Kilimanjaro, TZ – Family using garden to put children through school – 1 May 2015

The AN family started their garden in July, 2014. The family is made up of two parents looking after their five children. The oldest child is in secondary school and the rest are all in primary school.

With so many children in school the parents are constantly trying to keep up with school expenses. The father created a system to help with family finances. He built a small box that he tries to put 500 (US $0.03) TZS per day in. Sometimes he sells 500 TZS and sometimes he saves it because he doesn’t have to buy vegetables. Sometimes he isn’t able to put money in the box. Since starting the garden the family has eaten vegetables every day and put 50,000 (US $28.57) TZS into their savings box.

Eating vegetables has greatly improved the children’s diets. They use to eat only ugali (boiled flour) every day but now they eat ugali with vegetables. The vegetables provide important nutrients, proteins, and amino acids to help the children grow.

The 50,000 TZS in savings helps the parents pay for school fees, supplies and uniforms. If they can increase their savings they want to invest in their other small businesses. The family owns two pigs and nine chickens. Buying more of each or improving the animals’ homes would improve the profitability of the projects.

The family’s biggest challenge is water. Currently they have to talk almost a kilometer or walk along a very steep and muddy path to fetch water. This takes a lot of time and energy and makes even simple activities unsustainable. They are hoping to benefit from the water project Lishe Bora is implementing in Mkyashi.