern Sudan, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Burundi-- all in partnership with local unions. They are yet another critical tool in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the region-- providing community, information, basic health care, and the occasional soccer match enjoyed amongst friends.

For more information, check out Solidarity Center and FHI.

There's more...

Cross posted from www.BorderJumpers.org.

There's more...

This is the first in a series of blog posts about my visit with the World Vegetable Center in Arusha, Tanzania.

As hunger and drought spread across Africa , there's a huge focus on increasing yields of staple crops, such as maize, wheat, cassava, and rice. And while these crops are important for food security, providing much needed calories, they don't provide much protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, calcium, iron, riboflavin, thiamin, niacin, other important vitamins and micronutrients--or much taste. "None of the staple crops," says Dr. Abdou Tenkouano, the World Vegetable Center's Regional Director for Africa, "would be palatable without vegetables." And vegetables, he says, "are less risk prone" than staple crops that stay in the field for longer periods of time. Because vegetables typically have a shorter growing time, they can maximize often scarce water supplies and soil nutrients better than crops such as maize which need a lot of water and fertilizer.

Unfortunately no country in Africa, according to Dr. Tenkouano, has a big focus on vegetable production. But that's where the Center steps in. Since the 1990s, the Center (which is a part of the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center based in Taiwan) has been working in Africa to breed cultivars that best suit farmers' needs.

Despite the focus on staple crops, vegetable production generates more income on and off the farm than most other agricultural enterprises, according to the Center's website. And unlike staple crops, vegetable production is something that benefits urban and rural farmers alike (See our posts on urban farmers in Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya).

In addition, vegetable production is the most sustainable and affordable way of alleviating micronutrient deficiencies among the poor. Often referred to as "hidden hunger," micronutrient deficiencies--including lack of Vitamin A, iron, and iodine--affect some 1 billion people worldwide. They lead to poor mental and physical development, especially among children, and cause poor performance in work and in school, further crippling communities already facing poverty and other health problems.

But by listening to farmers and including them in breeding research, the Center is helping to alleviate these problems. Watch for more blogs about our visit to the World Vegetable Center and their efforts to raise nutrition and income in Africa.

There's more...

Arusha is a popular gateway for packers arriving to trek Mt. Kilimanjoro (a six or seven day hike, and Africa's highest peak) or to visit Serengeti National park. But for us, it is also the site of the World Vegetable Center - who we'll be meeting with and visiting several of their projects before busing to Kampala, Uganda.

Underneath the throngs of people at the bus terminal trying to scam you into a suspiciously cheap hotel stay or safari - is a small town that is charming, safe, and very friendly.

People are offended if you don't say hello - or "jambo" - before launching into a question about the direction of such-and-such place.... And when you walk into any home or shop in Tanzania, you are immediately greeted by the word - "Karibu" - or welcome.

And you can't help but marvel as the beauty of Mt. Meru or the endless forests filled with banana plants and tulip trees.

Our favorite spot for a bite to eat in Arusha - a cute bakery by the clock tower - is called "la patisserie" and has a giant sign outside that says "Hot Bread."

The owners, a friendly Indian family that live in Arusha, wake up every morning at 5AM, seven days a week, to bake delicious--and very much missed by Bernie--treats like chocolate croissants and countless varieties of bread (Danielle's favorite is the whole wheat). It is also the site of the only broadband internet café in the town, which makes us both happier than we should be. The coffee and tea they serve is all locally grown and the menu is packed with great vegetarian options.

There's more...