Where We Work

ViNA is focused on the African continent, the second-largest and most populous continent in the world after Asia. Despite abundant natural resources, Africa remains the world’s poorest and most underdeveloped part of the world. Within Africa, ViNA targets rural villages with little or no prior outside assistance.

ViNA began in Uganda, where 88% of the population lives in rural areas. Many other non-profit programs have improved the poverty rate and social conditions in urban areas; however progress in rural regions has been very limited. More than two thirds of the country’s poor people are small farmers in rural areas with no source of income.

Currently, ViNA is working in the rural Terrat ward in Tanzania. ViNA focuses on collaboration with 3 Maasai villages where scarcity of water is detrimental to the health of citizens and the economy of the community.

ViNA seeks to help those villages that are outside the current scope of other assistance.

Why Tanzania?

Many indicators illustrate the desperate need for assistance in Tanzania. Conditions in rural villages are even more critical, yet accurate assessments are not readily available due to the remote location of these populations.

• Life expectancy in Tanzania is in the bottom ten percent of the world. (WHO 2011)
• Average pupil to teacher ratio in East Africa is 56:1, perhaps accounting for a low literacy rate of 65%
• Only 21 % of residents in rural Tanzania have access to improved sanitation. (UNICEF 2008)
• 1.4 million people in Tanzania live with HIV, and only 44% of these people access treatment for the virus. Even fewer rural residents with HIV have access to treatment. (WHO 2009)
• Tanzania has one of the lowest per capita income values in the world.
• According to Doctors without Borders “Tanzania…[is] one of the world’s poorest countries. Its public health system is very weak and recent national elections caused conflict and violence. Nowhere are the health system’s deficiencies more pronounced than in its inability to combat malaria. The disease, one of the main causes of death in the country, kills 100,000 people yearly, mostly children.”
• WHO estimates, “HIV prevalence previously recorded as 9.9% (Poverty and Human Development Report 2000) is currently reported at 7% (2003-4 Indicator Survey National AIDS Control Programme). The cross-cutting effects of the pandemic have produced a rapidly growing orphan population. Responses to mitigate the attendant economic and social effects are piecemeal and insufficient.”
• WHO states, “The high prevalence of malnutrition (21.8% underweight, 37.7% stunting of children) and high level of food poverty (22% below food poverty line and 39% below basic needs poverty line) is a grave concern for individuals already weakened by HIV. Agriculture has persistently been affected by factors resulting in low productivity and incomes.”

Africa Map, with Tanzania highlighted		Tanzania - Detailed

Causes of Rural Poverty in East Africa

Poverty has persisted in most rural areas of East Africa primarily due to the following conditions:

• Political Changes: Corruption by government officials and successive periods of political change, conflicts, and tribal and civil wars over the past 30 years have seriously affected society as a whole, and poor rural people in particular. Widespread human rights violations have accompanied much of this unrest.
• Lack of Basic Services: Many rural poor people have very limited or no access to such basis services as health care, water and sanitation infrastructure, electrical power, adequate housing structures, and technologies to help them increase their agricultural output. The technology, marketing, financial and other support services are often unattainable. Only about 10% of the rural population, and 5% of rural poor people, have access to savings and credit.
• Subsistence Farming: The majority of the rural poor are risk-averse and use farming approaches geared to satisfying the needs of their immediate family. Due to their isolation, they lack a business culture and are not exposed to other approaches that could enable them to produce more on the land they cultivate. Traditional methods of agriculture usually do not enable them to overcome poverty.
• Crop, Livestock and Pest Diseases: The incidence of crop, livestock and pest diseases are quite high, which often means reduced productivity. Without the introduction of modern, hardier animal and plant seed stocks and suitable technologies to minimize disease, farmers are extremely vulnerable.
• Lack of Education: Due to the effects of civil upheaval and poverty, illiteracy continues to affect the majority of East Africans. Displaced or poor families cannot afford to send their children to school. Orphans with no means of support cannot afford school fees. With no technical/vocational schools, people lack the skills to obtain gainful employment and improve community conditions. Many youth are forced to leave their villages to seek employment in urban areas. Lack of centralized communication and planning further augments the isolation of rural populations.