I visited Neema and Godbless for eight days in the end of February 2020 and arrived in Norway just before Covid 19 started its full worldwide attack. The stay was very interesting. We were seven Norwegians all together. One of them was my friend professor Oddbjørn Bukve. He gave a lecture about the development of the history of Norwegian agriculture from late 1800 up to today. The audience was people connected to “Godbless diary and agriculture cooperation”. People found the lecture very relevant to the situation in Tanzania and the challenges local cooperation meet.
The audience sitting in the storeroom of the cooperation listening to the lecture
A person in
the audience had, together with his wife, donated a 20 hectar farm over to
Godbless and Neema as a gift in
gratitude for their great community effort. This had happened some months
before we arrived. We visited the farm. More about this in the end of this
blog.
Today,
February 18th 2021, Bethel School and Home again is in a very good
shape. I use the word again because
of the closing of all the schools in Tanzania from the middle of March to late
June. This hit especially the private schools hard since they are dependent of
school fees from the parents. At Bethel School and Home the teachers and the
other workers received some money during these difficult months. Gradually from
July, most of the parents were able to
pay at least part of the school fee.
Now, the
school has about has about 600 pupils of which about 200 live in the boarding.
Last autumn the Form VII pupils had very good results at the national
examination, and so had Form IV pupils.
Plans for
the 20 hectar farm
A small part of the farm
You find the
farm not far from Bethel School and Home, 15-20 minutes driving. The area is
green and lush and the impression is that trees and plants thrive here. The
farm has some cows and produce around 35 l milk per day. There are also some
production of banana, vegetables, maze and some more. The plan is to increase a
lot. To day 16 men work here and this may be expanded.
The production
will be organized in five departments. The 16 men have chosen to which department
they shall belong. The departments are:
Cows. Production of milk, more than 100 l
per day at the end of the year. Production of calf/meat. Production of manure fertilizer
to give trees and plants in the farm a happy life.
Maze, beans and sunflower (10 l oil from 80 kg sunflower)
Chicken and pigry Eggs and chicken flesh (No chicken
and pigs today)
Banana, sweet potatoes and cassawa
Vegetables and fruit
Some of the vegetables
An important goal is to produce enough and healthy food for the children in school and boarding. This means about 50 l milk per day. Now they have an egg every second week. In the future they shall have every second day. And they will also have more vegetables and fruit.
Of course
the farm must also earn money so that it is possible to pay the workers and contribute
running school and boarding. Already people from neighbour villages come and by
vegetables, fruit and milk
So I hope
the pandemic situation will make it possible to visit them again, perhaps next
year.
