Trailblazers of Tuungane

Life can be challenging in western Tanzania, and no one knows this better than the women who live there. Women who bear an average of seven children. Women who must fetch water from the lake’s shoreline every day. Women who overcome many obstacles to complete their education. Strong women are the key to more than a decade of conservation success through the Tuungane Project, our collaboration with Pathfinder, government, communities, and other partners to create healthier families, fisheries, and forests where Lake Tanganyika meets the Mahale Mountains. Meet three brave women who are building better lives for their families and inspiring others to follow their leads.

PROVIDE | Agriculture innovator

It was not so easy for Nusura Sadiki to convince her husband to test the conservation farming methods she learned in a Tuungane Project training. “Before I learned, I farmed randomly, planting zigzag, without knowing where to put the seeds, and the harvest was poor,” Nusura said. New methods would take more work, but she told her husband they would stop if their efforts didn’t increase their crop yields. Soon, their 2-acre farm went from producing an average of eight 100-kilogram sacks of maize to more than 40 sacks, and her husband joined her as a conservation farming champion. Their extra income allowed them to build a modern house and pay school fees. “To my fellow women, I am telling them to follow sustainable ways of farming—to plant in lines, to till their farms, to plant and sow in time—and then they definitely will see a very big difference,” Nusura said.

PROTECT | Microfinance leader

In 2016, Tuungane mobilizers visited Rukoma Village, where Doris James lives with her family, to discuss the benefits of microfinance groups called community conservation banks (COCOBAs). Doris overcame her initial fears that her investment would be lost and she is now a leader in the group. She was able to borrow capital to open a tailoring shop, and her earnings have allowed her to send her daughter to university. “I won’t get tired of advising my fellow women to conserve the environment and educate their children,” says Doris. “And of showing the community how we are benefiting from these groups,” Doris said.

CLIMATE | Champion for trees

In Lugonesi Village, hours away from the edge of the lake, the forest holds the key to the community’s livelihoods. Here, Velena Ponsian has learned how to monitor and nurture seedlings planted in a woodlot. Villagers now harvest these trees for household uses instead of cutting the natural forest. With support from donors, the Tuungane Project has planted more than 10 million trees in the Kigoma and Katavi regions with an incredible 86% survival rate, thanks in large part to monitors like Velena. “Forests have so many benefits: the quality of air, fertile soil, and more. So I tell my fellow Tanzanians, every province, every district, every county, we must think of ways to take care of forests because of the benefits they have.”