How do NIHEP work together with and within the Tanzanian social service system?
If you are going to work with people’s problems, you have to know well the systems which can help people to deal with those problems. In many countries, there are many steps you have to go through before you can get a child to the safe place in foster care or maybe even in a hospital, if the child’s parents are against that idea. Tanzania is not an exception. To show, which stake holders we are working with when it comes to the situations of vulnerable families, we are doing a little summary of Tanzanian social services and how they work.
NIHEP is working in Nyamagana district, in Lwanhima and Butimba wards. The wards are also separated to different streets or villages. Each street has the chairman, which is elected among the people living on the street. We are working with families and children on the streets, and when we first introduce ourselves and our activities to the street’s Chairman, we are free to work, how we want: we can give financial support, visit families and arrange the groups for people with the same kind of life situations. We try to get people to connect with each other, that giving and getting help would be easier. In the street and in the wards we have para-social workers (people, who have short education in social problems in the community and how to solve them), who knows the people of the area and have a better connection with them than a worker who is coming from somewhere else. Getruda and Kennedy are para-social workers working for NIHEP, but not all of them are working with any organization. Kennedy is working on Butimba ward, Getrude is working on Lwanhima ward. Usually that support is enough.
Sometimes there appears to be that kind of problems, which can’t be helped only with counseling and other lighter support. These kinds of problems might be, for example, that a child is beaten badly by parents, a child is not getting enough food and is really malnourished, a child has dropped out of the school, parents are having bad mental health or alcoholism problems or child is left as an orphan. In these kinds of cases, we must contact the Chairman of the street, because he should know about issues appearing on his street, but also because he can sometimes help the helping processes to go forward by contacting right persons.
In the ideal situation, The Chairman is responsible to help people in his own area to solve their problems because he is also the authority in the area. In the practice, the chairman usually lacks information about services people are needing or he doesn’t otherwise have enough education or knowledge to counsel those people. Sometimes it happens that even the Chairman can’t really help the situation better anyhow. The people are trusting them, and for the Chairman, it is then the lost battle, if they can’t do anything about the problem. So sometimes this trust goes against itself, and the Chairman doesn’t want to admit that the family’s problem is not solved. Then the problem continues, without anyone who could bring the solving process to the next step. That is the place where NIHEP is needed again. We do regular follow-up meetings for the families we are working with. Then we can make sure, that process is still going on forward, and if it isn’t, we can re-start it.
Again, in the ideal situation, there would be Social Welfare Assistants who are working on the ward level. The assistant would be the person, who could help to solve the problems of the family. In the real world, they barely exist. So, the next step after the informing the Chairman is the Social Welfare Office of the District. That is the place, where most of Tanzanian university educated social welfare officers are working. The social workers can give councils and recommendations for the situation, and if a child needs a place in a children’s home, they can organize the place for him or her. Sometimes they might recommend to get help from the police, if the situation is bad.
So make it clear, this is how it should work:
1. The family has a problem
2. Para-social worker gets information about that
3. Para-social worker can inform the chairman of the street and try to get needed services to the family with co-operation with him
4. If it is not enough, the chairman would inform the officers of the ward and wards social welfare assistants would take care of the situation
5. If even that is not enough, the case goes to the social welfare officers of the district
Now, NIHEP is present on the background through the whole process, to make sure it goes on and somebody is always actively helping the family until they get the services they are needing. After that, NIHEP does still follow-ups to the family and makes sure, that there is no more problems appearing.
There is the system in Tanzania. Now we have explained it how it should be and how we are including ourselves in, when it doesn’t work. For us, it is important to know the people on the streets and their chairman. When we have started working in Butimba and Lwanhima wards, at first we have tried to meet as many families as we can and found out which are the most vulnerable ones. After that it has been easier for us do follow-ups and make sure, that people are getting the services they are needing and that families won’t stuck in the process which is not always operating how it should. For us, the goal is to help the people of the area to get information of the services they are needing and make them feel powerful enough to cope with their own same kind of problems in the future - with the support of the network of family and the friends.
Anni Pihlaja
The writer is Master’s degree social work student from University of Tampere in Finland and is currently doing her internship with Ni Hekima Pekee.
If you are going to work with people’s problems, you have to know well the systems which can help people to deal with those problems. In many countries, there are many steps you have to go through before you can get a child to the safe place in foster care or maybe even in a hospital, if the child’s parents are against that idea. Tanzania is not an exception. To show, which stake holders we are working with when it comes to the situations of vulnerable families, we are doing a little summary of Tanzanian social services and how they work.
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| The girls group in Lwanhima ward. The girls group is also place to find out, what is going on in girl's life and is there problems that need to be noticed. |
Sometimes there appears to be that kind of problems, which can’t be helped only with counseling and other lighter support. These kinds of problems might be, for example, that a child is beaten badly by parents, a child is not getting enough food and is really malnourished, a child has dropped out of the school, parents are having bad mental health or alcoholism problems or child is left as an orphan. In these kinds of cases, we must contact the Chairman of the street, because he should know about issues appearing on his street, but also because he can sometimes help the helping processes to go forward by contacting right persons.
In the ideal situation, The Chairman is responsible to help people in his own area to solve their problems because he is also the authority in the area. In the practice, the chairman usually lacks information about services people are needing or he doesn’t otherwise have enough education or knowledge to counsel those people. Sometimes it happens that even the Chairman can’t really help the situation better anyhow. The people are trusting them, and for the Chairman, it is then the lost battle, if they can’t do anything about the problem. So sometimes this trust goes against itself, and the Chairman doesn’t want to admit that the family’s problem is not solved. Then the problem continues, without anyone who could bring the solving process to the next step. That is the place where NIHEP is needed again. We do regular follow-up meetings for the families we are working with. Then we can make sure, that process is still going on forward, and if it isn’t, we can re-start it.
Again, in the ideal situation, there would be Social Welfare Assistants who are working on the ward level. The assistant would be the person, who could help to solve the problems of the family. In the real world, they barely exist. So, the next step after the informing the Chairman is the Social Welfare Office of the District. That is the place, where most of Tanzanian university educated social welfare officers are working. The social workers can give councils and recommendations for the situation, and if a child needs a place in a children’s home, they can organize the place for him or her. Sometimes they might recommend to get help from the police, if the situation is bad.
So make it clear, this is how it should work:
1. The family has a problem
2. Para-social worker gets information about that
3. Para-social worker can inform the chairman of the street and try to get needed services to the family with co-operation with him
4. If it is not enough, the chairman would inform the officers of the ward and wards social welfare assistants would take care of the situation
5. If even that is not enough, the case goes to the social welfare officers of the district
Now, NIHEP is present on the background through the whole process, to make sure it goes on and somebody is always actively helping the family until they get the services they are needing. After that, NIHEP does still follow-ups to the family and makes sure, that there is no more problems appearing.
There is the system in Tanzania. Now we have explained it how it should be and how we are including ourselves in, when it doesn’t work. For us, it is important to know the people on the streets and their chairman. When we have started working in Butimba and Lwanhima wards, at first we have tried to meet as many families as we can and found out which are the most vulnerable ones. After that it has been easier for us do follow-ups and make sure, that people are getting the services they are needing and that families won’t stuck in the process which is not always operating how it should. For us, the goal is to help the people of the area to get information of the services they are needing and make them feel powerful enough to cope with their own same kind of problems in the future - with the support of the network of family and the friends.
Anni Pihlaja
The writer is Master’s degree social work student from University of Tampere in Finland and is currently doing her internship with Ni Hekima Pekee.