Reflection: What the Hatua Project means to me!

Reflection by Basil Malaki

I normally accept new challenges, they always present me with a unique opportunity to continuously learn.

Hatua Project has clocked a month now since its official commence, I can gladly confess that this Project has presented me with innumerable challenges that have kept me constantly thinking differently, creatively, intelligently, innovatively and independently as the Project Manager of a smart team.

I recently accepted a tough challenge posed to me by the Hatua Project communication team, the challenge; ‘We request everybody in the team to write about the Hatua Project, tell us what it means to you’. Huh, i’m not accustomed to these kind of challenges, I thought… Continuous learners never say NO even to the toughest challenges, I definitely accepted this request as a simple challenge, after all I could trade my left eye to save Hatua Project from the hands of the enemy.

Basil, what does the Hatua Project mean to you…

Hatua project to me is divine! It has superpowers to keep me awake late in the night ‘despite the fact that I love my sleep’ thinking about how my leadership and management skills can help make the project better and more impactful each day. It is a humbling honor for me to be at the helm of the Hatua Project, managing the overall responsibility for the successful initiation, planning, design, execution, monitoring, controlling quality of the Hatua project.

The project focuses on high voltage issues of interest to activists, the government and the citizens, however, we would like to distinguish ourselves from civil society organization who thrive on oppressive activism, our approach in the project is not to blame the government for what they are not doing right, we are focused on recognizing the government efforts in stabilizing the social and economical development of Tanzania.

Hatua Project comes through to help in mobilizing citizens at all levels of the community to actively take part in seeking innovative solutions on how best their active engagement with their local governments and stakeholders can help identify and establish mechanisms for solving their own problems or better still, our role in this process is to help create a platform for citizens to meet and engage with their leaders, speak out their grievances as well as spell out solutions for their most pressing needs. I look at the Hatua project as a bridge citizens can use to gain access to their leaders; Hatua project is a catalyst of innovation, inclusiveness and citizen engagement.

I look at the Hatua project as a defier of status quo, bureaucracy, corruption, political underdevelopment, distortion of government budgets, inequitable growth, social exclusion, lack of trust in authorities, moral depravity, the inability of public institution to manage public affairs and public resources — poor leadership; the Hatua Project is an enemy of the above vices of bad governance and that is why according to me, the Hatua Project should be the best companion of every leader who subscribes to the; good governance and good leadership school of thought.

But, why do I consider the Hatua Project so divine to me? Our first community outreach took a Grassroot Citizen Engagement approach which is a key component of the project. We traveled hundred miles away from the city to Sima village in Sengerema — rural Tanzania where we met Sima residents in their hundreds. My heart sank when I came face to face with the cruel poverty rate spelt out on the faces of the Sima villagers who came out to engage with us during this event.

I grew up in a semi urban township in rural Kenya, ‘This is Africa’. People who know me well, know that I am that guy with deep love for Africa, ‘I wanna live and die in Africa but extensively travel, explore and immerse myself in different cultures of the world’, so coming face to face with poverty was not something very new to me but my encounter with the Sima villagers made me think of myself differently.

The villagers regarded us as their second best hope to enable them see a better tomorrow, their first hope is the current reform-minded government that has promised to address their long overdue issues that date back to a couple of years of half fulfilled promises, this is when I realized I was in the Hatua Project for a good course, ‘to help transform the society into a more human place where we can enjoy God given privileges of life’. I re-call quoting one old lady during the Grassroot Citizen Engagement gathering saying in the native Swahili language, ’Sisi tuna-omba Mungu atupe maji, nyinyi mtupe msaada’, which directly translates to, ‘we pray that God provides us with water, you ‘Hatua Project’ provide us with help’; ‘another moving example was of this tweet we received during our first tech for governance forum at Buni Hub in Dar es Salaam, ‘I’m ready to work closely with Buni Hub to organize another #Tech4Gov forum to engage my fellow students at the University of Dar es Salaam’ — Benedict Masawe’ and to wrap it all up, I pictured a ‘differently enabled’ woman at Sima village actively taking part in the Grassroot Citizen Engagement gathering, these memories keep on resounding in my head everytime I sit back to reflect on my role in the Hatua Project.

As if that is not reason enough for me to have a divine feeling for the Hatua Project, I am constantly stricken back by the incredibly huge response we get every time we call on citizens to get together and make their voices count through the Hatua Project, the Hatua Project has been a uniting factor that brings together the rich and the poor, differently enabled persons, men and women, people of different races and cultures, children, youths ‘students’ and old-age persons through the various components of the forum; within one month of our active engagement with the citizens, we have found a reason to keep on working round the clock to help strengthen the government efforts towards promoting good governance, accountability, responsiveness, transparency, equality and equity at all times.

I would like to appreciate the support Making All Voices Count, Buni Hub and Sahara Sparks have invested in the Hatua Project. I would also like to recognize the A-team with great governance sagacity behind the success of the Hatua Project, I would not have felt the same for the Hatua Project without the support of this team.

I would also like to thank all our implementing partners, stakeholders, fans and supporters, the government contribution towards the success of our engagement with the citizens, each and every person who has inspired and.or contributed to the success of the Hatua Project directly or indirectly; spiritually, financially, emotionally and socially; y’all are appreciated.

To be involved and for more info contact:
Basil Malaki
Mail: abarzil@gmail.com
Skype: abarzil1
Twitter: @abarzil | @hatuaproject