Through partnership (urafiki -friendship - or udugu  - sister/brotherhood - in Kiswahili) relationships with congregations of the Northwestern Ohio Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), U.S. Lutherans have traveled to the Dodoma region since the mid-1990s, seen the vital church in action there, and have felt called to assist as best they can with what they have to offer: Our access to material resources and expertise. These efforts expand long-time efforts of the ELCA and its predecessor bodies in Tanzania in missions, medical ministries and development. The partnerships and involvement also complement those of German Evangelical (Lutheran), Finnish and other churches and service organizations.

This page is an introduction to information on these links and efforts. You are invited to find out more and to participate through prayer, direct action, and contributions. back to top

A travelogue through Dodoma Region -- Stuart Smith, 1999 and reflections from NWOS women who visited Dodoma region in 2002 (visit and scroll down). These can help you get a sense of life and church ministry in the region. Geopolitical factoid: The United Republic of Tanzania is divided administratively into regions (Dodoma is an example) and Regions into districts (such as Kondoa). Dodoma is also a city and the new capital of Tanzania (see map at links). A page on partnership information is posted here. 

The Hard Life

Unless you are sitting in a Developing World or Native American/First Nations Internet cafe and reading this, you probably have to talk to people born before 1930 or on a Native American reservation to begin to appreciate what life is like in Tanzania, especially in Dodoma. Money is very scarce or simply absent.  Many girls and women (mostly) spend hours each day walking 100s of meters or kilometers to fill water containers from sometime suspect sources. Old water equipment breaks down and requires heroic efforts to keep in repair.

You typically make a living as a subsistence farmer or herder. If you are a Bantu farmer woman, you likely farm a two to five acre plot by hoe. Your husband may not do much to help you. If herders, you search endlessly for pasture and water. Many women have not learned to read.

Life is getting better. You do have an elementary school in your village. But your family may have to buy a school uniform and books and supplies. Chances are this year or recently you had a new, basic building erected, but there is never enough equipment, teachers, books. All children who go to school (many girls do not) can read and do math. Few children will go to secondary school (vs. nearly 100 % in the USA) and a handful nationally attend university. What you have are children well-prepared to live life in 1930. How do you get ahead in the 21st century?

Your village may have a medical dispensary, staffed by often very dedicated and well-prepared people equivalent to what you may find in Cuba. Sometimes they are less than ideal. Equipment and supplies may be scarce. If your village does not have a dispensary, it may be many kilometers to the nearest one capable of handling a difficult childbirth or ruptured appendix. If you have one, it may not have a radio or vehicle to transport to a hospital.

Life can be really hard.... Spousal and child abuse and unrestricted child labor are common. Some tribes practice particularly harsh and painful, often debilitating operations on girls. Men often are not faithful in marriage, and bring home HIV.

The Church, with its message that all are precious in the eyes of Christ, works to change all this through witness, education, political action, and building. Won't you join us?

Tanzanian country and mission background
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1)Tractors for Tanzania - A project to bring suitable powered agriculture equipment to the Dodoma region, make it available financially, and train people in its use and maintenance. TFT is affiliated with the Tanzanian NGO, Seeds that Grow Hope for Tanzania.

2) Craft Marketing: Like people the world over, Tanzanians make beautiful handicrafts, including (not exclusively) fine baskets, beadwork and beautiful wood carving.  We all need to be realistic: We in the West don't need these things, but they are lovely. They are also made by bright, caring people with hopes and dreams for their children, churches (or mosques) and communities. Money to buy these beautiful items locally is scarce, so they sell "dirt cheap" close to home. Efforts are under way to improve access to North American and other "First World" markets. The newly formed Christian Missions for Dodoma Inc. (CMD) is a U.S. not-for-profit (501c3) formed specifically for craft marketing and other activities to benefit churches and missions in the Dodoma region and their communities. CMDI is involved in the following:

• Developing markets for hand crafts produced by artisans in Dodoma, helping them to produce marketable art, and bringing these items to the USA, concentrating on church and craft-art markets. The Great Lakes Consortium (see following) is developing larger-scale markets.
• Conducting tours in scenic Tanzania, concentrating on faith-based and other informational tours - with scenic and pleasure outings as well.
• Business development, linking Dodoma business people with the outside world.
• Supporting Tractors for Tanzania and agricultural market development.
  

