TAREA Lake Victoria Zone Branch Mwanza

- weltwaerts Volunteering Program

Prepared by Jacob N. Ruhonyora (Executive Secretary of TAREA Lake Victoria Zone Branch)

In Cooperation with Christian Harder and Eric Christfreund (Volunteers)

June 1st 2018

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Contacts TANZANIA RENEWABLE ENERGY ASSOCIATION (TAREA) HEADQUARTER P.O. Box 32643 Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Tel/Fax: +255-22-2451674 Mob: +255-753-383805 Website: www.tarea-tz.org E-Mail: info@tarea-tz.org

LAKE VICTORIA ZONE BRANCH P.O. Box 6118 Mwanza, Tanzania Nyamagana - District Commissioners office 2nd floor

Mob 1: +255 763 661 497

Mob 2: +255 787 404 911

Website: www.tarea-tz.org E-Mail 1: tarealakezone@gmail.com

E-Mail 2: jacobruhonyora@yahoo.com

Jacob N. Ruhonyora

- Executive Secretary of TAREA Lake Victoria Zone Branch

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Table of Contents Contacts ......................................................................................................................................................... i

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1

Intakes of Volunteers .................................................................................................................................... 2

2012/2013: Christopher, Nico & David ..................................................................................................... 2

2013/2014: Jonathan & Tobias ................................................................................................................. 4

2014/2015: Sören & Linus......................................................................................................................... 7

2015/2016: Nicolas & Kilian ...................................................................................................................... 9

2016/2017: Julius & Joost ....................................................................................................................... 11

2017/2018: Christian & Eric .................................................................................................................... 13

Success ........................................................................................................................................................ 16

Hosting Organization .............................................................................................................................. 16

Hosting Families ...................................................................................................................................... 16

Volunteers ............................................................................................................................................... 17

Community .............................................................................................................................................. 17

I, Jacob Ruhonyora .................................................................................................................................. 17

Challenges ................................................................................................................................................... 18

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 18

1

Introduction

Tanzania Renewable Energy Association was founded in 2000 and is a non-profit making, Non

Government Organization that brings together actors in the renewable energy sectors to promote the

accessibility and use of renewable energies in Tanzania Mainland. To date it has 728 members all over

the country. Over the years, TAREA has been implementing promotional and capacity building activities,

research, knowledge exchange and sharing, awareness creation, quality control and advocacy for

support and dissemination of renewable energy technologies.

Its mission is to promote and advocate for the increased use of Renewable Energy by developing an

effective network of members and stakeholders and emphasizing the need for quality and best practice

throughout the sector.

The Deutsch-Tansanische Partnerschaft e.V. (DTP) was founded in 1998 with the aim of cultural

exchange and learning and as a part of a volunteers exchange program enrolled in the year 2000 they

started to cooperate with TAREA in Dar es Salaam in 2003. Every year they send up to 16 volunteers to

Hosting Organizations all across Tanzania with the objective to impart the cultural learning between

young Germans and Tanzanians and to promote the use of sustainable, renewable energies in Tanzania

as well as Climate Protection. Since 2011 also to the Lake Victoria Zone Branch of TAREA in Mwanza is

one of those Hosting Organizations and has been working very successfully with two volunteers every

year.

The aim of this report is to present the cultural learning and sustainable, renewable technology activities

that have been implemented by the different intakes of volunteers in Mwanza including their successes

and challenges.

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Intakes of Volunteers

Since I, Jacob Ruhonyora, joined the Organization in 2013 as Executive Secretary of the Lake Victoria

Zone Branch, I worked together with six different intakes of volunteers.

The volunteers would help with administrational activities including reading and writing emails, working

on member requests, distributing news and interesting information to the members, collecting and

recording the member payments and keeping the member database up to date. With their workforce

they would also support meetings and help to write concept notes, proposals and reports.

As there are several events about sustainability every year like the Renewable Energy Days, the

volunteers often take part in them with the aim to broaden their knowledge and to get in touch with

members and other stakeholders.

