One of our partners, Chem Chem Association (CCA) is a non-profit organization in northern Tanzania. Its mission is to protect wildlife and empower the surrounding rural communities. Here the association’s Communications & Donor Relations Manager Abella Mutalemwa updates us on the ongoing results of a wonderful partnership with Hand in Hand International.
Chem Chem Association’s commitment to deliver the best conservation practices to the Tarangire and Manyara ecosystems, while empowering local communities living around the Kwakuchinja corridor — an important wildlife migratory route connecting the Tarangire and Manyara National Parks — is a mission the association actively strives towards achieving.
To help realise this, Chem Chem Association has embarked on a three and half year life-changing journey with Hand in Hand International to equip 2800 community members across ten villages in the Manyara region, the majority of them women, with business and entrepreneurship training.
This incredible project fully funded by the Hilti Foundation looks to not only create jobs, but also transform the lives of community members with a focus on helping families break the cycle of poverty, which will ultimately reduce human-wildlife conflicts within communities.
Chem Chem & Hand in Hand East Africa teams during the first inception meeting, Babati District in September, 2022.
Chem Chem Association’s strategic approach will be to provide training and transferable skills to community members. Post training, community members will engage in four supply chains, namely: Beekeeping and honey production, sunflower farming and oil production, and horticulture and poultry farming. The aim is to ensure community members take complete ownership of these small supply chain businesses including linking them to potential markets where they can sell their products. This will strategically empower them to be economically and sustainably self-reliant businessmen and women. Below are the key outputs this partnership project aims at achieving.
This is an incredible milestone for Chem Chem Association as it marks the first time the organisation is embarking on a long-term partnership with a reputable and global organisation. Hand in Hand International’s mission is to change lives by empowering women to beat the odds and succeed as entrepreneurs. Since 2003, Hand in Hand has trained over 3.4 million people (90 percent women) across 14 countries and supported the creation of some 3.4 million small businesses, improving the lives of over 19 million people through strengthened incomes. Since launching in Tanzania in January 2018, it has enrolled over 27,000 community members for training (over 80 percent women), supporting the creation of over 14,500 enterprises.
A ‘Hand in Hand’ training instructor teaching villagers from Ngoley on savings as part of the project training modules
It is of the utmost importance for Chem Chem Association to continue exploring alternative pathways that create income-generating opportunities for communities in order to incentivise them from encroaching the Kwakuchinja corridor. Chem Chem Association remains committed to seeing communities prosper, become self-reliant individuals and ultimately conservation custodians of the Manyara and Tarangire ecosystems through promoting a peaceful co-existence between humans and wildlife.
To support the expansion of this important work, please check out our fundraising page launched in March 2023. Or if you would like to learn more about Chem Chem Association’s work, please get in touch directly with Paul Herbertson. The work it has done together with private partner Chem Chem Safari in partnership with the local community in securing the Kwakuchinja wildlife corridor is truly extraordinary — and must continue.