PHOTOS OF THE VILLAGE

Tsunza is a village that used to be part of Kwale District, but nowadays, due to administration reasons was recently relocated within the new District of Kinango. Kinango district is among the 5 poorest districts in Kenya with 75% of its population living below poverty line, and 26% of them surviving below absolute poverty.

Causes of poverty in the district include the following:

• Poor infrastructure development e.g. roads, electricity, water e.t.c

• Low agricultural production due to land tenure problems

• Poor and undeveloped agricultural marketing

• Poor agro-industry base

• Vagaries of nature of droughts and flood e.g. the El niño phenomena

• Yearly droughts due to rainfall inadequacy particularly in Kinango and Samburu divisions

• High population dependency ratio.

To sum up, the rate of AIDS is also very high (33.2% of population is infected), therefore there is need to intensify awareness and to educate people in health matters.

Overpopulation has a direct impact on the basic needs such as water, food, health and education. This implies that efforts should be made to cater for this population increase and other economic constraints that come with it.

TSUNZA TRADITIONAL MUSIC

Tsunza Traditional Music is played and danced by the villagers themselves as a way to preserve their Duruma culture and traditions. However, due to the breakdown of their farming system and the diminishing benefits of their fishing activities, dancing has become a new target for survival, as the different tribes has turned it into a new profession. Thanks to the increase of tourism industry, these villagers sometimes have the chance to play and dance in front of visitors and tourists, who at the same time provide them with the opportunity to bring home some income to feed their families. Therefore, it is also among our duties to bring as many people as possible to the village, and to encourage them to improve the life standards of this community.

TSUNZA SCHOOL

Tsunza Primary School, the only one since colonial times, was improved by a group of Dutch volunteers who visited Tsunza. All the children we are sponsoring through our program are learning in this school.

THE VILLAGE OF TSUNZA

LOCATION: Tsunza is located on the West of Mombasa, in the district of Kinango, in Coast Province (Kenya).

POPULATION: Tsunza has a population of about 10,000 inhabitants.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES: Peasant farming and fishing are the main activities sustaining the lives of the villagers.

Recently, due to the global warming and its weather impact, rainy seasons are no longer predictable, resulting in poor harvesting. Tsunza has become even poorer than it used to be, as most of the farmers had to change and rely on fishing activities to survive, and the economical benefit of it has been over-exploited.

ADMINISTRATION: The village is ruled by elected elders of the clan that control the community in several issues related to law and order. Each elder controls a sub-village for easier administration.

SCHOOL AND EDUCATION: Tsunza Primary School, a methodist missionary school, has been the only one since the colonial times. It has been giving education up to 100 kids per class and, for this reason some lessons many times were held under a tree. Thanks to a group of volunteers from Netherlands, who realised that the school was in pathetic conditions, a new block was built. However, the number of students who achieve the last level of Primary education is very low. Many parents cannot afford to pay for the school needs, ranging from school materials to examination fees. The number of students proceeding to Secondary school education is even smaller and only a handful has access to university. This situation has contributed to make the villagers lives even harsher, whose means to survive are very scarce.

TRADITION, CULTURE AND BELIEFS: It is believed that Tsunza as a village originated and evolved from a married couple who came to settle as farmers in the area long time ago. Since then, families, clans and sub-villages developed. Tsunza is therefore considered to be a huge African family, whose members live deeply rooted in old traditions, and supersticious beliefs based on witchcraft. Traditions make such an influence in their society that they have hardly evolved from their old methods and old life-style. They make efforts to keep their old traditional music, their old clothing items, their old harvesting and farming techniques, etc. Especially due to their lack of education, that is fortunately decreasing lately.

The main religion is Islam (especially among women), although quite a number of Christians live along together. It is shocking how different religions and people worshipping different gods can perfectly coexist together even within a single family. It's not strange to find blood brothers of different religions (some are Christians, and some are Muslims) in the same house, becoming a perfect model of respect.