History and Performance of the Organization

                        Historical Background

Mzeituni Foundation was founded in 2005, and was legally registered under the Companies Act (Certificate of Incorporation No. 57288) in 2006. Mzeituni Foundation’s start-up head office was established in Nansio, Ukerewe District, Mwanza Region of the United Republic of Tanzania. It was formed with a purpose of building the capacity of most at risk and marginalized populations through strengthening the realization of their human rights and by achieving positive and sustainable socio-economic benefits. Our vision is to realize a Just, equitable and sustainable society in Mzeituni Foundation’s area of operation; while our mission is to eradicate injustice, marginalization, poverty and inequality through social services advocacy (water, sanitation, health, and education), governance, and enterprise development programs. Our core values/ operating principles include transparency, integrity, team work, accountability, gender sensitivity, collaboration, confidentiality, innovation, and equity.

Our Vision Statement

Just, equitable and sustainable society in Mzeituni Foundation’s area of operation.

Our Mission Statement

Mzeituni Foundation eradicates injustice, marginalization, poverty and inequality through social services advocacy (water, sanitation, health, and education), governance, and enterprise development programs.

Our Core Values/Guiding Values/Operating Principles

The following values and principles will guide our work:

1. Transparency
2. Integrity
3. Teamwork (within the organization)
4. Accountability
5. Gendersensitivity
6. Collaboration (networking with other stakeholders in & outside the country)
7. Confidentiality
8. Innovation
9. Equity

Our Statement on Achieving Distinction

Our organization will become truly distinctive in serving the most marginalized groups in the most marginalized districts, winning government confidence and support, facilitating socio-economic change, delivering services at the client door-step, ensuring client participation in the planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of all programs, and maintaining client ownership of institutions, and development processes.

 Our Products and Services

We will deliver the following products and services to our clients (women, youth, vulnerable children, vulnerable elderly people, people with disabilities, people living with HIV & AIDS):

1. Training on entrepreneurship and enterprise development skills.
2. Provision of enterprise development services.
3. Formation of community banks, delivering financial services, and linking marginalized groups to local government and financial institutions.
4. Legal aid assistance.
5. Raising awareness on effects GBV and FGM, killing elders.
6. Advocating for amendments of the oppressive laws which discriminate or undermine women, PLWHAS, and people with disabilities to engage in economic and political processes.
7. Provision of basic needs to vulnerable children and the elderly by delivering psycho-social support, food, shelter and clothes.
8. Providing support for the education of vulnerable and disabled children.
9. Establishment of street children’s forum.
10. Advocacy to the government to provide essential services to the elderly, such as pension, medical services, shelter.
11. Training on life skills.
12. Training and advocacy on human rights.
13. Training and advocacy on reproductive health.
14. Training on civic education and social accountability application, and good governance.
15. Advocacy and training on social services (water, sanitation, health, education).

Performance of the organisation

The organization promotes life skills, encourages entrepreneurship, advocates, lobbies, and builds the capacity of vulnerable groups in the Lake Zone through such programs as Good Governance, Entrepreneurship and Water and Sanitation. Some of our ongoing activities include,

(1) A Social Accountability Monitoring Application that empowers citizens to publicly demand transparency and accountability in allocation and use of public resources as well as in planning, budgeting and delivering of public services such as water, health and education through district-wide monitoring mechanisms, needs analysis and social audit;

(2) Strengthening the advocacy capacity for improved quality of primary health care delivery is being innovated to ensure improved livelihoods of the most vulnerable groups (MVG) by promoting their access to quality primary healthcare services. It will promote school water and sanitation hygiene, reproductive health of women and youth, HIV/AIDS prevention, user fee exemption card promotion, clean delivery kit and family planning. The purpose of is to reduce maternal mortality rate, infant mortality rate, student‘s water-borne diseases, family planning, sexual reproductive health and toilet construction.

The program is designed to implement key recommendations made by Public Expenditure Tracking survey conducted by Mzeituni Foundation for the purpose of advocating the three identified main issues namely improved access to, equity in, and quality of primary healthcare services. The program aims at contributing to primary healthcare programs, MKUKUTA II, Millennium Development Goals, particularly the reduction of infant and child mortality rates (Goal 4), and improved maternal health (Goal 5), and inclusion of user fee exception for elders (National Health Policy implementation) in order to ensure access to, equity in, and quality of primary healthcare services. The program involves community members, health providers and health committees, relevant authorities at central government, District Health Board, local government and the civil society organizations (particularly the community-based organizations).

(3) Strengthening community owned water supplies organizations in line with the proposal by the National Water Policy indicated that the community must be the managers and owners of their water points and be able to maintain and operate. We will promote the establishment of CWSO and validation of water inquiry process for water point mapping and fostering governance and accountability to the water sector.

