Issue # 3

Hamish Arrowsmith has been working for Tools For Solidarity (TFS) in Belfast for almost 10 years. Recently he went on a fieldtrip to Tanzania to visit projects supported by TFS. Darren asked him a few questions about the organisation and about his trip to Tanzania.
 

For anyone who doesn't know about TFS, why was it set up.
Tools For Self Reliance was set up in England in 1979 by Glyn Roberts who had been a V.S.O. volunteer in Tanzania. He observed that ordinary working people didn't have access to simple tools to make things with. Aid organisations were sending in big equipment and big money but it wasn't getting through to people on a grassroots level. Glyn left his V.S.O. post and back home was pottering about in his garage and saw a load of rusty old tools on a shelf and thought that these were things that people in Africa needed. He thought there must be lots of other tools lying around people's attics and garden sheds. Somehow get them repaired and get them out. He found a partner organisation in Tanzania so as the tools could get to the people who really needed them. A partnership was set up with a para-statal organisation SIDO (Small Industries Development Organisation). This organisation became the partner organisation of what became Tools For Self Reliance. TFSR was set up to help people to become self reliant and help people to help themselves. SIDO assesses and evaluates small community based projects on behalf of TFSR.

In this society people take for granted that if you need something you walk into a shop and buy a pair of shoes or clothing. You look up the yellow pages if you need a plumber or a joiner. In rural Africa you don't have this. You can't phone up someone and you wouldn't have the money to pay. People have to be more resourceful and make things themselves. In 1984 Stephen and John Wood set up a Tools group in Belfast collecting tools to send out through TFSR. Until 1990 this consisted of about 4-5 people meeting regularly once a week in different places - garages and attics repairing tools and just trying to question the way we live in our society. Trying to make people think a little bit more about the way we trade and the way we treat people in countries like Tanzania. In 1990 some of the people who'd been meeting up for years decided they'd like to do it as a full time activity and fund-raised for a workshop. After meeting in damp cold attics for years they wanted somewhere where it would be attractive for volunteers to come along. Also somewhere where you could bring in special needs volunteers. We raised the money to get a workshop and at the same time became independent of TFSR so as we could have more control over decisions we took. Also we felt quite removed from TFSR. We never got any visits from them and also going independent helped us do fund-raising. Tools For Solidarity was set up. It was set up in solidarity with working people. As well as Tanzania we were also supporting people in other countries. For example in Nicaragua where a lot of small working co-operatives had big problems because of a civil war financed by Ronald Reagan. And because of an economic blockade by the USA. Other factors were a bad hurricane and the very bad price of their main export crop coffee. The situation was very bad and a number of small solidarity groups in Ireland decided to support these by sending tools out there. We also sent tools to a permaculture project in Uganda. This project was teaching children skills in horticulture. Permaculture the traditional African method of farming had been changed by the colonial powers and also multinationals into cash crops for export. 2 years ago there were a lot of refugees from Rwanda in Uganda. Also there's a very high incidence of AIDS and a lot of children are born to parents who die of AIDS. WE also supported women's groups with tools in Uganda and we've sent tools to Zimbabwe. Basically sending out tools is a simple idea. One persons waste is another persons livelihood. A lot of the tools if we didn't get them would end up in a scrap metal merchant or in one of the numerous landfill sites that surround Belfast. There's a big need for tools in Tanzania . Good quality tools are a luxury and effectively gold dust. You can buy cheap nasty poor quality Chinese tools which bend very quickly but even on a Tanzanian income these are very expensive. There was once a tradition of blacksmithing in Tanzania but this was undermined by German and English colonial powers who encouraged a type of economy based around exporting cash crops and the import of manufactured goods from the west. They didn't want blacksmiths to be making tools but rather wanted a market for western goods. Blacksmithing nearly died out. We try to support blacksmiths as much as possible. We don't want Tanzania and other partner countries to be dependant on refurbished second hand tools from Europe. At the end of the day we want TFS to be redundant as an organisation. Also as well as sending out tools, we want people to question the lifestyle we lead here. We want people to realise that the way we are leading our lives here is unsustainable on a global scale. 75% of the worlds resources being used by 25% of the worlds population is not sustainable. Economists who are looking at ways to sort out Third World problems would be better employed in looking at ways in which we could reduce the amount of resources we use in our society.

So at present what exactly does the organisation get up to in Belfast and who's working there at the minute?
We have a core group of about 7 people who are working through JTP, and one is working through a German peace organisation as a conscientious objector avoiding military service. We also work with a couple of special needs organisations who send people to get work experience or motivation or just to get some feeling of being valued and doing useful work. We work with the Northern Ireland Centre for
Orthopaedic Development. We Also work with the Northside Project- which is for teenagers who have been expelled from school and are in danger of going into young offenders institutions. We hope to show these teenagers that there's more to work than just making lots of cash and looking after No. 1. Helping other people in other parts of the world get a basic income and buy the basic needs for their families so they can survive. We also have about 4 workcamps a year. These are working holidays. We provide people with food and accommodation and they help us collect and refurbish tools and also do fund-raising. We also have a bit of craic when they're here and get a chance to meet the local people.

