Bangata receives shot in the arm

By Correspondent

The Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA), says it will now support conservation oriented income generating projects.

Announcing the move over the weekend, an official of Arusha National Park (ANAPA) responsible for Community Conservation Services (CCS), Steria Raphael said, the move will go in tandem with direct support to village governments.

She was speaking at Bangata secondary school in Arumeru district during the school’s first graduation ceremony, where she handled over a building containing two classrooms and the headmaster’s office worth over 18 million shillings.

The donation which the school Headmaster, Paul Langideri, termed ‘a shot in the arm’ in the school’s struggle to alleviate classroom shortage, brings to over 124 million shillings worth of projects assistance extended by ANAPA to villages bordering the park around Arumeru district.

ANAPA embarked on the CCS programme in 1994 with a view of seeking the communities support in wildlife conservation activities including anti-poaching, but the programme focussed mainly on community-based projects such as classrooms, teachers houses, dispensaries, roads and water schemes.

According to the ANAPA official, some eight million shillings have been approved for the Ngurdoto Women Group (UWANGU). The group runs a number of conservation-oriented income generating projects such as bee-keeping and fish farming.

It also runs an environmental cleaning programme whereby its members collect used plastic bags and re-process them to produce table mats.

During the graduation ceremony a total of 43 students were conferred school leaving certificates by the acting district education officer for Arumeru, Erica Musika.

Musika who was representing the Arumeru District Council Chairman, Samwel Urassa urged parents to make thorough check up on their schooling children to make sure that they attended school.

Her call follows a report by the Bangata secondary school headmaster, that out of 80 pupils enrolled in Form One when the school was established in 2000, only 43 completed Form Four. The rest were either drop-outs or had to discontinue after their parents failed to pay school fees.

Last modified: November 06, 2003.
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