This Strategic Plan is consistent with poverty reduction initiatives currently undertaken by the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania and its development partners. In particular, the Strategic Plan aims to complement the implementation of MKUKUTA II (2010-2015) by empowering women, children and persons with disabilities (PWD). MKUKUTA II is oriented towards growth and enhancement of productivity, with greater alignment of the interventions towards wealth creation as way out of poverty. Through capacity development interventions, Mzeituni Foundation will be providing entrepreneurship trainings to client groups, facilitating them to establish community banks (microfinance scheme) as a source of capital for starting their own micro-enterprises.  

MKUKUTA and many other studies reiterated that there could be no poverty reduction in the absence of Good Governance, especially at the local levels where pro-poor services are provided. In this respect, Mzeituni Foundation will continue to implement Social Accountability Monitoring interventions with the view of promoting Democratic Local Governance (DLG) as well as downward accountability of service providers. This is consistent with the Decentralization-by-Devolution (D-by-D) policy under which the Government has made public resources available at the local level to ensure that pro-poor services are provided.

D-by-D policy, which is operationalized through Local Governments Reform Program (LGRP), also provides an opportunity for civil society participation in delivery of pro-poor services. Mzeituni Foundation will stimulate the civic engagement of marginalized groups (women, youth, vulnerable children, vulnerable elderly persons, persons with disabilities, and people living with HIV/AIDS)

This Strategic Plan derives its moral and legal mandate from the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania, Sexual Offenses Special Provisions Act (SOSPA) of 1998, The Law of the Child Act of 2009, The Persons with Disabilities Act of 2010, various Local Government Acts, MKUKUTA, Local Government Reforms, Child Development Policy, Women in Development Policy, National Microfinance Policy, Primary Health Services Development Program (PHSDP or MMAM), and Primary Education Development Program (PEDP).

The Strategic Plan period runs from January 2013 to December 2017. The interventions prescribed herein are part of the national efforts to fast track the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially those related to healthcare and education, namely Reduce Child Mortality (Goal 4), Improve Maternal Health (Goal 5) Combat HIV/Aids, Malaria and Other Disease (Goal 6). Other relevant MDGs are Achieve Universal Primary Education (Goal 2) and Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women (Goal 3).

    Some Program Achievements and Challenges

Over the past years, Mzeituni Foundation has implemented a number of projects. The majority of these projects were geared to provide responses to the HIV and AIDS pandemic. The following are some program achievements and challenges:

    Choose Life

 This project was financed by ADRA Tanzania. It was intended to spread AB messages to youth so as to avoid irresponsible sexual relationships at the younger age. ToT workshops of village and street levels facilitators were first conducted. In turn, the participants formed a network whose main activity was to spread the message. The main challenges were the shortage of funds and skilled personnel as well as increased number of infected people in Ukerewe Islands.  

  Campaign for Disabled Learning Facilities

 This project was funded by FCS and implemented in four stages: 1) assessment of pupils with disabilities with no learning facilities, 2) dissemination of findings to different stakeholders, 3) conducted two days awareness meeting with teachers, 4) field visits to monitor the awareness of teachers and measures taken to redress the trend. The main challenges were lack of reliable data for pupils with disabilities at the local levels; low understanding about the rights of pupils with disabilities among the Council officials and other stakeholders; lack of learning and teaching materials for pupils with disabilities; acute shortage of special education teachers, and discrimination of special education in the spending decisions of Education Block Grant at the Council level.

Abolition of Domestic Violence against Women and Children

 This project was funded by Foundation for Civil Society (FCS). It focused on strengthening the capacity of women to raise their voices against domestic violence and mobilizing the reportage of violence against women and children. The main challenges were low understanding of women about their rights and discriminatory customary practices that undermine the position of women

Social Accountability Monitoring

 This project is implemented through funding from Forum Syd of Sweden. It involves creation of awareness to the community on governance issues and application social accountability tools, especially community score cards, which is commonly known in Kiswahili as Pima Card. The main challenges were low understanding of governance issues among the marginalized groups and misperceptions of social accountability mechanisms by local officials and service providers.

Historia na Utendaji wa Shirika

                      Historia Background

Foundation Mzeituni ilianzishwa mwaka 2005, na alikuwa kusajiliwa kisheria chini ya Sheria ya Makampuni (Shahada ya Incorporation No 57,288) mwaka 2006. Mzeituni Foundation kuanza ofisi kichwa ilianzishwa mwaka Nansio, Ukerewe Wilaya, Mkoa wa Mwanza wa Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania. Ni sumu kwa lengo la kujenga uwezo wa hatarini zaidi na pembezoni wakazi kwa njia ya kuimarisha utambuzi wa haki zao za binadamu na kwa kufikia chanya na endelevu faida kiuchumi na kijamii. Maono yetu ni kutambua jamii tu, sawa na endelevu katika eneo Mzeituni Foundation ya operesheni, wakati dhamira yetu ni kutokomeza udhalimu, kubaguliwa, umaskini na kukosekana kwa usawa kwa njia ya utetezi ya huduma za jamii (maji, usafi wa mazingira, afya, na elimu), utawala, na biashara mipango ya maendeleo. Msingi wetu maadili / kanuni ya uendeshaji ni pamoja na uwazi, uadilifu, kazi ya timu, uwajibikaji, kuzingatia jinsia, ushirikiano, usiri, uvumbuzi, na usawa.

