Nduru Dispensary Project 2008

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Village Location
Nduru is amongst the five villages of the Ihanja Ward, which is in the Ihanja Division of Singida Rural District. It is located about 51 kms south west of Singida Town. The village is new and was inhabitated recently in late 1960’s where the first people moved there for farming and grazing land. The village is bordering with Ihanja village in the East, and Mhintri in the south, Minyughe in the North and in west. The population of the village is estimated to be about 2,773 of these 1,226 are below the age of 18 years. The main ethnic group in the village is Wanyaturu and Sukuma.

1.2 Administration

The village is divided in 6 sub-villages, namely;

Ndurukati,
Mampungwa,
Ulyampiti,
Mwandumaji,
Songambele

1.3 Geo–ecological Features
The village lies in a semi arid area with annual average rainfall of around 600 mm. The average temperature is 21.5C. The altitude ranges from 500-800 above sea level. The soil is predominantly red clay loam and sported with black cotton clay soil with some undulating features. The village is still endowed with natural forest. However , it appear some forests deforestation is taking place very rapidly and if no remedial action taken it will lead into a land degradation/ soil erosion, and shortage of fuel wood and water in the area.

2.0 Village Social and Economic Activities
Agriculture is the predominant form of land use and practically based on subsistence crop production supported by livestock production. Crops that are grown in the village for local consumption include: - maize, sorghum, bulrush, sweet potatoes and cassava and beans (these are subsistence crops) and crops that are grown for sale include: - beans sunflower and finger millet (cash crops).

Livestock is the second largest activity in the village after crop cultivation. The livestock kept include: cattle, goats, sheep, poultry and donkeys. The poultry are the local breeds. Currently, the village is producing sufficient and some surplus in the years with good weather i.e. with adequate rains. Livestock farming is traditionally practised with very low output because it is not organised according to economic criteria and is not sustainable because of land pressure that resulting from growing inhabitants and livestock population. The majority of households (about 60%) keep cattle, goats and sheep, out of these only 30% own the livestock, but majority borrow livestock from few households a system known as “livestock sharing” or traditionally is called “Uriha”. A traditional system that used to help those households that do not have livestock to borrow from households with livestock so that can access cow dug manure for their field. The village has a total of 1,612 heads of cattle, 936 goats and about 1,970 chickens.

Other sources of income are from the sales of wood products, honey, wax, sale of local brew (home made beer), and a milling machine (for milling other villager’s maize). Off farm activities that taking place in the area small kiosks, carpenter and crafting. These are activities are done by small group of the youth in the village.

Social services available include a primary school with a total of 604 school children whose 292 are girls and 312 are boys. The school currently has a total of 7 classrooms out of the 13 needed, 4 out of 16 required teachers’ houses, 12 pit latrines holes out 21 required. The school has a shortage of 54 school desks as well. Basically the school is not in good condition in terms of the availability learning and reading materials and facilities/ infrastructure.

3.0 PROBLEM STATEMENT
There are no health services facilities in the village. People have to walk an average of 16 kms to the nearest health service facility in Ihanja. During meetings with the village leaders it was explained that because of the long distances that people have to travel, most pregnant women prefer to deliver at home and attended by untrained traditional midwifes who cannot diagnose and handle obstetric complications. Thus pregnant mothers run into great risk getting and suffering of excessive bleeding that may result in death or other various disabilities including fistula. Two women with fistula problems were identified in 2004 by the organisation and taken to hospital for repair. It was observed that there is a need for safe motherhood education to the community with the aim to promote good safe motherhood practices in the village.

Additionally, the household’s surrounding are not hygienically kept and because most diseases that occur in area are preventable at household level as most of them are water related diseases. For instance it was reported that about 120 households have good usable pit latrine, 134 with poor latrines and 45 household have no pit latrine. Concerning the water, the village is served by five shallow wells which are not evenly distributed and are located very far from most of households.

The government policy on water states that at least one water point particularly shallow or medium depth borehole should serve at least 250 households and that people should not walk more than 1,000 meters to obtain water. However the majority of the households are served by traditional water sources and village very often experiences water shortages during the dry season. This causes a burden for the women because they are the ones who traditionally fetch water and nurture families. This is so pronounced during dry seasons.

The community effort to date is that it has established a water account as the foremost prequisite set by the government that the village has to open a water account before it consider to apply for water project, support to a government or any other development partners.

4.0 The Village’s Priorities
HAPA carried rapid needs assessment in the village in November 2007 to assess the community’s priorities. It found that the community’s priorities since 2004 have been a dispensary, which ranked first followed by water, teachers’ houses, classrooms, water and transport infrastructure.

5.0 HAPA SUPPORT
In 2008 HAPA intends to support the community of Nduru with provision of building materials for construction of dispensary and pit latrine for the dispensary. This is the first phase of the project.

The second phase will take place in 2009, and will involve the construction of medical staff houses and provision of medical equipment. HAPA will support the community in provision of technical and management of the project implementation support during the execution of the project. This involves training of village masons, carpenters and village project committees on project implementation, management and on the other organisational issues relevant for the smooth project implementation.

The community contribution in this project includes volunteered labour during the implementation processes, collection of local available materials such sand, rocks and aggregates, raising fund to pay village masons and carpenters and in storage of building materials.

6.0 Costs for Project Components

During 2008 HAPA intend to support the community of Nduru with:Supply the building materials for construction of the dispensary and latrine for the dispensary out patients. The Total project cost for this component is estimated to cost Tshs with following breakdown:-Dispensary: Cost for building materials 19,500,000= Cost for Transportation of Materials and for supervision 3,550,000/= Subtotal 23,050,000/=Cost for supervision Cost of CDT 900,000/= Supervision and community mobilisation by HAPA staff 200,000/= Sub Total 1,100,000/= Total cost for staff house 24,150,000/= Construction of pit latrine: 2,500,000/= Sub Total 26,650,000/=

Component two: Training of village development committees and CDTs Our working experience has shown that there is a need for training of the village development and construction committee. There is also a need for training of the CDT’s (Community Development Technicians) on facilitation and on the project implementation monitoring skills/system.

In 2008 HAPA intends to conduct three training sessions on the project implementation a monitoring/supervision to the village development and construction committees, and two training sessions to CDTs. HAPA will facilitate training on health governance by facilitating the community to form a village health committee and train it on governance. The training on hygiene, health education on health governance will take place in 2009.

Cost for training:- Training of the village on the project management and monitoring· Training materials 85,000/= T Shs· Facilitation costs for three people @ 20,000 x 2days x3 times 360,000/= Tshs· Transportation three trips @ 120 kms x 3 x 1200 per km 432,000/=· Training of 5 CDTs 2 x 4 days x 10,000/= 400,000/= Tshs Total for training 1,277,000/= Total for Nduru Project for phase one is (2008) Tshs 27,927,000/=

The project is expected to run from mid April to December 2008 and it is estimated to take four months from April to September. The training of various village committees will start from mid-March to mid-June and the construction will start mid-July and volunteers are expected to join the project in August.

7.0 Expected output
One dispensary constructed
Pit latrine of two pit holes and one bathroom constructed
Village development and Project committee trained on project implementation and on monitoring
Support and train village health committee.

8.0 Expected outcome

Villagers’ health status will be improved through the provision of health education and safe-motherhood education. With health care easily accessible by most of the population within the village, the health quality of the villagers will be improved. Mother and child health services will be improved and it expected that maternal and infant mortality rates will be reduced in the village and in nearby communities. Health governance in the village improved.