How do we work

LISO's UNIQUE way of working

The long term aim of all our activities is poverty reduction through capacity building, as stressed in Tanzanias Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and the first of the Millennium Development Goals (eradicate extreme poverty and hunger).
LISO is reactive to needs expressed by the community. First and foremost information is gathered in support of the needs and the underlying causes. For this a network of contacts is maintained.
Assistance is given to facilitate proper planning. Then, depending on the needs, expertise, training opportunities and experienced similar projects or groups are sought and donor assistance may be negotiated.
LISO supports a range of projects in Bashanet and Dareda divisions (30 villages) rather than run a few programmes in a wide area. Up till November 2005 these used to be one division (Bashanet division).

THE TYPES OF PROJECTS WE SUPPORT AND OUR PRIORITIES

Major problem areas are agriculture and livestock development (in which areas other organisations are active), unemployment (no other organisations active and LISO can only be of limited assistance), education and preventive health. The latter two are our priority areas, as the community regularly asks for assistance in these areas and the LISO board members (all living in this division) agree that we can have the most impact there.
We have managed to get some laboratory equipment for a health centre, books for a nurses training school, we are supporting primary schools to improve buildings, increase teachers capacity and stimulate pupils’ interest in schools. Other examples are running a campaign against female genital mutilation, have done quite some work in HIV/AIDS awareness raising, supported football competitions, run business skills courses, English courses, are running computer literacy courses, and helped handicapped people to set up their own organisation and assisted some handicapped individuals, to briefly mention some examples.
We now promote LISO as an organisation assisting health and education projects, which are our priority areas. We try to find enthusiastic and capable local project partners, while documenting our experience for future reference and for the benefit of our current and future project partners. With project partners we mean the school committee and teachers of a school, the medical team of a health centre, etc.

SOME BRIEF EXAMPLES TO EXPLAIN OUR WAY OF WORKING

Example 1: Primary school

The teachers are government employees and therefore their salaries and consumables (chalk, paper, etc) are guaranteed. Therefore if LISO gives support, it adds to an existing institution. This way sustainability is guaranteed. LISO “only” adds a classroom or adds books or adds to the teacher motivation through a study tour.
Example 2: Bashanet health centre

The health centre (small hospital) is owned and run by the catholic diocese. The church will continue and therefore the health centre will certainly be there for many years to come. Again LISO then “only” adds medical equipment, staff training or adds to the stock of drugs and other consumables.
By supporting existing institutions we make sure that the project activity will continue after LISO support cedes. Exceptions do exist though. Hospital staff regularly complained that many women who come for delivery suffer needlessly, because they have been circumcised (also called Female Genital Mutilation or FGM, which is a more appropriate term). The hospital has no means to inform the community, yet it recognised the need. LISO as an NGO is much better positioned to do this job and we therefore took it on. Another exception is the computer course that we run at our office. Especially teachers regularly requested to be taught computer use. As there was no-one to take on this project, while the need is genuine and the benefits plentifold, LISO started it and became the project implementor. An added advantage of doing it ourselves is that we earn a (tiny) income from this course, making LISO (slightly) less dependent on external funding. For the time being we cannot increase the fees too much, our main aim is to show the people the importance and benefits of this type of education. In a later stage we may increase the course fee to almost commercial rates.