How adult literacy classes at the fish market help combat extreme poverty

Dar es Salaam, Since mid-July 2024, a new phase of adult literacy classes in Swahili and English, led by All Together in Dignity (ATD) Fourth World, has begun.

ATD is a non-profit international movement of solidarity, founded in France in 1957, whose main goal is to eradicate extreme poverty in the world.

In Tanzania, the NGO is based in Dar es Salaam and opened over twenty years ago. Although this NGO’s programmes are very diverse, ATD’s approach remains the same: work among and in collaboration with the people, the concerned citizens bringing the needs of the population to ATD.

The Magogoni Fish Market of Dar es Salaam carries about 2,000 workers, some of them coming from all over Tanzania in order to find job opportunities there.

However, achieving a decent and sufficient salary to meet their needs is not so simple, some of them having a daily wage between Sh2,000 and Sh5,000.

This area is very important for ATD movement in Tanzania, as Hemed Ally Hemed, the Director of ATD Tanzania underlined, “It’s a historic project for ATD movement, it started in 2009, very few years after ATD was established in Tanzania. It’s one of our first projects”.

Indeed, an important number of people at the Fish Market face the illiteracy challenge,  as most of them didn’t have the opportunity to attend school or were forced to drop out due to financial reasons.

In this way, some members of the Movement expressed their wish to learn how to read and write in Swahili.

Some of them also wanted to learn how to read and write in English, in order to communicate with international customers.

Thus, they organized themselves and mobilised other workers eager to attend those literacy classes.

“It’s easier for us to run a project when there is a strong involvement with activists within the community. And this is the case in the Fish Market, they carry strength and motivation within the community,” declared Gasper Albert Mbwambo, the Advocacy and Education officer.

The first phase of ATD Swahili Literacy classes thus began in 2009, and since then is conducted phase by phase.

“Each year the workers at the Fish Market ask to restore the class, even those who participated in the past are willing to improve what they learnt. In 2023, they also underlined that it would be interesting to have English classes,” explained Hemed Ally Hemed, the Director of ATD Tanzania.

“Learning is a process, you need to practise as much as you can, and even if we saw people improving during the first phase, the second phase is really important to improve even more, especially in speaking and writing.” added Anna Chongole, the Women Project Coordinator.  

Each phase lasts six months, with classes in English and Swahili twice a week, from 2pm to 4pm, totalling four hours of teaching per week. For each session, two teachers are present.

“The set-up of the timetable, it’s very important to adapt to their schedule. We choose the afternoon because most of them arrive very soon at the Fish Market, during the morning they work very hard, and there is a little bit less work in the afternoon, so they can be more available,” explained Hemed.

For logistical reasons, as well as to allow teachers to closely monitor each student, for this new phase ATD aims to train 20 people in the Swahili class, and 20 people in the English class.

“In English for this phase, we have 16 people who showed interest, and 11 learners in Swahili, but the programme has just started, so perhaps we will have more,” precised Hemed.

The goal of this programmme is to provide participants with the necessary skills to manage in everyday life, as well as in business interactions.

It is the first step toward greater freedom of communication and, therefore, an opportunity for empowerment. Indeed, it is much easier to design business plans, communicate with buyers and suppliers, and plan professional projects when you know how to read and write.

Stella Kalua, a woman whose main activity is selling food in this area, and who’s participating in the English class programme, said “It's a good thing to see that despite people having daily responsibilities, they see the importance of staying in class at least to learn the basic things, such as writing and reading.”

However, the main challenge remains the uncertainty of the constant attendance of the learners because of financial challenges.

“People have a lot of responsibilities with the work and the family. Each day, they have to find something to gain, so sometimes they can’t attend the classes,” said Hemed.

Shukuru Rajabu, who works as a fish cleaner confirmed this statement, “The activities I do oblige me to fight a lot in order to fulfill the responsibilities as a father of family.”

Moreover, ATD observed that the number of women who come forward to participate in the programme is very low compared to men’s participation.

Indeed, the demanding nature of their work environment sometimes prevents them from participating in the classes.

“Most of them are overwhelmed with many responsibilities from morning to evening because income is their most important priority to be able to afford the expenses of daily life. There is a large group of women who are the main pillar of their families since some have been abandoned by or have lost their husband,” confirmed Stella Kalua, who is among the workers.

Thus, the implementation of these classes is a complementary effort to support those made by the Government of Tanzania to eradicate illiteracy.

The coordination of these adult classes should also emphasise supporting people in other economic activities, as the income challenges often prevent them from participating in these programmes.

This is precisely what ATD is trying to achieve through the plurality of its action programmes aimed at all citizens, to ensure that no one is left behind in the fight against poverty.