Each intake has also the possibility to realize small scale projects that are financially supported by the

sending organization Deutsch-Tanzanische Partnerschaft e.V. (DTP). Those projects need to be paid at

least by half by the hosting organization and should either serve the aim of spreading or supporting

renewable energies or support the intercultural exchange.

2012/2013: Christopher, Nico & David

Luchelele Fishing Lamp Project:

The root of the long history of Solar Fishing in Mwanza has started in Luchelele (Nyamagana

District, Mwanza) in 2012 where the Mwanza-Wuerzburg city partnership installed a solar

powered charging station for electric fishing lights. Those were supposed to replace kerosene

lamps which were formerly used for night fishing but have various disadvantages like high

running costs, greenhouse gas emissions and safety problems. However this project was not

accepted by the fishermen due to several challenges. First of all the lamps were too heavy for an

effective use as they required two men for carrying into and out of the water and the light did

not penetrate the water sufficiently because they missed a reflector. Furthermore the charging

station had various technical issues and did not fit the mobile working practices of the fishermen

as it was stationary fixed.

The work of this intake of volunteers mainly focused on doing research and improving those

issues. While TAREA Lake Zone acted as a technical advisor they collaborated with the fishing

community and the city fishery officer. For example they tried to build a reflector out of locally

available materials and maintained the charging station.

The discovered challenges and research results provided a foundation for the further

development of the Solar Fishing project in Mwanza.

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1 Volunteer Nico with a Fishermen before going for Nightfishing

2 Solar Charging Station in Luchelele

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2013/2014: Jonathan & Tobias

Solar Fishing

Together with the new intake, we wrote a report to the German association of the city

partnership (M.W.A.N.Z.A e.V) about the experiences and challenges with the charging station

and the old lamps. Following this report, the chairperson Michael Stolz proposed the testing of a

new kind of lamp, which was provided by the association. Those lamps used the old batteries

from the lamps of the charging station in combination with new lanterns. The volunteers took

those lamps for testing in Bwiru (Mwanza) and Ukerewe where the feedback turned out better

than for the lamps from Luchelele. Later on they even took the lamps to Kigoma at Lake

Tanganyika and tested them in a different environment. During the test they compared

efficiency, costs and handling of kerosene and solar lanterns.

School Project:

The volunteers conducted a one and a half week long teaching project at a Montessori School in

Kiloleli, Ilemela that they used to raise awareness on renewable energy and sustainability.

Member Diversification and Recruitment:

In order to enlarge TAREA by finding new members and enforce structures, the volunteers and I

visited different parts of Lake Zone Region including Bukoba, Geita, Bunda, Kahama and

Shinyanga. There we organized meetings that were supposed to evaluate the needs, challenges

and requests of the members and to find new members. For that we cooperated with old

members who connected us with other actors from the sector that might be interested.

Renewable Energy Day 2014 in Kahama:

This intake supported the TAREA team during the Renewable Energy Days in Kahama where

they explained to the stakeholders how to distinguish between fake and original solar products.

Moreover they created a kit to explain the function principle and installation of a solar home

system and for teaching purposes at schools.

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Biogas Digester:

The volunteers supported to implement a biogas digester that uses biodegradable material to

create biogas that can be used for clean cooking. Afterwards the intake helped to rewrite a

business plan model calculation for a scale-up which was later on submitted for the

energy4everyone competition and selected as the most innovative project. Because of this we

won money to scale it up and in cooperation with a member of TAREA we built six digesters that

supported farmers in Mwanza, Ukara (Ukererwe) and Shinyanga.

Support of RE-Research Project of University Uppsala, Stockholm

Together with the Masters Degree Student Deria Ho from Sweden the volunteers went to

support a research trip to evaluate the penetration level of the market by renewable energy

products. Therefore they visited different parts of the Lake Zone Region like Sengerema, Geita,

Ukerewe, Kahama and Shinyanga. After Miss Ho organized the information, also the Branch got

the report so that it was able to benefit itself as it knew better about the situation back then.

