FACTS ON TANZANIA
Tanzania is the largest of the East African countries, with a population of 42.5 million
Information about Tanzania (Singida Region)
Despite its large lakes, many areas are very dry and cannot support agriculture. In rural areas, women and children can spend several hours a day collecting water and sanitation services are limited.
Only 54% of the population has access to improved water supplies and 24% have access to adequate sanitation.
On average, women and children spend over two hours a day collecting water, and up to seven hours in remote areas.
20,000 children die before the age of five each year in Tanzania due to diarrhoeal diseases.
Information about Tanzania (Geographically)
Tanzania: background information Some 80% of the population depend on subsistence level farming. Credit: WaterAid / Alex Macro Over 30 million people populate this East African state, four times the size of the UK.
Geographically, its diverse countryside and coastlines are unequivocally beautiful. The Ngorogoro Crater and Mount Kilimanjaro feature particularly, and there is a unique abundance and diversity of wildlife, especially within the Serengeti National Park.
The climate ranges from tropical near the coast to temperate in the highlands, whilst the land consists of coastal plains, a central plateau and highlands in the north and south.
Some 80% of the population depend on subsistence level farming, and Tanzania remains one of the poorest countries of the world (156 of 174 in the UN's Human Development Index), with huge external debt.
Furthermore, despite high infant mortality, AIDS, and a life expectancy of no more than 50 or so, the population is still on the increase.
http://www.wateraid.org/uk/what_we_do/where_we_work/tanzania/
ORPHAN IN TANZANIA:
- Over 1 million children under the age of 17 are orphans in Tanzania due to AIDS alone.
- But many factors such as poverty and the disintegration of families have forced many children to live in risky conditions including becoming `street children.’
- Orphanages are now an issue of national concern in Tanzania
- Kituo cha Malezi Kititimo established to address the growing number of street children in Singida Town
- In 2007 estimated 10,436 Orphans and 28,581 Most Vulnerable Children in Singida Region
- Full-time Street Children
- Part-time Street Children
- At risk
- Orphans
- Most Vulnerable Children (MVC)
- Family poverty
- Limited Livelihood
- Children seeking employment
- Loss of one or both parents including loss due to HIV/AIDS
- AIDS Epidemic:
The first cases of HIV/AIDS in Tanzania were reported in1983, although for sub-Saharan Africa as a whole the problem began to surface in the late 1970s. The epidemic has evolved from being rare and new disease to a common household problem, which has affected most Tanzania families. The development of the HIV/AIDS epidemic have its clear impact on all sectors of development through not only pressure on AIDS cases care and management of resources, but also through debilitation and depletion of economically active population especially young women and men.
HIV infection is unevenly distributed across geographic area, gender, age, groups and social economic classes in the country. The percentage of the population infected by HIV ranges from less than three percent across most of the country to more than 44.4 percent in certain sub populations. The epidemic has struck more the most economically active group of adults, those aged 15-45.http://www.tanzania.go.tz/hiv_aids.html - Peer group influence
- Child abuse
- General town life is attractive to children
- Child labour