More Tanzanian Babies Bom In Clinics

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30960, 17 January 1966, Page 2

More Tanzanian Babies Bom In Clinics

More Tanzanian women were having their babies in clinics and hospitals, Mrs Ann Burgess said in Christchurch yesterday.

The women, whose life expectancy, was about 35 years, had as much if not more pain in childbirth as European women, she said. They were not as healthy as white women, and malaria, frequent babies and hard manual work took their toll.

Often, women with several children found it difficult to leave the<r villages for clinics to have a baby. More maternity clinics were needed in the villages, but it was difficult to find people co run them. Mrs Burgess, her husband Robert, and their three children are home for three months from Tanzania. Mr Burgess is a lecturer at Katoke Teachers’ Training College, near Lake Victoria, which trains boys and girls with a sixth-standard education as teachers. The family has been there for four years and a half and will return at the end of March for two more years and a half. Primary Teacher Mrs Burgess, a primary teacher, taught at Linwood Intermediate School until she went to Africa with her husband for the Church Missionary Society. On her return to Africa she will begin to teach her eldest child, now five. “He is too young for boarding school,” she said.

In addition, Mrs Burgess will start a literacy class for the women of the nearby village. “Many of the women can now read because of these classes,” she said. They would not be taught to read English. Swahili was universally spoken and easy to learn.

Before her leave, Mrs Burgess was helping with a voluntary club which taught the women sewing and cooking. "They have open fires, so we used kerosene tins on top of the fires as ovens. They were very successful for bread, scones and even cakes,” she said.

The purpose of the cooking lessons was to introduce variety into a rather monotonous diet. Very little protein was eaten and, although the Africans kept hens, they did not eat them themselves. Instead, they’ sold them to Europeans.

Katoke was situated at 4000 ft, an altitude which was very enervating. Mrs Burgess said she could not do as much as in New Zealand. She had a part-time houseboy for the heavy work but had to bake her own bread, boil drinking water and do the cooking. Poor Country Although Tanzania received foreign aid it was still a poor country. Much of it was

desert and there were several dam and irrigation schemes in progress.

Skilled Europeans were welcome, 'but it was only a matter of time before the Africans would be capable of taking over many jobs for themselves. “This is only right,” said Mrs Burgess. There were several African lecturers at the college, which, in two years, would only take high school pupils as trainees. The people were very keen to receive education, but many more schools were needed. Some would be built as part of the next fiveyear plan.

Recently, a large tea plantation had been established in the Katoke district. “It looks as though tea has a big future here,” said Mrs Burgess.

Holiday Queen

Chosen

(From Our Own Reporter) TLMARU, January 16. Miss Barbara Bazley, aged 118, of Timaru, was chosen as I the Caroline Bay holiday queen on Saturday evening. The judge (Mrs E. E. Thomson) awarded second place to Miss Beverley Cornelius, aged 20, of Christchurch. Miss Linda Marsden, aged 19, also of Christchurch, was third. Twenty-two girls from Canterbury, Otago and the West Coast, aged from 14 to 30, took part in the contest, the last event of the Caroline Bay Association’s annual carnival. The contestants appeared in dresses at Friday night’s parade, in sun suits on the Saturday afternoon, and for the final judging they wore party frocks.