Introduction and Location
Kagera Region: The region lies in remote north western region bordering Uganda , Rwanda and Burundi Highland Tanzania
The rural district of Kagera Region [Karagwe; Bukoba Rural; Muleba; Biharamulo and Ngara] have a joint population of approximately 2,000,000 individuals living in 375,000 households. Although all live in rural districts, 20% of these people live in areas classified as peri-urban, with the remainder living in rural areas. Rural Kagera has a poverty rate of 31%; a little less than one out of three households live below the basic needs poverty line. However, as poor households are generally larger, 40% of the Kagera populations live in a poor household. Twenty six percent of the household in the region have access to health facility, i.e. live within 30 minutes travel from one health facility. In urban areas this proportion is significantly higher at 57%. In contrast in rural areas it lies very low at 19%.
Access to social services differs substantially between rural and peri-urban areas, the proportions of individuals using health facilities in rural areas and urban areas are almost identical at roughly 15%. Almost 57% of children born in the last five years were delivered at home and 43% in a hospital or a maternity ward. Children are more likely to be born at home in rural areas, in poor households and if they are born in Karagwe District.
Ngara District: The district comprises of 13% of all households in Kagera region. The poverty rate in the district is the highest in rural Kagera after Biharamulo and Muleba. The district is a home of 15% of the poor households in the region and most of Ngara’s households have an average of 5.3 inhabitants. Level of livestock and land possession are comparable to the rest of the rural region. Ngara District has the second highest rate of access to health facilities in Kagera Rural. Over 30% of its households are located within 30 minutes of travel from the nearest health facility. Here about 40% of the births are delivered in the hospitals or maternity wards, while the remainder is delivered at home, which is the second lowest percentage of hospital births in Kagera rural after Karagwe.
Ngara has the best access rate to drinking water facilities. Seventy percent of the households are located within 30 minutes of travel from the nearest source of drinking water. About a third of households in Ngara District live under the basic needs poverty line. Ngara is a district with a high poverty rate compared to the rest of the region. In absolute number Ngara has 16,700 poor households.
Demographic Characteristics
Mukubu village had a total of 4,883 people, among whom women made 61 % which is more than normal [say 49 to 51%]. Majority among the active population are women by 79 % which means men form only 21% of the work force in the village. There are disabled and dependants in the village, dependants below 17 years old are more than half of the total population, among this group 48% are women, which is a reverse situation of the above scenarios. Relatively there are few disabled people amounting to a total of 28 of whom 57 are women. The village has a total of 215 orphans, making comparisons to the real situation in the village as witnessed during the Transect Walk. The situation of this group of people needs urgent attention, as will be described in the following sections.
Table 1 Population in Mukubu Village
Population Group | Men | Women | Total | %age female |
Total Population | 1897 | 2986 | 4883 | 61% |
Active population | 412 | 1574 | 1986 | 79% |
Dependants [below 17 years old] | 1378 | 1276 | 2654 | 48% |
Disabled | 12 | 16 | 28 | 57% |
Orphans | 95 | 120 | 215 | 56% |
Village Administration
According to the Local Government Authority Regulations of the United Republic of Tanzania, every village is supposed to have its own government headed by the Village Chairman and the Village Executive Officer. They are responsible to the Village Council with 25 members representing all hamlets in the village (Table 2.2).
Table 2 Members of the Village Council
Description | Men | Women | Total | %age female |
Total Number of members | 19 | 6 | 25 | 24% |
Elected members | 19 | 3 | 22 | 13% |
Members under special seats | - | 3 | 3 | 100% |
Committees’ Chairpersons | 3 | - | 3 | - |
Committee’s Secretaries | 3 | - | 3 | - |
Therefore, Mukubu Village Council is formed of 19 men elected members and 6 women which is only 24% of a total number of members. Three women accrued from election while the remaining three are from the special seats. None of the village committees are headed by women either as Chairpersons or Secretaries men have taken all possible administrative posts in the village. Since Tanzania
Source of village Revenue: the main source of village revenue was said to be the Ngara District Council and a small amount came from the weekly markets operating in the village.
