EMERGENCY AID FUNDS FOR PEOPLE AFFECTED BY FLOODS

EMERGENCY AID FUNDS TO SUPPORT FAMILIES AFFECTED BY FLOODS IN DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA

Background and Overview

SSVP’s leadership at the headquarters in France received the bad news about the floods in Dar es Salaam sometime in March 2012 and responded by extending humanitarian support aid worth EUR 3000 as an initial installment for the families affected by floods in December 2011. The local bank in Dar es Salaam through the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC) relayed the information to SSVP Tanzania about the arrival of the said funds and that US$ 3,825.30 (equivalent to TZS 6,006,500/=) had been credited to the TEC’s account for that purpose. The exchange rate at this day was about 1US$=1570.204 TZS.

The SSVP’s Interim President for Tanzania sat down to prepare a budget together with the head of the Lay Apostolate Dept., Fr. Vitusi Sichalwe and identified various items/goods to be purchased for the support mission. The job included the identification of a team of representatives among the church leaders to be present during the event for the hand-over of the items to the affected. The cash was issued from the TEC’s office on 14^th May 2012 and the purchase of the items was done for two consecutive days from 15^th May to 16^th May 2012 when all the items had been bought and collected at one place.

Hand - Over of the Items to the Affected Families

On 28^th June 2012, the team led by the chairman of the TEC’s Lay Apostolate Department, the Singida diocese bishop Rt. Rev. Desderius Rwoma, travelled to Mabwepande area in Kinondoni district to hand-over the goods to the affected families.  The team also included Paul Sangu, the interim President of SSVP in Tanzania; Rev. Fr. Vitus Sichalwe, the Secretary of the Lay Apostolate Dept.; two members from the TEC Secretary General’s office; a representative and journalist from the TEC church’s newspaper namely the “Leader”; one representative from TEC’s Finance Dept. and the priest of Boko parish, whose territory harbours the camp of the affected in Mabwepande area.

The whole process of distribution of the items, including the identification of the first recipients’ group of needy families was done carefully, with the participation of sub-parish leaders who were among the affected and conducted mass and prayers with the support of the camp leadership.  Among the 800 families living there, only 220 families were selected to receive the support in the first batch of items purchased by the aid funds.

 

Worrying about the congestion of people at the camp, it was advised that the distribution be done at the church premise which is located close to the affected families’ camp. Among the 220 affected families, 100 people were Muslims, 80 people were selected from other denominations while 40 people were Catholics.

The exercise to distribute the items was preceded by the greetings from the bishop Desderius Rwoma on behalf of all the Tanzanian bishops, since at the time of this event; the Council of Bishops meeting was taking place at the TEC’s Headquarters. The bishop shared sympathy with the affected and from his peer bishops for all the troubles the affected families had been dragged into and promised to pay another visit to the camp in case it happened that they received another aid support in the future.  He informed the affected families that the aid was provided by the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul in France through its Tanzanian office.  The report of this aid was also shared in the TEC’s conference with all the Tanzanian bishops attending, which brought out an applaud and praises for the SSVP’s Tanzania office for the effort on alerting the SSVP headquarters who eventually extended their hands to bring support to the flood- affected and needy families in Tanzania.

Summary of Items Procured for the Affected

S/No.	Item description	Amount in TZS	Equiv. US$
1	Washing soaps	950,000.00	605.02
2	Cooking oil	845,500.00	538.47
3	Toilet soaps	928,350.00	591.23
4	Maize flour	792,800.00	504.90
5	Match boxes	420,000.00	267.48
6	Salt	710,000.00	452.17
7	Sugar	425,000.00	270.67
8	Tooth paste	548,000.00	349.00
9	Sayona soft drink	120,000.00	76.42
10	Transport and Fuel	266,850.00	169.95
	Total	6,006,500.00	3,825.30

TZS 266,850/= equivalent to US$ 169.95 was used to hire transport for the goods to the camp including the purchase of fuel for bishop’s vehicle during delivery of items.