3 Biogas Digester 4 Teaching Model for Solar Home System

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5 Jonathan and the Fishery Officer Mr. Kamata at Charging Station in Luchelele

6 Solar Night Fishing in Kigoma, Lake Tanganyika

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2014/2015: Sören & Linus

Solar Fishing:

Sadly during this year the city partnership withdrew the Memorandum of Understanding with

the Mwanza City Council so that the project in Luchelele was finally ended up. Therefore this

intake tried some alternatives like a lamp that is charged with the standard grid and another one

that they built from locally available material. In addition they tried a lamp from a Chinese

supplier which turned out as not suitable so they went on using the lamp that M.W.A.N.Z.A. e.V.

proposed the year before. They also accompanied the fishermen during night to evaluate the

use of the lamps.

Villageboom:

Inspired by the hosting organization MOTO on Zanzibar, the volunteers proposed the

implementation of a Villageboom project in Lake Victoria Zone. Villageboom is a company that

provides small and cheap solar products that include a solar cell and different loads like lamps or

mobile phone chargers. They communicated with the organization to create a first contact and

sold first lamps to members and prospects in Mwanza. Apart from that, together we went to

Bunda and Usagara to promote the system.

Member Visits:

Similar to the predecessors, we went to different parts of Lake Zone Region like Bukoba, Magu,

Bunda and Musoma to keep up the contact with the old members and find new members.

Furthermore we used the trips to learn about the projects of the members including renewable

energies but for the volunteers also to learn something about the culture and to meet the

members personally.

Solar Water Boiler:

As a small Do-It-Yourself project, the volunteers built a device that is just built from cardboard,

aluminum foil and glass that can be used to boil water to prepare tea or soup. This was just

meant to be a prototype and can be used for presentation purposes and school programs.

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7 Sören lighting Lamps preparing for Night Fishing 8 Linus preparing the Self-Built-Lamp for Solar Night Fishing

9 Linus testing his Lamp on the Lake 10 Jacob with the Solar Water Cooker

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2015/2016: Nicolas & Kilian

Solar Fishing:

The Solar Fishing Project got an exciting turn during this intake when a proposal of TAREA, the

Mwanza City Council and the city of Wuerzburg got accepted by the German Ministry for

Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) as part of an initiative for climate partnerships.

With the provided money 36 solar lamps were purchased as a first step of a larger program. The

lanterns were rented to fishermen in Mkuyuni, Mwanza with a possibility to own them later on.

Similar to the Villageboom, this project is supposed to be sustainable by a revolving fund. The

money that the fishermen pay back is used to buy new lamps.

School program:

The volunteers started a follow-up with the Montessori School and visited different

governmental schools (Pamba and Mwanza Secondary School) to continue the school program

but since unfortunately Kilian had to return to Germany earlier due to sickness, the program was

interrupted.

Villageboom:

The Volunteers used all their small scale project money for the purchase of 90 Villageboom-

lamps. The lamps were bought from the Jane-Goodall-Institute in Dar es Salaam and brought to

an old friend of mine who sold them in his neighborhood in Nyang’ombe on the road to Bunda.

For the payment of the systems, the volunteers came up with a method that provided the

possibility to buy the lamp either as a whole or in three consecutive installments. The price

included the installation and a one year warranty as well as a small allowance for the vendor

who collected the payments. The idea was to realize the project as a revolving-fund so that after

all the lamps would have been sold, the money should be used to buy new ones.

For that purpose the volunteers already researched a new version which had better specs than

the previously sold one.

