| Related Sites |
|---|
| Global COSAD Site |
| St. Barnabas Anglican Church |
| Global Citizens' Network |
| The Places We Live |
| World Computer Exchange |
| Log In |
|---|
Welcome to COSAD Canada
For details on how to donate to COSAD see "support COSAD'' on the left.
COSAD-Canada: New name, Same Ideals
COSAD has recently changed its name! The C now stands for Community.
Mr. and Mrs. Smart Baitani sing and play drums for a COSAD fundraiser.
It is not that we are no longer compassionate, but rather that the new name reflects the commitment on the part of the people in Tanzania to work towards sustainable living. After all, COSAD was founded by a Tanzanian who raised his siblings after being orphaned as a teenager. The basic social network he used to launch projects and unify his people in the fight against poverty was that of local choirs: groups who meet 4 to 5 times per week to rehearse and comprise members from all income levels or no income levels.
Tanzania was once a prosperous country. It can be so again. Rural people can grow pineapples, bananas, coffee. They can fish. They can raise goats and produce cheese.
Smart Baitani (seen above playing the hand drum) has sacrificed a western income to return to his community and raise it out of poverty.
Jessica, his wife (a.k.a. Mrs. COSAD) is currently doing a residency in Minneapolis, specialising in internal medicine. She grew up in Bukoba and was one of just 12 girls in all Tanzania to be accepted to Tanzania's only medical school . No other girl from Bukoba achieved this honour. She graduated in 2001. The U.S. hospital where she is working is one which caters without discrimination to the uninsured, the indigent and minorities. She will complete this residency in 2009 and in a few years she will return to Tanzania to work with COSAD and the most disadvantaged of her people. Luckily for Jessica, her father was a pediatrician working in the remote and poor area of Kigoma, south of Bukoba, and was a proponent of education for girls.
Welcome
Welcome to the online home of COSAD's Canadian chapter. COSAD is a charitable organization dedicated to sustainable community development and economic independence in Tanzania.
COSAD CANADA was formed in the fall of 2008 after a Canadian musician and a Canadian environmental geochemist met Smart Baitani and spent time in Itoju village in the Izigo rural area observing how he uses choirs as implements of social change and being impressed by the integrity of all his projects.
The rural area of Tanzania where COSAD operates is in the extreme north west, to the west of Lake Victoria. As you can see from the map, this area is isolated from the rest of Tanzania and borders Uganda and Rwanda. The wealthier tourist areas and cities of Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar are far away to the south east, and the richer rice growing areas are also far to the south.
Izigo rural area is about 25 miles SW of Bukoba, the capital of Kagera.
For information on COSAD's global activities, please visit our sister site, cosad.org. For information on how Canadian citizens can contribute, please refer to the links to your left.