Population: 321,611
Districts and Families/Communities: 1 district (Kilombero) and 6 wards (Ifakara, Lumemo, Idete, Kibaoni, Mbingu and Kiberege)
Sponsored children: Around 5,970

Plan Tanzania’s Ifakara Programme Unit is found in Kilombero district, Morogoro region, where the main economic activity is subsistence farming.

We have been operating in Ifakara since 1996, working in partnership with local communities including children and their families, Ifakara District Council and community-based organisations such as the Bethlehem Centre, as well as learning and research institutions such as Ifakara Folk Development College.

Programme highlights

Community health promotion

Plan Tanzania conducts capacity building for health workers who manage health facilities for children, their families and communities, trains people to carry out, monitor and evaluate health interventions, and promotes healthy practices in schools.

We also raise awareness of various health issues through outreach services focusing on malaria, hygiene and sanitation, immunisation, nutrition, HIV and AIDS control and prevention. Subsidised mosquito nets are also provided to help prevent malaria infection.

Working with communities, Plan Tanzania has constructed health centres and provided equipment so that children and their families have better access to health services. 

Enabling children to learn

To improve children’s learning environment, Plan’s Ifakara Programme Unit has constructed pre-school and primary school classrooms, trained teachers and school committees and provided teaching equipment. We have also helped improve school hygiene and sanitation by training children and teachers in basic sanitation and hygiene.

Plan Tanzania also supports the most vulnerable by providing  secondary school fees to poor children so that they can access post primary education.

Water and environmental health 

Children, their families and communities have been provided with drinking water facilities including shallow and deep wells, water tanks and pipe systems.

Awareness raising campaigns have boosted knowledge on hygiene and sanitation issues and we have trained communities in water management and environmental protection. Several water user associations have now been formed. 

Sustainable family livelihoods

Plan’s Ifakara Programme Unit has boosted household economic security by providing farmers with equipment and training them in techniques to increase productivity. Vocational and business skills training has also be rolled out to community members, especially youths.

Sauti ya Watoto (Children’s voices)

This programme has increased awareness of child rights and the importance of recognising and protecting them. There is now a growing involvement of children in discussions and decisions that affect their development.

Through Plan’s Learn Without Fear campaign, communities have formed their own special committees to deal with sexual violence in schools.

Birth registration has also increased in Ifakara as a result of our Universal Birth Registration campaign – providing children with an official identity which gives them easier access to social services such as education.

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