4-H in Tanzania

Renée Applegate, Michigan State University Extension -

The 4-H program is progressing tremendously with the support of National 4-H Council in the last two years.

What a wonderful history of support for Tanzania 4-H. The Tanzania 4-H program has adhered to the 4-H world-wide objective of -”Learn by Doing” since its inception. 4-H began in Tanzania after a Tanzanian school teacher visited Finland, saw the success of 4-H in the schools in Finland, then brought the concept back to Tanzania and started the program with his students in 1976.

Finland has had a 4-H program for 84 years since its start in 1928.

Since 1976 Finland has been a prime supporter of the 4-H program in Tanzania promoting the objectives of education, entrepreneurship, civic engagement and health. They have also added environmental conservation activities such as planting trees as a club and individual project. Finland has supplied 4-H Tanzania with funds, workshops, conferences, facilities, offices, training camps and many other supplies and publications through support from the Finland 4-H organization.

Here in the United States, support has come through the National 4-H council from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Cargill, DuPont, Motorola Foundation and the Nike Foundation since 2010 to work on a pilot program in the years 2010 and 2011.

After accessing the two-year pilot the model has been scaled to build for 2012 to 2015 on the pilot program with key strategies to that can be found in 4-H Partnerships in Africa:

  • Build in-country leadership capacities
  • Increase public and private investments in country-led 4-H programs through innovative partnerships
  • Establish knowledge systems that will provide 4-H and other organizations with access to high-quality agricultural information and resources

The National 4-H network is adding a youth exchange in Africa in 2013. 4-H’ers wishing to travel to Tanzania on the 4-H exchange through the States’ 4-H International Exchange Program can do so in the summer of 2013.

Contacts and more information for Michigan 4-H members can be found at Michigan 4-H International Exchange Programs.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit https://extension.msu.edu. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit https://extension.msu.edu/newsletters. To contact an expert in your area, visit https://extension.msu.edu/experts, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).

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