You mentioned that a lot of the core volunteers are working through job training programmes what kind of effect has the JSA had on the organisation?
People in Tanzania have no access whatsoever to any social security system. If your made redundant or if you've left school without any skills you have no way of getting any state assistance. Therefore there is a big need for tools so as people can support themselves economically. In this country we are slightly more fortunate as there are still some remnants of a welfare state left so we can do useful voluntary work. This is becoming increasingly difficult to do because the government doesn't appreciate the value of the work we do. We don't get any direct government funding even though we're providing skills for people here and impowering people with special needs. It makes it difficult to run an organisation like this. As to what the future holds we may not be able to survive. It makes sense to have organisations like this because there aren't enough jobs in post industrial society where we live where machinery has replaced people in a large way. It's important that there are opportunities for people to volunteer without having big brother state not enabling them to do this. I myself don't see myself as a dole scrounger. I see myself and the work I do as important in helping people in Africa survive.

How did you decide to go on a fieldtrip to Tanzania?
There was a selection process for being picked to go to Tanzania. I had a burning desire to be able to go and see the projects in Tanzania. We'd had a correspondence from groups and also I'd seen people names on letters and I'd painted names of projects on boxes. I'd seen the boxes leave Belfast and I'd been involved for a number of years with Tools and just in the belief that this broken hammer that arrived in our workshop from someone's house from someone who was maybe a shipyard worker. This hammer when it was fixed up would be useful for someone out in Tanzania to be able to help their family provide basic needs. I was very keen to be able to see the other end of the operation and so I was lucky enough to be picked along with a German girl from tools for Self Reliance called Corina.

I know this probably sounds like a very obvious question but what was the differences between here and Tanzania that struck you the most?
Things you take for granted don't exist. You can't presume your gonna get clean water. Most people don't have piped water, people walk for miles and miles carrying buckets of water and there's a lot of water borne diseases - bilhazier, cholera, typhoid. A lot of people are suffering from these diseases and suffering from things that could be prevented if there was enough vaccinations being done. There's no electricity - people use paraffin lamps for lighting and wood for cooking. This has led to problems - lead to deforestation. It takes a vast amount of wood to make charcoal. But the government is involved in introducing afforestations schemes, which is one good thing. Paraffin is also very expensive. In the Tanzania budget this summer, paraffin prices went sky high and more people will be using wood for lighting as well. There is some electric run by hydro-electric, but the price of it is beyond most domestic users. It's mostly for commercial use and public institutions use it. It's only available in urban areas. So you see people and children walking for miles and miles with water and fire wood. There's a lot less cars. People riding bicycles, this was really good. But sometimes things were, could be improved a lot. It isn't necessary for everyone to have electricity but if there could be small schemes to provide hydro-electric - a cheaper source of lighting tthan paraffin and if people didn't have to carry big planks of wood and bags of cement on the backs of their bikes. If there was a better system of shared lorries etc.

 So what did the people you visited there make of you?!
Myself and Corina were treated like V.I.P.'s everywhere we went which to us showed the value of sending the tools. Every project we went to we were given a customary bottle of soda to drink and other projects gave us things like a goat. At some projects there was singing and dancing when we arrived and also gifts of baskets and ashtrays you name it...We were the guests of honour at the district council of Iramba wine and dined... it was quite embarrassing.

What happened to the goat?
 It was fattened up for Christmas.

Really?
No. It was given to the official of our partner organisation SIDO. He'd seen how lovingly Corina and myself had tended it when it was in the back of the four wheel drive vehicle we were in, when we were visiting the rural areas. We were told to accept the gift, as not accepting it would be perceived as an insult. It's a very expensive gift in Tanzania, also this man Mr. Mari said it would be alive in three years time for the next visit from TFS!

Oh yeah, so what was it like being vegetarian in Tanzania, and what was the food like in general?
People in Tanzania are vegetarian most of the time. They eat meat; goat and chicken only on special occasions or unless they are very rich. When we were travelling we were eating in cafes and people presume when you eat in cafes you are rich. It was thought as very strange when we ordered beans and rice and beans and maize. So we got funny looks being white skinned Europeans. In terms of other things about food most people in Tanzania have access to a small garden. This is called a Shamba in Swahali. For half of the year people work on this piece of land growing maize and vegetables. People depend on this piece of land to be able to survive and they may barter produce from this land. This is worked on during the rainy season - six months - The other six months people have nothhing to do. People need some means of getting income to afford medicines. There's a lot of water borne diseases like malaria and recently primary school education has to be paid for as well. People may want to buy simple things like tea, they might want building materials or money for a bus journey to visit relatives. They can't just rely on bartering goods from their shamba. Everyone from civil servants to carpenters has a shamba and for half a year is dependant on it. Some people in cities have no access to a shamba and this creates problems . Also there are very different levels of rainfall within the country. In Iramba there has been 2 years of drought. Not enough maize to go around this year. Aid organisations and the government are coming in with lorries of maize but it is too late for some people. Iranga another area we went to is normally a surplus area for maize and traditionally this would supply the rest of the country. Even this area had problems of drought this year.