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11 Kilian introducing the Villageboom Lamps to the Community at Nya'ngombe

12 A Villageboom Lamp 13 Exchange of Kersoene Lamps for Solar Lantern with Nicolas

14 Nicolas and Jacob talking with the City Relation 15 Kilian during Night Fishing Officer Mr. Kaaya about the Fishing Project

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2016/2017: Julius & Joost

Solar Fishing:

To continue the fishing project of their predecessors the volunteers went regularly to the fishing

site in Mkuyuni to collect the installments for the solar lanterns. In the end of 2016, 50 new

lamps were purchased and distributed to the fishermen. Unfortunately the payment did not

work out very satisfying but also the measurements that should have been taken were blocked

by the fishery officer so that there was no possibility to get the fishermen to pay. Following this

experience for the next 97 lamps the stricter digital pay-as-you-go payment system was

introduced. This only activates the lamps after each completed payment. Those lamps were sold

to fishermen at a different site in Bwiru, Mwanza.

School Program:

The volunteers continued the long tradition of school projects in TAREA Lake Zone, by starting a

new cooperation with the Bwiru Boys Secondary School. During their weekly lessons they taught

deaf and mute students several theoretical units about sustainability, renewable energies and

environment protection as well as practical skills and knowledge. Apart from the overall

importance of those topics, the project aimed at improving their chances of employment which

are unsurprisingly not that promising.

Villageboom:

Unfortunately the plans for the second cycle of the revolving fund system could not be realized

because the people in the region did not have that much money due to a weak rain season and

thus not all the lamps of the first cycle were sold.

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16 Julius and Joost teaching the Deaf Students at Bwiru Boys Secondary School

17 Joost exchanging Kerosene Lamps for Solar Lanterns with a Fisherman

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2017/2018: Christian & Eric

Solar Fishing:

After the first revolving fund cycle in Bwiru was finished, the volunteers helped installing the

next revolving fund cycle which unfortunately included fewer lamps than the first cycle due to

inflation. In Mkuyuni the situation remained unresolved and the fishermen are still using lamps

that have not been redeemed entirely. Another challenge that came up is that the fishermen are

using finer nets than allowed by the government which is why representatives of the

government occasionally confiscate or even destroy gear of the fishermen. This makes it even

harder to keep up the payments.

In order to promote solar fishing in other regions than only Lake Victoria, the volunteers met

with representatives of fishing communities from the other two big lakes in Tanzania – Lake

Tanganyika and Lake Nyassa – to present the benefits of those lamps. They also received a

pretty positive feedback but a small scale project for a further research and installment trip was

declined.

Inspired by the solar fishing lamp built of locally available material by the intake of 2014/2015

the University of Wuerzburg in cooperation with the Mwanza-Wuerzburg city partnership

started to develop a cheaper kit consisting of locally available material that could be assembled

by the fishermen themselves in order to avoid the inflation-linked rising costs of the professional

dealer. The volunteers collected data concerning the price and availability of the required parts

to support the research in Germany

School Program:

Also this intake continued the school program of their predecessors at Bwiru. There they tried to

teach about similar topics like the year before but in a different class and also learned some sign

language from the students. Sadly the level of collaboration decreased because of several

interferences like exams and the pregnancy of the contact person so that not that many lessons

took place.

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Member Visits and Recruitment:

Resembling to the trips of preceding intakes the volunteers visited several members around

Lake Victoria including Bukoba, Ukerewe, Bunda and Musoma. In cooperation with the

volunteers we conducted meetings that had two purposes. We wanted to meet the members

personally to evaluate their needs, brief them about the current status of TAREA and TAREA LZ

in particular and to get an update about their projects and progresses. Apart from that we used

the trip to get in touch with potential new members.

We also took the chance to visit some interesting approaches of our members and other NGOs,

most notably the Igunga Ecovillage close to Shinyanga. This project integrates interventions in a

range of sectors like water, energy, agriculture and gender in order to sustainably improve

climate change resilience and reduce poverty.

