Mwaka Kogwa Festival

Today I went with ZANGOC to the Mwaka Kogwa Festival in Makunduchi, Zanzibar in the south district of the island (highlighted on the map). 

The Mwaka Kogwa is an old traditional festival which marks the arrival of the new year, or 'Nairuz' according to the Shiraz (Iran) calendar. Shirazis were the first foreigners to settle in Zanzibar and many aspects of their culture were absorbed by the Swahili people and were given a local context.

Today was the first day of the 4 day festival which is marked by an opening battle of ritual physical combat, traditionally using sticks and cudgels as weapons which have now been replaced by banana stems. The fight is governed by a number of loose rules which are normally observed by the participants without the need for a referee. When one combatant feels that he has had enough beating, he simply raises both of his hands and surrenders, or changes his weapon for a better one and continues fighting.

Matters become complicated when supporters of either side join in the fight, making it becomes difficult to find an unscathed banana palm in the area! It is traditionally believed that since everyone has had a chance to fight, or to vent any hard feelings, there would be no future conflicts in the town in the coming year. Past year's misunderstandings and disagreements are exorcised and the new year can be started with a clean slate and in harmony.

Participants warm up by running around the pitch

Note the "weapons" in hand...actually used to hit each other with (no jokes!)

I didn't get close enough to the actual fight to take photos, one: because of the crowd and two: for fear of being hit with a banana stem by accident...I'm sure it can't feel good!

So, by now I bet your wondering what the heck ZANGOC's role in this festival was! Well, as I mentioned in my previous blog about Pemba, ZANGOC is currently running VCT services in Unguja and Pemba funded through ICAP. ZANGOC was stationed at the festival to provide free HIV counseling and testing services which were open to anyone at the festival from 11am until 3pm. At the end of the day, ZANGOC had tested and provided post test counseling to 120 people, of which all 120 people tested negative for HIV. The post test counseling was provided to everyone who tested, regardless of positive or negative status. Since all of the tests were negative, the counselors provided clients with information on how to remain safe from HIV and also gave each client free condoms.

ZANGOC/ICAP banner

Banner explaining ZANGOC to the public: Utangulizi - Introduction, Dira - Vision, Dhamira - Mission,              Majukumu Makuu - Objectives

My First Business Trip - Pemba Island

It feels like I have come a long way with ZANGOC, and work, since I first arrived on the island back in March. One of my main job duties for ZANGOC was to create their new strategic plan and the end of June I accomplished that task by completing the first draft of the plan. The past 2 weeks I have been meeting with a few members from the Executive Committee and we have been going through the plan literally page by page to incorporate ZANGOC’s suggestions and inputs to make it “ZANGOC’s” strategic plan and not “Lisa’s” strategic plan!

Another one of my main tasks has been visiting with the, now 45, member organizations that are under the ZANGOC umbrella. From my visits with the members I have been collecting basic information in order to create a database of NGO members as well as to analyze the strengths and weakness of each organization so that YCI and other donors can address the gaps in organizational capacity. For example, human resource and financial management, IT and website design, proposal writing and resource mobilization and Monitoring and Evaluation.

Of ZANGOC’s 45 member organizations, 4 are based in Pemba which is the smaller island to the north east of Unguja which, together make up the Zanzibar Archipelago. 

Map of Pemba highlighting the 3 towns of ZANGOC operation: Chake, Wete and Micheweni

At the beginning of my time here I was really keen on going to Pemba to visit with the members and facilitate a workshop but after looking into costs, the idea was put on the back burner for a little while. In late May I attended a workshop for ZACP (Zanzibar AIDS Control Program) and met a man who is from Pemba, works for ZACP in Chake Chake (the main town in Pemba) and who is also on the ZANGOC Board of Trustees. After talking with him about ZANGOC and Pemba, he convinced me that I just must go to Pemba! So I drafted a short proposal and budget and submitted it to YCI and in June it was approved as my first business trip!

On Friday July 15, I jetted off to Pemba with the ZANGOC Deputy Executive Secretary, and a box of supplies for the Pemba sub-office. After a short, and very beautiful flight over the Indian Ocean, we arrived at the Chake Chake airport 30 minutes later. 

Beautiful coral

Airplane shot of the Cost of Pemba

We arrived Friday, late afternoon so I had just enough time to check into my hotel and go for a walk around town before the sun set. It was more like a stroll as Chake town is so small that if I walked at a normal pace I would have seen the whole town in about 20 minutes! Also, the shops close around 5:00pm so I wasn’t able to browse or do any market shopping. Topographically, Pemba is very different than Unguja. While Unguja is flat, Pemba is very hilly even with some small mountains in the background of Chake. It was a nice change though, I know Unguja is very green in terms of forestry but in Pemba you can definitely notice it a lot more. Especially when you drive up the windy roads you get an amazing view of the villages below surrounded by palm trees and just general beautiful nature, I feel like my pictures didn’t capture the essence of Pemba as much as I hoped...

On Friday evening after my walk, I came back to the Pemba Island Hotel where I was staying for the weekend, I had a nice calamari and pilau rice dinner then finished planning my workshop for Saturday morning.  On Saturday I woke up early and met my Pemba colleagues at the ZANGOC/WAMATA office in Chake. 

