Tanzania – A Closer Look at a the Land of Opportunity
The United Republic of Tanzania is situated in East Africa and part of the Sub-Saharan area with a total surface of 947.300 square kilometers. Approximately 40 million people call Tanzania home. More than 80 percent of those people depend on agriculture. Altogether 36 percent of Tanzania’s population live below the basic needs poverty line and 18.7 percent below the food poverty line.
Combine a lack of resources with the need for medical attention, nutritional deficiencies, unsafe drinking water and unsanitary living conditions and you’ll understand why Tanzania faces mounting health challenges. Lives are threatened daily by epidemics such as yellow fever, cholera, measles, tuberculosis, malaria and meningitis. The largest healthcare concern is the 1.4 million people affected by HIV/ AIDS_, the majority of the newly affected range between 15 and 24 years of age. The adult prevalence rate (15-49 years) is 5.7 percent (6.6 percent women and 4.6 percent men). Another result of these diseases is the 970,000 orphans left in the wake.
Ubungo, located in the Western part of Kinondoni district of Dar es Salaam city, is one of the central hubs that links to most large Tanzanian urban areas and East and South African cities. Low income residences, majority women across Dar es Salaam city find their way to Ubungo either for blue collar jobs or petty businesses.
Kigamboni Island (Temeke District) has been a place that attracts many to either reside or invest on the coast of the Indian Ocean. This new immigration to the island leaves the native of Kigamboni without hope. Because the native people are willingly to sell their lands and move to the most remote and poorest places. Many people in Kigamboni engage in livestock, poultry, gardening and other small-scale agriculture.
In 2008, EEA started its operations in this underserved areas in Dar. The goal is to gain experience of working with groups of people who have low income and develop a reputation in the more accessible field within the first years of the project. Still, the main goal is to serve the rural areas.