Heart & Soul
Zanzibar is a beautiful island filled with culture, stunning beaches and friendly locals. Stone Town, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is located within the center of the main city on the island, and is an incredible mix of winding alleys and old Arabic-style buildings.
As the sun sets in this port town, a traditional Dhow merchant boat sails by the shore. While the exact origin of the Dhow is unknown, it is believed that these boats were used by Arab and Indian merchants exploring East Africa hundreds of years ago.
Fish Traders
Zanzibar City (Stone Town) is the economic center of the island and Darajani Market, the main bazaar. With everything from spices, fresh fish, huge pieces of meat and shops full of items such as chickens, sandals, kitchen appliances or mobile phones, this market is always full of activity.
Early each morning local fishermen bring their fresh catch to this market. An informal auction ensues, with the highest bidder profiting by cleaning, portioning, and then reselling the catch locally in the market or elsewhere on the island.
Kendwa Rocks
Work is much more difficult to find outside of Stone Town and the standard of living much lower.
As an example, with a population of a few thousand, Kendwa Village has limited work and opportunity for its residents. Further, when work is found, it can be both grueling and dangerous. Here, these young men were fortunate enough to have found work. However, they were tasked with tirelessly digging this water well, manually by hammer and chisel, for hours on end, in over 32C temperatures. To make matters worse, the land is quite rocky, making the job even more difficult and unsafe.
Working Poor
This woman takes a break from meticulously working on a basket that she hopes to sell to a tourist staying at one of the handful of beautiful resorts lined in front of the stunning beach, adjacent to this desolate community. It will take her a few days to gather the palm for the basket, color and stain the material, and then manually braid the palm to complete the final product. After all of this, she hopes to sell the basket for $15. It’s minimal considering the amount of time she will put into making the back, but every dollar helps with her family’s survival.
With the average income minimal in this village, the signs of her years of hard work are clearly visible.
Affordable Quality Homes
Affordable quality homes aren't common for many in Zanzibar which has a negative impact on the health of entire families, and communities. Quality homes are vital to increasing school attendance and lowering the dropout rate, but also for providing a safe place for children to do their homework in a space with adequate lighting, no leaks or the potential for flooding.
This working family of four have shelter, but barely. There isn't electricity, their roof leaks heavily when it rains, and windows don't have a means to close, so they're open to the outside elements, including malaria. Striving to improve his family’s living conditions, Mr. James, slowly collects sand each week for use in concrete, in hopes of one day finishing construction of his (quality) home for his family.
Inequality
Directly adjacent to Kendwa Village, barley with the means for shelter, water, food, clothing and education, is a beautiful beach lined with several luxury resorts. The number of resorts are only expanding with little of their profits making their way back to the local village. Locals are frustrated that the resorts are using much of the fresh water supply from the wells, forcing them to dig deeper or dig new wells for water supply. Further, they complain of over fishing related to the resort owner’s need to feed the abundance of tourists visiting. Resort owners, however, are frustrated by corruption in the government, continually having to both pay, what were described as, bribes and unfair prices for food for their restaurants. Nevertheless, the income gap between the rich and poor is only growing in Kendwa Village.
The Time for Change is Now
Despite the challenges faced in the community, this women's group is striving for positive change. Their mission is three-fold:
(1) To help women in the community raise their children while their fathers are out trying to find work.
(2) To identify additional income sources so their children can obtain an education, whether for school supplies or to cover education costs, required for many after secondary school.
(3) To help increase access to medical care for women in their community as they currently do not have savings to pay hospital costs/bills.
There are roughly 800 women living in the community, each with an average of six children. While their husbands are away working, or looking for work, these women provide for their families on the home front. But, it’s no easy task, given the sheer number of children they care for, limited resources, and lack of access to health care. In hopes of generating additional income for their family, they work to sell homemade soap, baskets, and coconuts to tourists visiting the area, in many cases why the eldest child watches over their younger siblings.
Poverty & Education
The impact of poverty on education in East Africa remains one of its biggest challenges. While progress has been made over the past few decades, many still face significant barriers to education. For example, students of Kendwa Village’s primary school, Kilindi, lack basic supplies such clothing, pens, notebooks, or even running water and toilets. Students studying here also test lower than students in Zanzibar City as teachers are untrained at times and student attendance is poor, due to families struggling to cover both direct and indirect costs, associated with education.
Mr. James
Those within the community that can, strive to give back in hopes of a better future for their children. Mr. James is certainly one of these people. He teaches English to hundreds of students packed into a single classroom without desks or chairs for a couple of hours a day, merely for donations, when families can afford it. He has little himself, but strongly believes that Education, including English, can help improve the future within their village. He passionately teaches his students, having them recite phrases, sentences and short stories from memory, on command. Mr. James is highly respected within the community, however, has received unwanted attention from the local government for teaching outside of the area’s legal framework.
Knowledge is Power
Kilindi School is over capacity at 830 students. Still, Mr. James enthusiastically teaches his students each day. At times, over 200 students are tightly packed into rooms in hot temperatures, without desks, while student share text books as there simply aren’t enough to go around for all.
Leading through Change
Education, while limited, is proving valuable. Young, confident, leaders are standing up for positive change in the community, as a positive example for those around them. Each class within Kilindi School has a student leader, encouraging others to focus and make education a priority.
Hope for a Better Future
As the children remove their sandals and enter the classroom, there is hope for a better future for this community. With access to education for all, there is certainly potential for positive change. Sadly, with only primary school available in this village it will not be easy. One thing is for certain; the children of Kendwa Village have an unstoppable drive and desire to learn and improve their living conditions – if the opportunity is ever provided to them.