Challenges Faced at the Camp by the Affected Families

After distribution of the items to the affected families at the church premise, the team decided to go around the camp itself.  Since the transfer of the affected families to this area, they were still living in tents provided by the Red-Cross Society in Tanzania.  The tents were arranged on plots of land provided to the affected by the government. It might be recalled that during the floods, their houses were carried away by floods, destroying most of the properties and making them lose essential personal belongings.  Due to that reason, the affected families arrived at the camp with very few if not nothing at all or completely empty-handed to depend on for their subsistence.

What was seen at the camp was very devastating. Almost 90% of the families sleep on bare ground, most of them laying down the torn-out pieces or sheets of clothing. It was told that some of the affected families had received one bed-sheet each when they firstly arrived at the site. Up to the time we were leaving the area, we had heard that about 7 people had been bitten by snakes due to the fact that the camp was covered all over by the bushes, though efforts to clear the site had been just started.  Those with families used hard paper boxes to divide the tents inside space during nights when sleeping.  Most of the affected were old people who did not have any income generation activities, waiting to get short-time casual work which was also not forthcoming at all. The affected families were those who had built along the river banks and valleys because they lacked the capacity to purchase the land plots for building decent houses for shelter.

Other Necessities Required by the Affected

The most needed support at the time of visit included sleeping beds, bed-sheets and blankets, cooking utensils and appliances (cooking pots, pans, plates, cups and spoons).  Others were school fees and uniforms for primary and secondary school children. Based on the number provided to us by the camp leadership, there were about 43 children going to school in the camp at the time.  Food with short shelf-life was also needed to minimize cost on cooking using firewood or other costly sources of energy at the camp. The current market price for one mattress is TZS 120,000/= (equivalent of US$ 76.4) and a bed is sold at TZS 140,000/= (equivalent of US$ 90).  Rt. Rev. Desderius Rwoma and the accompanying team thought of proposing some small projects for them so they could at least get themselves somehow busy to earn their daily meal.  What one might keep asking was what would happen to some of these families when the tents got worn-out because some of the tents had already gotten in bad shape.

Appreciation and the Vote of Thanks

Apart from personal thanks offered by the chairman of the Lay Apostolate Dept. of TEC Rt. Rev. Desderius Rwoma, to the SSVP headquarters, the Council of bishops through the Secretary General of TEC, Fr. Anthony Makunde congratulated and thanked SSVP headquarters so much for the readiness and cooperation towards the needy Tanzanian brothers. To confirm this, the interim president of SSVP office in Tanzania talked to some of the bishops and they congratulated SSVP’s leadership in France and promised very close cooperation, starting with TEC itself, Boko parish and the leadership of the affected families at the camp.  In all the places, the leadership offered thanks and congratulated SSVP and promised to pray for them to be blessed with more resources that could enable SSVP reach out to more needy people around the world.  The appreciation by the affected was published on page 5 of the church’s weekly newspaper column namely “Kiongozi” or in English “The Leader” (www.kiongozi.co.tz )  of 6^th – 12^th July 2012 Issue No. 27.

Delays on Hand-over

Distribution of the items/goods to the affected families somehow delayed following the request submitted by the Rt. Rev. Desderius Rwoma, to await his coming to Dar es Salaam from Singida for the meeting of the Council of bishops which was planned to be held at the end of June/beginning of July 2012.  What the bishop pledged was to make this event a special one for the Tanzanian Catholic church, and that is what it turned out to be.

Some of the photographs taken during the event are attached to this report for review.  Many thanks are due to SSVP leadership at the headquarters for accepting our pledge and for the great cooperation they provided to the needy families in Tanzania.  May the God’s blessings be upon the leadership, management and staff of SSVP at the headquarters in France, thank you.

SSVP, Tanzania office

July 2012, Dar es Salaam