Tanzania is located in East Africa and was formerly a German colony and a British protectorate until independence in 1961. Although the country has one of East Africa’s highest growth rates, Tanzania is still one of the poorest countries in the world.
Only a small proportion of Tanzanians have benefited from the recovery, which is not large enough to attract the rest of the population, and well over half of the population lives below the poverty line.
More and more people are looking towards the largest city, Dar es Salaam, or tourist centers like Arusha in the north of the country in the search of an income. However, migrants often end up with the lowest paid jobs and have to live in the slums.
Children in Tanzania
In Tanzania, children almost always start in 1st grade. However, every fifth child never completes primary school, and only every fourth child continues in the classes similar to the oldest classes in primary school.
The teaching is often old-fashioned, and there can be over 100 students in each class. The poor quality of education as well as early marriages and poverty contribute to 3 out of 4 children dropping out of school after 6th grade.
Girls drop out more often than boys. 37 percent of Tanzania’s children get married before the age of 18. This means that many girls become mothers before they themselves are adults. In addition, every fifth child in Tanzania needs to work instead of going to school to help support the family.
In Tanzania, we have children’s villages on Zanzibar, in Arusha and on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam and associated youth houses, where the children of the children’s village learn to get ready to leave the safe environment of the children’s town and live an independent adult life. The SOS youth centers are designed as collectives, where the young people collaborate on cooking and cleaning, and where adults help the young people when they need it.
Facts about children
- 45 percent of Tanzania’s population is under 14 years of age.
- There are 2.6 million orphans.
- 810,000 children have lost one or both parents to AIDS.
- 48.7 children out of 1,000 die before the age of five.
- About 71 percent of all children complete schooling. 26 percent complete the intermediate stage and schooling. 3 percent get what roughly corresponds to a high school diploma.
- 13.4 percent of all children are malnourished, and almost 35 percent of all children do not develop as they should, due to malnutrition.
- Less than half of Tanzania’s children under the age of five are being treated for dehydration if they have diarrhea. More than one in four children under the age of 5 do not see a doctor, even if the child has symptoms of pneumonia.
Country facts
- There are 53.5 million people living in Tanzania.
- A Tanzanian earns an average of 780 euro a year or two euro a day.
- 5.3 percent of all Tanzanians between the ages of 15 and 49 live with HIV or AIDS.
- For every 100,000 children born, 398 Tanzanian women die from complications during pregnancy or childbirth.
- The birth rate in Tanzania is 39 live births per 1,000 Tanzanians.
- A woman can expect to live for 66 years and a man for 64 years.
- 46.6 percent of the population lives below the poverty line of US $ 1.90 per day.
Village Communities in Tanzania & Zanzibar
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