Solar Dryer for Sardines at Mkuyuni Fishing Site:

To tackle the problems of hygiene and efficiency that occur during the conventional drying

process of Dagaa (Sardines) which is one of the most popular kinds of fish around Lake Victoria,

the volunteers built a solar dryer that uses the energy of the sun more effectively and provides a

sealed enclosure. The idea was to build a prototype which should serve for first evaluations and

be a concept for a possible scale up that would be realized in cooperation with the city

partnership Mwanza-Wuerzburg. Apart from its function as a test object, it is used as an exhibit

to facilitate the basic principle of using the sun more effectively for fish drying purposes.

18 The Solar Dryer for Sardines 19 Eric explaining the Function Principle of the Solar Dryer to a Fisherman

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20 Eric and Christian with their Catch after Night Fishing in the Lake

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Success

Hosting Organization TAREA Lake Zone Branch and I as Executive Secretary are very happy with the presence and the work of

the German volunteers here in Mwanza. Not only do they support the administration and other

everyday work, but they also are eager to learn and always come up with good ideas for projects or

improvements, e.g. the Villageboom project, Solar Dryer and other mentioned above.

Most notably the solar fishing project has been accompanied by volunteers for a long time and would

definitely look very different without their work. Especially the research that every intake took part in

helped to revolutionize Night Fishing in Lake Victoria. Also through the volunteering program TAREA got

the chance to become a part of the Mwanza-Wuerzburg sister cities partnership and the

implementation of the solar fishing project as a technical advisor.

With their ideas the volunteers often help to strengthen different organizations. For example with the

idea of solar fisher lanterns built of locally available material or a solar dryer which both might be scaled

up in cooperation with Mwanza-Wuerzburg city partnership will enforce both TAREA and the cities

partnership. Additionally one volunteer was really helpful in starting cooperation projects with other

companies working in the sector of solar fishing like Fishers Union Organization, Omnivoltaic and

Simusolar and thereby enforced the branch vastly.

With their work and research concerning the lamps the volunteers built a foundation for the support of

the solar fishing program by the BMZ and thereby also strengthened the Mwanza – Wuerzburg city

partnership. Moreover they helped with the communication like during Skype calls, with the preparation

of reports or of a presentation that was held during a visit in Germany.

Each intake had its very own interests, some rather focusing on technical aspects and construction,

others on networking or teaching, but each one of the volunteers shaped TAREA Lake Zone in his very

own way.

Hosting Families The hosting families mostly benefit by getting friends from other cultures. Not only do they learn about

how people live on the other end of the world and what is similar and what is different about them but

also they find contacts that in many cases they will meet again in their later life and that sometimes

even form deeper bonds, like godfathership or even marriage. The volunteers are always really

integrated into the families as they sleep, eat and live together in one house. They help with cooking, set

the table, go to the shop and support the families with other things in the daily life.

The hosting families most times report very happily about the volunteers and enjoy the time together

that much that they miss them when they are leaving like a real part of the family.

Apart from that they also benefit from the financial support that sometimes enable them to get a higher

standard of living and can also provide better education for their children.

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Volunteers Just like the hosting place and the hosting families, also the volunteers earn great advantages from their

year in Mwanza. By working at TAREA, the volunteers gain lots of new knowledge concerning the work

and the processes of a Renewable Energy NGO. They learn how to develop the idea of a project, how to

prepare it and find donors and how to finally implement it. By researching and working in projects,

communicating with other actors of the field and attending awareness raising events like the Renewable

Energy Days the volunteers gain a deeper understanding for social and environmental issues.

Apart from their work, also their everyday life makes up a big part of their year where they get in

contact with another culture and its language. Also that they find new friends and a second family

enables them to dive even deeper into the culture. This might actually sometimes be challenging but to

be faced by that challenge forces them to leave their comfort zone and teaches them a huge lesson for

their future life. But it is not only challenging, there are also lots of experiences that disprove the partly

spread negative European view of Africa. Especially after their return to Germany the volunteers can

spread those experiences among their friends and relatives.