Maono yetu Taarifa

Tu, sawa na endelevu jamii katika eneo Mzeituni Foundation ya operesheni.

Mission yetu Taarifa

Mzeituni Foundation eradicates udhalimu, kubaguliwa, umaskini na kukosekana kwa usawa kwa njia ya utetezi ya huduma za jamii (maji, usafi wa mazingira, afya, na elimu), utawala, na mipango ya biashara ya maendeleo.

Maadili Yetu ya Msingi / Guiding Principles Maadili / Uendeshaji

maadili na kanuni zifuatazo atawaongoza kazi yetu:

1. Uwazi
2. Uadilifu
3. Kazi ya pamoja (ndani ya shirika)
4. Uwajibikaji
5. Gendersensitivity
6. Ushirikiano (mitandao na wadau wengine katika & nje ya nchi)
7. Usiri
8. Innovation
9. Equity

Kauli yetu kwa kufikia Kutofautisha

Shirika letu itakuwa kweli tofauti katika kuwahudumia makundi yaliyotengwa zaidi katika wilaya nyingi yaliyotengwa, kushinda serikali kujiamini na msaada, kuwezesha mabadiliko ya kiuchumi na kijamii, kutoa huduma katika mteja mlango hatua, kuhakikisha mteja ushiriki katika ufuatiliaji mipango, utekelezaji, na tathmini ya mipango yote, na umiliki kudumisha mteja wa taasisi, na michakato ya maendeleo.

Bidhaa zetu na Huduma

Sisi kutoa bidhaa zifuatazo na huduma kwa wateja wetu (wanawake, vijana, watoto walio hatarini, mazingira magumu wazee, watu wenye ulemavu, watu wanaoishi na VVU na UKIMWI):

1. Mafunzo juu ya ujasiriamali na ujuzi wa biashara ya maendeleo.
2. Utoaji wa huduma za maendeleo ya biashara.
3. Malezi ya benki ya jamii, kutoa huduma za kifedha, na kuunganisha makundi yaliyotengwa kwa serikali za mitaa na taasisi za fedha.
4. Msaada wa kisheria msaada.
5. Kuongeza uelewa juu ya athari GBV na ukeketaji, na kuua wazee.
6. Kutetea marekebisho ya sheria za kikandamizaji ambazo ubaguzi au kudhoofisha wanawake WAVIU, na watu wenye ulemavu kushiriki katika michakato ya kiuchumi na kisiasa.
7. Utoaji wa mahitaji ya msingi kwa watoto na wazee kwa kutoa msaada wa kisaikolojia na kijamii, chakula, malazi na nguo.
8. Kutoa msaada kwa ajili ya elimu ya watoto wanaoishi katika mazingira magumu na walemavu.
9. Uanzishwaji wa jukwaa mitaani watoto.
10. Utetezi wa serikali kutoa huduma muhimu kwa wazee, kama vile pensheni, huduma za matibabu malazi,.
11. Mafunzo juu ya stadi za maisha.
12. Mafunzo na utetezi wa haki za binadamu.
13. Mafunzo na utetezi wa afya ya uzazi.
14. Mafunzo juu ya elimu ya uraia na maombi ya kijamii uwajibikaji na utawala bora.
15. Utetezi na mafunzo juu ya huduma za kijamii (maji, usafi wa mazingira, afya, elimu).

Utendaji wa shirika

shirika inakuza stadi za maisha, inahimiza ujasiriamali watetezi,, kutaka wachukuliwe hatua, na hujenga uwezo wa makundi ya wanyonge katika Kanda ya Ziwa kupitia programu kama vile Utawala Bora, Ujasiriamali na Maji na Usafi. Baadhi ya shughuli yetu inayoendelea ni pamoja na,

(1) Jamii Uwajibikaji Ufuatiliaji Maombi kwamba kuwawezesha wananchi hadharani kudai uwazi na uwajibikaji katika ugawaji na matumizi ya rasilimali za umma kama vile katika bajeti ya mipango, na kutoa huduma za umma kama vile maji, afya na elimu kwa njia na mifumo ya ufuatiliaji wilaya nzima, inahitaji uchambuzi na ukaguzi wa kijamii;