Outside of the WAMATA Office, Chake, Pemba

WAMATA is a regional NGO in Tanzania that works to help those who struggle with HIV and AIDS in Tanzania. In Pemba, WAMATA is a ZANGOC member organization and operates a VCT clinic that is supported by the ZANGOC/ICAP funded project. The topic of my workshop was project design and proposal writing and my participants consisted of 10 people, 2 people from each member organization: WAMATA, NOAC (North Pemba Organization for AIDS Control), PEYVO (Pemba Youth Voice Organization) and YOEPA (Youth Organization on Education for the Prevention of AIDS), and the ZANGOC sub-office. The workshop ran for 3 hours and I feel as though it was well received, the participants were active in group discussion and, although all of the information might not have been new knowledge, I feel as though each participant walked away with useful information on project design and proposal writing.

How to write and effective "S.M.A.R.T" Goal

My beautiful LFA on flip chart paper

Before I left for Pemba I met with Shaib, who is the YCI Volunteer Manager here in Unguja. Shaib is originally from Pemba and he still has a lot of family members there whom he gave me some contacts. On Saturday after my workshop I contacted Cholo, who is Shaib’s brother in law and who also is the manager of the hotel I stayed at. I was very grateful for his hospitality in showing me around Chake and taking me to meet Shaib’s mother and family then even inviting me to his own house to meet Shaib’s younger sister and their new 7 day old son!

The house of Shaib's mother!

The village is new and houses are still being constructed

Saturday morning I was invited to attend the first quarterly meeting of the ZANGOC/ICAP VCT funded project that is taking place in Pemba. The meeting was held at the Gombani soccer stadium in Chake. All important stakeholders in the VCT project were invited to present the results of their VCT centre from April to June 2011. Stakeholders included: ZANGOC, WAMATA, Micheweni VCT Centre, ZACP and ZAPHA+.

View of the Stadium entrance from the Conference hall

The objectives of the ZANGOC/ICAP project are to control the spread of new HIV infections by providing counselling, testing and education services to general and key populations (being IDUs-Injection Drug Users and MSM-Men who have Sex with Men). The results for the 3 ZANGOC VCT facilities are outlined below.

ZANGOC VCT Results Q1 REPORT	APRIL		MAY		JUNE		TOTAL
	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female
Micheweni	7	7	12	5	16	13	35	25
WAMATA (Chake)	6	5	25	25	7	6	38	36
ZANGOC (Wete)	32	19	43	30	52	48	127	97
			TOTAL TESTED IN Q1 by Gender				200	158
			TOTAL TESTED IN Q1				358

Of these 358 people who were tested in Q1, no positive HIV cases were reported. It was also reported that ZANGOC conducted one outreach activity consisting of 53 participants (42 male and 11 female). There was only one outreach activity conducted due to limited funds available for such an activity.

All in all, my first business trip was a success but I wish I had a few extra days to relax on the prestine beaches and visit the city of Wete, which I am told is a must. Perhaps it will be a must that I go back in October before I leave to sit in on the Q2 meeting!

ZANGOC VCT Results

Q1 REPORT

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

TOTAL

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female

Micheweni

7

7

12

5

16

13

35

25

WAMATA (Chake)

6

5

25

25

7

6

38

36

ZANGOC (Wete)

32

19

43

30

52

48

127

97

TOTAL TESTED IN Q1 by Gender

200

158

TOTAL TESTED IN Q1

358

Just write a letter

Before I get into my letter frustrations I want to remind you all of the potential USAID funded project that I blogged about a few weeks ago (Refer to link for a reminder!). I am happy to announce that we got the "go ahead" to write the concept paper which is due on June 23rd. I told ZANGOC that I wanted to be fully involved in writing this paper and they agreed so I emailed the coordinator from VSO and told him that I would be the ZANGOC representative in drafting the paper! So now I am in the loop on this great opportunity for Zanzibar and I am really excited that I will writing to USAID, definitely something that is resume worthy!

On another note, I have figured out why it takes so long for things to be accomplished within ZANGOC...because for every idea you have you have to "write a letter" and submit it to the Executive Committee for approval. For example, during the ZACP workshop I met a lady name Frida who works for ICAP in Zanzibar and since they fund ZANGOC I thought perhaps it's a good idea for me to have a chat with them and show them the workings of the strategic plan. Since I have Frida's contact information I sent her an email yesterday and we set up a meeting for Tuesday of next week. However, I also had a meeting with my supervisor yesterday and told him about this meeting and by the expression on his face I thought he was going to tell me I couldn't go, until finally he told me..."well you have to write a formal letter on ZANGOC letter head and submit it to the Executive Committee for approval." I just think this process is a waste of paper (and time) considering they are going to approve the meeting anyway.

I hope you remember ZIFYA - Zanzibar Initiative for Youth? I have blogged about them a few times, the first time was in ZANGOC Member Orgs and the second time was after I facilitated a workshop for ZIFYA on Monitoring and Evaluation and effective group and team work. I am visiting with ZIFYA again this evening to discuss collaboration with them, ZANGOC and YCI in the formulation of youth groups within the area. The idea for these youth groups will be to work with YCI volunteers, similar to the mentorship program with the YMCA in Ghana, as well as to get youth discussing issues that affect their lives and how we can move forward in addressing these issues at the community level. I told my supervisor about this idea and he thought it would be beneficial but again, I was told to "write a letter." I do intend to write this letter, however I didn't tell them that I was meeting with ZIFYA this evening to hear their inputs and ideas about these youth groups. Oh well, at least I will have the ball rolling on this by the time the letter gets "approved"!

One more thing...ZIFYA has constructed a website which is pretty cool, I am hoping maybe they can teach me a few things about website design! Check them out here: Zanzibar Initiative for Youth