In the midst of banana trees in northern Tanzania, six siblings live in the simplest of circumstances without parents, completely on their own. Aronia Joseph, the eldest among them, has been looking after them alone for years. Our partner organization Humuliza supported her in coping with this huge task and also stood by her when her father plunged his children into misery.
“Karibou!”, Aronia Joseph welcomes us with a broad smile. She sits down on the long dried blades of grass that make the ground in the room a little more homely. She offers us the rickety bench, the only piece of furniture in the room. The walls are made of crumbling red clay with a skeleton of wooden sticks. “Our parents built this hut,” explains the 21-year-old, who looks much younger. She is wearing a colorful skirt that matches her equally traditional blouse.
We are on a project trip to Tanzania. In Nshamba, in the Kagera region, we visit the office of our partner organization Humuliza. Aronia, a participant in the program, invites us to her home. She wants to tell us her story and what the work of Humuliza and terre des hommes schweiz means to her. And so we listen intently to her family story.
Betrayed mother with six children
Aronia Joseph, her mother and her five siblings were left alone by their father under the rusty corrugated iron roof in the middle of the banana grove. “He started a new family with his affair,” says Aronia Joseph matter-of-factly. This is not uncommon in rural areas of Tanzania. At least the deceived mother and her six children were left with the plantation around the house: the banana trees produced a reliable and regular harvest, as did the coffee bushes in their shade.
The small income was enough to live on, but the mother could not afford to go to the doctor. Despite years of abdominal pain. “It was only when the cramps became unbearable that she went to see a doctor,” recalls Aronia Joseph. “He couldn’t help her.” Aronia Joseph still doesn’t know what finally killed her mother. “She would have needed an operation, but we couldn’t afford it.” Her mother was bedridden for a long time. So Aronia Joseph took on more and more household tasks. “Until I became the head of the family.” Shortly after her mother’s death, she sought help from the Humuliza organization. “I knew Humuliza because friends had taken me to activities before.”
Comfort, knowledge and self-confidence for everyday life
Humuliza support Aronia Joseph and her siblings in coping with their grief, but also with practical know-how to help them find their way in their situation. For example, Aronia Joseph learned how to run the household or how to successfully grow plants and harvest crops. Things that her mother had previously taken care of. With her death – as in many similar cases – a lot of knowledge was lost before it was passed on.
“One of the most important things I have learned from Humuliza is to gain new courage and self-confidence,” continues Aronia Joseph. Before, she was shy and hardly dared to say anything in a group. Now it’s different. This is important if she wants to assert herself in the rough and tumble of everyday life. “I’ve also learned how to look after my younger siblings. Physically, but also mentally.”
A hut and a patch of land
We walk with Aronia Joseph around the hut to the small earthy square behind it. In one corner, a few wooden poles and banana leaves serve as a screen for the toilet – a hole in the ground. A bundle of firewood lies next to it. Like every weekend, they collected it on Saturday. Aronia Joseph grabs a few branches and carries them into the hut. The kitchen is a room with sooty walls, newspaper and a few bunches of bananas. “This is where we cook,” says Aronia Joseph, breaking a few twigs and placing them in the small fireplace. “Soon the children will come home and need food.”
“I got a few farm animals and some seeds from Humuliza after the first course,” explains Aronia Joseph, referring to the chicken and goat that live in their wooden sheds behind the hut. “We raise them and sell them,” she says. “Then we buy two young ones each and start all over again.”
With Humuliza’s training, life seemed to be getting better for the siblings – until their father plunged them into poverty. “Piece by piece, he sold off our plantation. He robbed us of our livelihood!” He only left his children the hut and a patch of land behind it. Nothing more. The situation became desperate. Suddenly there was no money for everything: food, clothes, school fees and uniforms.
Humuliza helped the young family. “They cover the costs of my siblings’ schooling.” The family also receives the equivalent of CHF 4.30 a month for maintenance. “We are very grateful to Humuliza. We would never get by without them,” explains Aronia Joseph. The beans she now grows around the hut are not enough.
Goal: self-employment
She has also been given a small job at Humuliza. “I collect statistics and enter them on a tablet,” she says with a smile. Aronia Joseph likes this kind of work. “I would love to open an internet café and design websites.” To the European eye, web design doesn’t really fit into the Tanzanian hinterland. But many people here have an old, cheap smartphone and the cell phone network in the center of the village is not always bad.
“If that doesn’t work out, I think a café or a small restaurant would be great.” She still has a long way to go before she can fulfill her dream. Although she is grateful and happy to know that her siblings are being looked after, the 21-year-old is not satisfied. “I want to stand on my own two feet and provide for us myself.” At Humuliza, she has learned the necessary knowledge for this “Now it still takes a lot of patience and hard work.” It is clear to us that she has not been discouraged by her family history and is now ready to continue writing it in a positive way
Comfort for young heads of families
Consolation is the name Humuliza in the Kihaya language. The project was initiated in 1997 by terre des hommes schweiz. In Nshamba, in the Muleba district (Kagera region), countless children and young people like Aronia Joseph lose their parents to Aids or other illnesses every year. Humuliza helps them to cope with their grief and offers them psychosocial support. However, the death of the adults also means that important practical knowledge about life-sustaining agriculture and animal husbandry is lost, leaving the surviving children and young people even deeper in poverty. Humuliza also empowers those affected with comprehensive practical skills to run their own household. Humuliza also ensures that thousands of children and young people are able to exercise their right to education every year and covers the associated costs. The organization also trains 20 young people each year in sustainable agriculture and livestock farming. At the end of the course, it provides them with seeds and small animals – just like Aronia Joseph.