Contact David Bliss (blisspadre@yahoo.com) or the Great Lakes Consortium (elizabethbalint@wcnet.org) if you would like craft examples, more information, a consignment shipment, or a delivery contract. If you care about these people, think handicrafts for Christmas 2004. Shown here/below: Women of Ipwaga with their handiwork. back to "life"

3) Women of the ELCA (via a Lutheran World Relief project) are also supporting the improvement of the life of women in Dodoma through the Hekima (wisdom or knowledge) Project as follows:

• Train women in small business management
• Establish a revolving loan fund to be used to start small businesses 
• Start skills training in Computer skills, tailoring skills, hotel management, food processing and knitting and embroidery 
• Share experience through exchange tours for the best 10 entrepreneurs under the Revolving Loan Fund 
• Build the capacity to lobby for the rights of women and girls in five Divisions of Dodoma Diocese 
• Build the capacity of the community in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Dodoma Region 
• Build the capacity of ELCT -Dodoma to place it at a strategic position in provision of services to the community

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4) Aya Secondary School - A mimistry of the Dodoma Diocese:  A high-quality secondary school providing a well-rounded curriculum and practical agricultural emphasis for tomorrow's Dodoma leaders. Support for a student ($280 annually) makes a big difference. Donations can be made through your NWOS parish or the Synod office.

5) Investment and Commercial Development

Any healthy economy that can serve to build wealth and opportunity has to have viable commercial enterprises. Just like frontier North America, Tanzania's rudimentary economy, based largely on subsistence agriculture, requires foreign investment to be jump-started to the next level. 

Opportunities abound in this democratic nation, enjoying civil peace and tolerance, blessed with land and hard-working people with good values. See links for more information. It has a great potential to be one of the model developing nations likely to win U.S. Millennium grants. It's a nation that needs infrastructure. It can feed its troubled neighbors and has great ports (Tanga, Mtwara, and Dar es Salaam) and vital land routes. Americans are mostly well-liked. Let's go and all thrive together. Humble Hostel in Dodoma, pictured here near completion in 2003, has been built to First World standards with U.S. private investment, and is ready to house you as you investigate opportunities.

6) A) Training and capacity building and
B) Helping to foster the kind of skilled, can-do water project construction and service companies we enjoy in North America, Australia, New Zealand or South Africa. The success of the above-mentioned ag and health services projects, and life in many Dodoma villages, will depend on construction of safe, effective water supplies, and their long-term maintenance. Commercial contract opportunities exist, especially in the maintenance and improvement of municipal and commercial farming (sisal, tea, coffee, flowers, spices, vegetables and fruit, and livestock) water supplies. Here is a ground-floor opportunity to bring American-style service and quality standards to a deserving people who have suffered with much less for too long. Someone is going to help Tanzanians develop Tanzania's rural infrastructure - why not you? Contact Stuart Smith (stusmith@udata.com). Tanzania's national water development strategy may be found here. 

Tanzanian country and mission background
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1) Partnership relationships between the Northwestern Ohio Synod of the ELCA and the Dodoma Diocese: Partnerships (or companionship relationships) have resulted in significant exchange, including numerous visits, between our region and the Dodoma region in Tanzania. A result of these visits is considerable interest by people here in the welfare of Tanzanians in Dodoma. This is an extension of historic ties: After World War I, American and Finnish Lutheran missionaries took over missions begun by German Evangelischkirche missionaries in the German colonial period (1891-1919). They aggressively expanded schools and medical missions and helped native church leaders form the ELCT. Read The Cross Under the Acacia Tree by Jim Klobuchar (Kirk House, Minneapolis), available from Amazon.com, for background on this fascinating period of mission history. Lutheran Mission Cooperation partners American and European Lutheran church bodies and the ELCT.

