Tanzania is one of the many countries likely to be affected by the Irish Government’s cuts in aid funds. Viktor Posudnevsky speaks to Jim Gilsenan, who has worked in the west African country and seen the help that Irish Aid brings to people’s lives
Jim Gilsenan met his wife Jane while working on a project helping villagers in Tanzania’s Dodoma region.
“It happened in a mental hospital,” he says. “I used to go there to relax and my future wife was one of the nurses. Yes, it’s funny that I went to relax to a mental institution, but they had a great facility for playing squash, and you wouldn’t find one anywhere else.”
Gilsenan has since returned to Ireland with his wife, and the two are now raising three children. He says he still feels attached to Tanzania and would like to move there some day. He fondly remembers his time spent working there, as it made a real difference in the lives of that country’s people.
“I am an engineer by education and I worked for Tanzania’s water department in a project partly funded by Irish Aid,” he recalls. Gilsenan’s task was to ensure that people living in Dodoma’s remote villages had access to fresh water, which was not always the case.
About 300 villages in the region were cut off from water supplies, with people having to walk for 10km every day to the nearest source. Gilsenan puts the blame on a government that “was not able to deliver on its commitments”. The technicians who were supposed to ensure that the water pumps were working in every village were not paid by the state, and as a result did not venture far beyond the main urban areas.
“They were lucky if they got their monthly salaries,” he explains. “But they wouldn’t get any travel expenses whatsoever, so they didn’t go to these remote villages.”
The team of international volunteers that Gilsenan worked with drove these technicians around the vast Dodomo region and helped them refurbish existing pumps, as well as bore new waterholes if needed. They often had to train the technicians up and teach villagers the basics of handling equipment.
“We found that 85-90 per cent of all repairs were general maintenance, small jobs that the villagers could do themselves,” says Gilsenan. “But technology was completely alien to these villagers, who had no education. Sometimes they wouldn’t even know how to fill a pump engine with diesel.”
Gilsenan says he enjoyed working on the project as it made a real difference to the people’s lives. Indeed, he is full of admiration for other Irish Aid projects in Tanzania. “From what I’ve seen, Irish projects were much better planned and much more cost-effective than work done by other countries.”
He explains that Irish Aid has always prioritised improvements to infrastructure over other areas, but with the recent Budget cuts, some aspects of these plans may not be delivered. “I believe it will affect those most in need, the poorer people will bear the brunt of the cuts,” he adds.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has stated that it does not yet know which countries will be affected by the €95m cut in overseas aid announced last week.
In a statement released to Metro Éireann, the department said: “Ministers and officials will be working on the details of the adjustments over the coming weeks. Decisions will be taken on the overarching priority of the programme – the fight against global poverty and hunger.”
