The Mtakuja Village Project started out in 2008 with the goal to reduce poverty levels among the community of Mtakuja Village in the Kilimanjaro Region in Northern Tanzania, populated, at the time, at 4,250. With a small staff and through an integrated approach to development, FTK simultaneously introduced interventions in agriculture, infrastructure, health and education and programs to encourage and strengthen local leadership and project ownership. Goals were formulated around short term – “quick wins” – and long-term objectives to solidify local belief in the viability of and support for the project and laying the foundation for the sustained impact of the project’s interventions.

Seven and a half years later the results are largely positive and there is reason to be optimistic about the sustainability of the effect into the future. By the end of 2015 the newly developed irrigation farm produced around €100,000 worth of annual food crops, including the production of about 40% of the entire community’s annual consumption of maize, the basic staple. The number of families surviving on one meal a day was halved, while those being able to rely on three meals a day increased by 80%. Severe malnutrition rates in newborns were halved by 2013. Asset ownership, including productive assets like livestock, increased across a range of assets and there is some indication that the growth in asset ownership in Mtakuja outstripped national levels of growth.