2) Tanzania generally: As we discussed, the United Republic of Tanzania (see links below) is recognized as enjoying civil peace free of significant intercommunal strife since before independence (from U.K.-administered UN mandate) in 1961. While serious mistakes were made economically in the 1960s and 70s, the government succeeded in establishing a national identity and atmosphere of intercommunal tolerance among 120+ tribes, multiple distinct ethnicities, and large, intermixed Christian and Islamic communities. Since the mid 1990s, Tanzania has been a multiparty state led by a president and parliament elected in free and fair elections. The nation in general is among the poorest on earth, with much of the population living as subsistence agriculturalists earning < $100/capita annually. The Dodoma region is the "Appalachia" of a generally poor nation. Challenges include extending or sustaining safe and sufficient water supplies over much of the region, improving communications and health care, especially in rural areas, and specifically dealing with the AIDS epidemic, as well as endemic malaria and preventable diseases and conditions such as gastroenteritis, tuberculosis, and high mortality rates among children and associated with childbirth. Debt assumed by past governments (and little to show for it) has been a major problem for Tanzania. Debt relief is much appreciated there and the government has faithfully used money freed for poverty relief, infrastructure and education. It is our understanding that Tanzania meets the criteria for and is highly likely to be a Millennial Grant recipient. This government (with presidency and parliamentary majorities safe through 2005) seems intent on providing a business-friendly economic and commercial environment, reducing corruption (which is not bad by regional standards), and improving security and infrastructure.

3) Tanzania is important strategically:
a) As a model multi-religious democratic state: On a continent often characterized by savage and persistent intercommunal conflict, Tanzanians, with comparably-sized Christian, Moslem, and animists/nonreligious populations, mostly maintain civil peace. The presence and pressure of Islamic extremism (witness the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings) has increased, but remains unpopular and isolated.
b) Despite years of American diplomatic neglect and a past history of strategic disagreement, there is a lot of good will and genuine affection toward Americans in Tanzania. This affection is tinged by envy and frustration with our apparent stinginess and fear about our militarism as they see it. This would be a great time to give maximum support for improving Moslem as well as Christian lives, and thus gain the type of affection among Tanzanian Moslems experienced in Kosovo. We American Lutherans already have very good visibility and contacts at the highest levels of national government. The current U.S. ambassador is an excellent asset for us, well liked and respected.
c) Tanzania is a regional peacekeeper (whose sometimes barefoot troops are welcomed when they come because they are respectful and do not loot or abuse local people). It is also host to millions of refugees from Rwanda, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and the Congo. These refugees are a serious security as well as financial burden.
d) Tanzania has excellent ports in Tanga, Mtwara, and Dar es Salaam, with rail service to the west and north-south. With abundant arable farmland and manageably sufficient water supplies, it can be a major food supplier for the region. First, it needs to feed itself. It has people who can do so with some help.

4) Efforts of Northwestern Ohio and Fourth District Lutherans and friends in Dodoma:
a) The NWOS has for years paid a significant share of the salaries of pastors and evangelists in the Dodoma Diocese. It is the hope of many that this can be ended as parishioners become able to earn more money and support their church's work better.
b) The Great Lakes Consortium for Training and Development: The GLC is a center for international exchange and training that has added an emphasis on Africa, specifically Tanzania, to an interest in eastern Europe. They are supporting trade delegations to Tanzania and are hosting educational delegations from there, as well as beginning to work to import handicrafts. This specifically helps artisans, including women, to earn money and prestige.

