TASAF doles out 3.4bn/- to poor households

From DAILY NEWS Reporter in Dodoma

TANZANIA Social Action Fund (TASAF) has for the past four years dished out 3.4bn/- to households living in abject poverty since TASAF III programme was extended to Chemba District.

This was revealed here recently by Chemba District TASAF Coordinator, Mr Simon Butondo, saying some 33m/- was returned to TASAF headquarters in Dar es Salaam due to the demise of some beneficiaries and those who did not show up during the disbursement.
“The programme has helped 1,952 poor households to join Community Health Fund (CHF) and access healthcare under insurance,” said the District TASAF Coordinator while giving briefs on the programme’s evaluation report.
TASAF III has a range of components including the Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN) which incorporates transfers linked to participation in public works and the Community Based Conditional Cash Transfer (CBCCT). Mr Butondo pointed out that the evaluation exercise, which was aimed at establishing achievements and challenges in implementation of TASAF III programme was conducted in all 42 villages in Chemba District.
“The main goal of the exercise was to establish the current state of TASAF beneficiaries since TASAF III was extended to Chemba District,” he said. Mr Butondo said the evaluation discovered that about 52 per cent of TASAF beneficiaries had invested the money in poultry, citing Tamba Mabwayi of Mambose Village who has 20 hens.
“Some 33 per cent of the TASAF programme beneficiaries have invested the money in goat keeping,” he observed. Mr Butondo appealed to TASAF beneficiaries to join Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) to facilitate saving the money being generated from their activities, noting that SACCOS will help them to access loans to expand their businesses.