In the times when the Tanzanian government practised socialism (now the government is socialist in name only) maize was subsidised. State lorries went with maize from one region to another making sure there was no malnutrition. Also in Tanzania the best land is used for cash crops. In Iringa one company, The Wattle Tea Company, partly owned by the British Royal Family is used for growing tea. In other regions the best land is used for growing sizel for making rope and also for growing coffee. There shouldn't be a problem of people not having enough to eat, it's the way the land is used is the problem.

What was the ' official TFS business' of the fieldtrip?
We decided at a TFS AGM that a fieldtrip was necessary to see what the future was with SIDO. Its future was very uncertain because of government cutbacks. One thing I haven't mentioned so far is the biggest crisis affecting Africa at the minute. This is a crisis caused by the World Bank and the International Mnetary Fund structurally adjusting countries in Africa to try and recover loans. In the 1970's a lot of banks had cash to lend from the oil crisis in the Middle East. The price of oil went up and money from the Middle East was put into Western banks. This left the western banks in a position to loan vast sums of money to developing countries. Tanzania applied for money along with a lot of other countries. This was to try and expand its manufacturing industries so as it would be less dependant on imports. A lot of countries took these loans and a lot of money was just squandered on personal accounts or was used to buy arms. In the case of Tanzania the loan dept repayments have now become intolerable. In the 1980's these loans had probably been paid back however the interest kept accumulating . The debt of Tanzania now stands at 1.3 trillion shillings - a couple of billion pounds. In the 1980s the IMF and the world Bank put pressure on countries in Africa to pay back loans. In order to pay these back they had to structurally adjust their economies. This meant they had to devalue their currencies and privatise the economy and sell state assets. They also had to restructure these companies and restructuring is just another way of saying laying off staff. Thousands of people in Tanzania lost jobs as a result of this. SIDO is a parastatal organisation and had its funding severely reduced and its future is not very optimistic. We're asking SIDO to go out into remote rural areas to visit groups on our behalf. They haven't got the money for diesel, tyres, maintenance etc. Vehicles get worn out very quickly on Tanzanian roads , tarmac roads are the exception. Oil is the most expensive import in Tanzania. We have to figure out how we can continue working with SIDO. Also we received a request from a district council in Iramba. This request was to see if we could form a partnership with them. Also we went out to see what the impact of sending tools is for ordinary working people. We also wanted to bring back photographs to show people in Ireland the benefits of sending out tools. We also wanted to see how the development of tool making was going in Tanzania was going.

Obviously you had preconceived ideas about tools being sent out to Tanzania, as you've been working for TFS all this time. How did you find the reality of the situation, compared to what you envisioned beforehand?
The vast majority of projects that receive tools are vast improvements on the past. Most projects previously only had one or two tools. These had to be staggered and one person would be idle when the others were working. Having more tools means projects can employ more people and also spend more time making products so they can survive. Some of the projects were barely surviving because of the problems of raw materials. It wasn't always a rosy picture. There was big problems of blacksmiths obtaining scrap metal. Scrap metal used to be exported, now the export is banned but it is still very difficult to obtain materials from which to make tools. Tailors have big problems with second hand clothes being dumped on them from North America and Europe. When charity shops can't sell clothes anymore they get dumped on Third World countries. This leads to competition with local tailors and has meant many job losses in the textile industry. Carpenters also had problems getting timber. All the groups had problems getting raw materials. They all needed help with other things beside tools. Tools were able to get them started off and this was a big advance.

The tapes running out, would you like to finish of, by telling us about some of your happiest moments?
Once I was feeling a bit sick after visiting a really brilliant primary school. I had dioarreah and was vomiting from a banana I had eaten. It had been left exposed with the skin off. And I threw up on the side of the road. One of the officials of the partner organisations got out of the land rover and went over to a bush and picked out a leaf. When I'd finished being sick he gave me this leaf and told me to rub it under my nose and it made me feel a whole lot better! Other happy moments; visiting a remote rural disabled tailoring group . They were the happiest people I've ever met. Hugging us and kissing us. They seemed so delighted with the fact we came all the way from Belfast to visit them . They have written us a letter since saying how much they appreciate us. The Tanzanian people have a lot to grumble about, the way they've been exploited by the west. Still there was no hatred expressed towards us coming from Europe. The people have such a great sense of spirit.

Thanks to Hamish for doing this interview when he wasn't feeling too well.

Tools For Solidarity is situated at: Unit 1B1, Edenderry Industrial Estate, 326 Crumlin Road, Belfast BT14 7EE. We are always in need of old hand tools and if you have any you don't use any more or would like to come and visit our groovy centre and get your hands dirty give us a ring on 028 90747473 or email tools.belfast@virgin.net
 

 

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