Members of MMAAT attend a meeting in Karagwe District

Karagwe, a remote, rural District in the northwestern corner of Tanzania, first drew the attention of TCRS (then the Tanzania country program for the Lutheran World Federation Department of World Service) in the 1960s when turmoil in Rwanda forced thousands of refugees across the border. When the 1994 genocide triggered a second influx of Rwandan refugees in Karagwe, TCRS returned to the region, this time with the intention of not only providing humanitarian assistance to the refugees but also establishing a Karagwe/Ngara development project aimed at improving the livelihoods and circumstances of the local Tanzanian population. TCRS activities in the region continued under the umbrella of that development project until 2004, when it was supplanted by a TCRS-designed Community Empowerment Programme created specifically for Karagwe District. Thus, the Karagwe Community Empowerment Programme (Karagwe CEP) was born.

The Karagwe CEP has worked in a total of 18 villages in the District, reaching more than 52,000 beneficiaries in the area. Of the 18 villages, 6 have recently graduated from the CEP curriculum: Chanika, Katembe, Katwe, Kibare, Nyakatera, and Ruhanya. The remaining 12 villages - Kafunjo, Kahundwe, Kamagambo, Kigorogoro, Kiruruma, Kituntu, Masheshe, Murongo, Nyakagoyagoye, Nyamiyaga, Runyaga, and Rwabukagati - are currently enrolled in the programme and are expected to graduate by the end of 2010.

Activities in Karagwe District are varied. Village leaders enrolled in the leadership component of the CEP curriculum participate in study exchange visits and are trained on a number of topics, including leadership & management skills, public expenditure tracking, human rights & democracy, gender issues, HIV/AIDS awareness, and community based disaster preparedness (CBDP). At the same time, activities targeting marginalized beneficiaries include coordinating literacy courses, facilitating the formation of income generating activities (with a special emphasis on women's groups), creating awareness about gender equity, HIV/AIDS, CBDP, & environmental issues, and promoting improved agriculture and livestock production. To this end, specific projects that have seen substantial success in Karagwe include fish farming, bee keeping, and coffee cultivation initiatives. Moreover, the Karagwe CEP devotes a significant portion of its attention to raising the profile of vulnerable, marginalized, and displaced members of the community and to building civic awareness in order to encourage the active participation of community members in collective governance and policy development.