Education in Mukubu Village
Because of its Geographical size with 9 hamlets and more than 4,500 people the village comprise a vast land, as the people are not settled in one identified location, but spread all over the area, each and every household being surrounded by fields relatively more than 2 acres and therefore big track of land and scattered settlements. In this case the village has two primary schools, namely Nyakafandi and Mukubu Primary schools, to take care of all children under school going age [Tables 2.3 & 2.4].
It is unfortunate that the number of teachers is the same for both schools. This means more teachers are required at Mukubu primary school in order to satisfy the needs. Yet the proportional of students registered at Mukubu primary school is lower than those registered at Nyakafandi if we analyse in terms of the number of hamlets per school.
Table 3 Primary Education in the Village
Description | Men | Women | Total | %age of female |
Number of Teachers | 7 | - | 7 | 0% |
Number of pupils | 257 | 313 | 570 | 55% |
Number of pupils passed 2007 | 13 | 6 | 19 | 31% |
Registration of standard one 2008 | 39 | 48 | 87 | 55% |
Number of Teachers | 7 | - | 7 | 0% |
Number of pupils | 218 | 218 | 436 | 50% |
Number of pupils passed 2007 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 36% |
Registration of standard one 2008 | 33 | 33 | 66 | 50% |
It is necessary to look at vital statistics in education at Mukubu village. This is important to determine the current supply and deficit of various requirements in education. For Mukubu primary school there is a deficit of classrooms by 67%; teachers’ houses by 78%, desks 49% and pit latrines 53%, the school is highly in need of support at this stage.
Table 4 Vital Statistics in Education at Mukubu Village
Description | Requirement | Available | Deficit | %age of Deficit |
Number of classrooms | 18 | 6 | 12 | 67% |
Number of teachers’ houses | 9 | 2 | 7 | 78% |
Number of desks | 233 | 119 | 114 | 49% |
Number of pit latrines [toilets] | 30 | 14 | 16 | 53% |
Number of classrooms | 10 | 7 | 3 | 30% |
Number of teachers’ houses | 8 | 4 | 4 | 50% |
Number of desks | 145 | 70 | 75 | 52% |
Number of pit latrines [toilets] | 17 | 4 | 13 | 76% |
Like Mukubu primary school there is deficiency of various requirements at Nyakafandi primary school there is a shortfall of classrooms by 30%; teachers’ houses by 50%; desks by 52% and pit latrines by 76%. However, it should be noted that the situation at Nyakafandi primary school is better than Mukubu primary school; this might be attributed to the number of students and other factors unknown as far as this study is concerned.
Health Situation in the Village
There is neither a health centre no a dispensary at Mukubu village. To facilitate availability of this service, in 2003 the village was involved in a project for the construction of a dispensary and a staff house in collaboration with TASAF [Tanzania Social Action Fund], the World Bank funded project. Is unfortunate that the buildings are not yet ready for use and therefore people get service from nearby dispensaries depending on where they are located. There is a mobile health service specifically for pregnant mothers and children under the age of five years are offered two days per month, at Mukubu and Nyakafandi primary schools alternately. As a result of this mobile clinic service, there is certain information in the village in relation to health situation; some of the information being on the leading diseases in the village namely: Malaria; Worms
Religious Institutions
There are four main religious institutions in the village namely Roman Catholic Church with 70% of all believes; Anglican Church 10%; Pentecostal Church 18% and Pentecost Assemblies of God have 2% of all believers in the village. There was no mention of Islam or traditional Africa religion in the village or any information about non-believers.
Livestock in the Village
Villagers at Mukubu are mixed farmers, but predominantly farmers. However they are keeping some domestic animals such as chicken, cows, goats and sheep. No information was available on the number of chicken in the village as recorded during the survey; according to the Village Executive Officer the village has 836 Cattle; 68 Sheep and 175 Goats as per 2007.
Microfinance and Non-Farming Activities
Mukubu is a typical rural village where everybody is involved in farming. There are no shops, or tea kiosks. Nevertheless, some people sell items such as soap, sugar, tea from their houses in very small quantities and without special business premises. The only place where you can get such commodities is in weekly open market held once per week on Fridays. In order to acquire other needs villagers have to go to the nearby centre at Rulenge [the division headquarter] or Ngara the district headquarters. There are no microfinance activities in whatever form in the village, people depend on relatives and friends for loans.
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