Women-led, One Health Solutions in Tanzania

Greetings, 

As the rainy season comes to the Southern Highlands of Tanzania, it gives the Women's EARTH Project Team a chance to reflect on all we've accomplished over the past two years thanks to your support. The women of Itonya and Mboliboli have fully embraced the One Health approach and are proud of the skills and knowledge they have acquired during the 2022 / 2023 workshops. As they transform their learning into practical outputs, the women are seeing the positive impacts their activities are having on community health, livelihoods, and regional biodiversity.

Over the past year, the women have created an active paraveterinary program where they provide livestock vaccinations and basic animal biosecurity education for local farmers. Due to the remote location of these communities, it is difficult for regional agriculture and veterinary officers to visit on a consistent basis. Thus, the women provide a much needed first-line of animal care which has improved animal welfare, food security, and incomes. In addition, the women continue to lead participatory community workshops to help improve water conservation, human-wildlife coexistence, climate-friendly farming practices, and local ecosystem health. 

Two major highlights of the past year include the cross-cultural conservation penpal program between kids in Mboliboli and Itonya and kids in California, and the opening of the inaugural One Health shop in Itonya. We have a lot to be thankful for and many things to look forward to in the year ahead.

As always, we appreciate your continued support and investment in the Women's EARTH Project. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Warmly, 

Kate and the FOECOE & EcoVet Global Team

While sharing a meal last summer with our Tanzanian partners, Eliza and Jesca, Eliza said that rural African women carry the weight of the continent on their shoulders. She was responding to a comment I had made about how resourceful the women of Mboliboli and Itonya are at seemingly balancing everything – animals, crops, children, and elders. Not surprisingly, rural women in Africa are responsible for growing about 70% of the continent's food and simultaneously endure the greatest strain of biodiversity loss, climate change, health inequities, and poverty. Working hard at an early age, often paired with young motherhood, it is not surprising that women in Tanzania receive less schooling than their male counterparts and suffer from high rates of illiteracy. Reversing this trend is one of many reasons why supporting projects like the Women’s EARTH Project is so critical in the global nonprofit space right now.

One of the additional benefits of empowering rural women through capacity-building education is the spillover effect it has on children. When the women of Itonya and Mboliboli participate in One Health training workshops and community outreach activities, children are always present. Not surprisingly, local children in both communities have grown curious about One Health and want to learn about the work their mothers are spearheading to strengthen species-wide health and climate resilience. In response to this growing curiosity, FOECOE and EcoVet Global launched a kid-focused One Health Art and Storytelling Project this summer. We paired fifth and sixth graders in Itonya and Mboliboli with similar age children attending a conservation camp program in San Mateo, California. The kids on both sides of the globe learned about the concept of One Health and explored real-life examples of human-animal-environmental health connections. Global friendships were made through shared videos and art projects representing examples of One Health in their respective backyards. The initiative was hugely successful, and we hope to expand it in the future.

Projects like this would not be achievable without the contributions of supporters like you. As we expand the Women’s EARTH Project in the upcoming year, we will continue to share the wonderful ways in which the program is changing the lives of the women, their families, and the communities of Tanzania's Southern Highlands. Enjoy the children’s art work below, and as always thank you for your generosity and continued support. 

Kind Regards, 

Kate and the FOECOE / EcoVet Global Team