Community As a major part of the work of TAREA is to support the spread of renewable energies, the community

benefits from all those products like solar home systems, solar fisher lanterns, improved cooking stoves

and biogas digesters to only mention a few. Those do not only have lower running costs than the

conventional methods, but also improve the livelihood and have a positive impact on the environment.

Teaching programs and presentations help to facilitate the possibilities and advantages of renewable

energies to the community.

Through interaction with the community by friendships as well as short chats on the street not only the

volunteers profit from the community but also likewise. For example they can explain the life in a

western country and thereby oppose prejudices.

I, Jacob Ruhonyora Being a part of the society also I learned lots of new things about the German culture, their way of

thinking, their way of life and their food. Some things that I learned from them I also adapted to my own

life. For example I am working harder now and try to keep an eye on the management of my time and

money by following the culture of the volunteers.

Moreover the volunteers helped me to build confidence as they support me when I meet with

authorities like the city director or the regional and district commissioners.

The cooperation also caused a shift in my mind as I thought before that the world is divided into several

cultures like rich Whites and poor Africans but through the cooperation I realized that all human are

pretty similar and that it is possible that everyone cooperates if there is just the wish to start a

communication to work together.

Furthermore through the volunteer program I was able to visit different parts of Germany like Munich,

Cologne, Bonn, Berlin and Mwanzas sister-city Wuerzburg where I learned more about the culture and I

was able to create my own picture of the life in Germany. I was also able to meet the representatives of

Wuerzburg who I knew before only via mails or calls.

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Challenges When two cultures come together, it leads to lots of benefits and successes but just like the upsides also

some challenges are inevitable.

Most of the troubles result from the cultural differences and the young age of the volunteers. Those

differences manifest for example in the attitude towards work that sometimes even lead to discussions

in the office.

Also in the hosting family the European way of life might interfere with the Tanzanian as for example

when a volunteer likes to go out at night. The families might be seen overprotective while the

volunteers appear to be rude or naïve and it is not always easy to mediate between both sides. Other

challenges might be that the volunteers do not like the food and the sanitary environment like washing

by hand or showering using a cup does pose a challenge or at least require some time to get used to.

Apart from that the volunteers sometimes have problems with people on the street when they are too

pushy or with people having the tendency of hiding their real opinion in order to be polite but

afterwards talking about what bothers them with the volunteers in their absence. On the other hand the

volunteers are often to direct with their opinion and might hurt or anger people.

The cultural differences are often even enhanced by the language problems in the beginning but with

the further understanding of the language also an understanding of the culture arises.

But what always helped with those troubles are the seminars for hosting organizations, hosting families

and the volunteers where the participants deliberate the troubles that occur during their everyday life.

By reflecting the different culture it is often easier to understand why everyone behaves in the way they

do and it removes those obstacles.

To my delight most of the times the volunteers listen to the hosting families and my advice of being

careful so that until now we almost never encountered any bigger problems.

Conclusion As you can see now the weltwaerts program has lots of benefits for not only the German volunteers but

also for various groups of people involved on the Tanzanian side not forgetting the environment and the

climate. All those factors contribute to a project that I as a person and I as the Executive Secretary of

TAREA Lake Victoria Zone Branch are very happy to be a part of and that I wish to keep up. In fact I

would actually appreciate if the partnership could even be intensified. Especially if more Tanzanian

volunteers could be a part of the program as South-North-Volunteers it would give the relationship a

more balanced foundation and those great experiences that come from cultural exchange, climate

protection and environmental work would not be primarily on the German side but also the young

Tanzanian generation could profit equally from it.

Last but not least I would like to thank the DTP for their cooperation and consistency that has always

been leading to positive results. I think that the good preparation and evaluation as well as the intense

cooperation with all the hosting organizations but also with TYC and TAREA made a major part of the

success and without the DTP TAREA Lake Victoria Zone Branch would not be where it is right now. That

being said I think that DTP is the right partner on the German side for running such a volunteering

program. I really appreciate their efforts and congratulate them to 20 years of a successful program for

that there be another 20 years like those.