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1. Are you part of an ELCA Lutheran congregation In Northwestern Ohio Synod? Take steps to form a partnership between your congregation and a Dodoma Diocese congregation. Already a partner? Keep it pumped up. Plan to visit your partner. Trips are planned annually. Contact Pastor David Bliss (blisspadre@yahoo.com).
2. Outside the Synod (non Lutheran, non-ELCA, or ELCA elsewhere)? a) If ELCA: Check about partnership or companionship opportunities in your Synod. Support your local partnerships. They need you. Wish us God's blessings and guidance. b) Look into your own faith community's efforts in mission and support them. c) Still with us? We have needs and opportunities...
3. Shipments to Tanzania. The next one is planned for mid-2005, focused on educational supplies and some farm equipment. Send something!
a) A box of school, athletic equipment, or medical supplies. Suggestion: A group assembles a box the size of those used in shipping copy paper. Include $20 to ship it. Inquire about items, shipping it to us or pick up. See also opportunities at links.
b) For the 2005 container (this one filled on the floor): Refurbish a vintage, smaller (up to 50 HP) Ford or Massey-Feguson tractor and donate it. This is a substantial undertaking. Expect to invest over $3000 and several months of time. Good for restless men who are good with tools in your congregation.  Inquire about items, shipping it to us or pick up.
c) Supply or refurbish 4-wheeler ATV or fund a radio telephone contract: Needed by rural dispensaries.
d) Can you help in a substantial way with shipping (like flying a freighter to East Africa)?
e) Other ideas and inspirations? Tell us.
4. Finance a well: In rural Dodoma, a well or new well pump means steady water. Water literally means life: Tropical fruit crops, even livestock survival in the dry season.  At Aya School: It means water for gardens and cattle for self-reliance and student learning. The water is typically available if managed properly. A few $100s to $15,000 may be needed depending on complexity and needs. Specific examples: $500 to replace ancient pumping equipment in the Rofati village pump or $12,000 to construct an entirely new well for Rofati Lutheran parish which will support money-making tree-crop efforts. Money invested will be paid back to construct other systems. Contact Stuart Smith (stusmith@udata.com) for specifics.
5. Send money (if appropriate: See item 2). Money is needed for shipments, buying equipment, supplies and parts. You may contribute tax-deductibly (U.S. rules) through the Synod's WELCA, ELCA's World Hunger Appeal, or the Synod, designating for the target of choice, or via Christian Missions for Dodoma  (CMD), a 501.3(c) nonprofit. Other options: Support a student at Aya Secondary School ($290/year).

Can we help inform you?

1) In Ohio (or elsewhere if you pay travel), we can speak to and conduct show-and-tell for anyone interested. We can also bring crafts and art or provide it to you on consignment.
2) We can supply video and Powerpoint presentations on travels in Dodoma and Tractors for Tanzania. These are amateur in production and need narration. Maybe you want to help with that.
3) Contact the referred-to emails for information on various projects.
4) An "All Things Tanzania" email list is being formed to share information, questions, and observations. Email stusmith@udata.com to subscribe.

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Selection of sites relevant to the theme here
The Official Republic of Tanzania site

Digital National Atlas of Tanzania by Michael Shand, University of Glasgow, Scotland
Tanzania thumbnail summary from the U.S. CIA (Hey, we are the good guys..)
Global Trade and Technology Network - Tanzania general, finance and business information Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania
An overview of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania - from the ELCA, with various links
Northwestern Ohio Synod - ELCA
Information on partnership activities - Between NWOS and Dodoma Diocese parishes
Suomi (Finnish) mission cooperation in Tanzania

Affiliation and editorial content: Involved people are members of congregations of the Northwestern Ohio Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, other ELCA Synods, or the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT), and friends. TFT,  Seeds, Dodoma Christian Medical Centre/Dodoma Tanzania Health Development, CMD and affiliated efforts are independently conceived and administered ministries dedicated to improved health and welfare of the Dodoma region's people and the Glory of God, and not formally affiliated with the NWOS or ELCA, ELCT or its dioceses, or governments involved, although following ELCA policies for sustainable development (or better) and fair trade policies. This is not an official web site of any of these organizations. Facts stated are as understood by the author at the time this page was drafted, and opinions expressed are entirely his own. Comments and correction welcome (stusmith at udata.com).

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