Steven Revelian, Tanzania

I am the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KARUDECA. Born and raised in the Karagwe district in a village called Ihanda, I studied a Bachelor of Arts with Education, Linguistics and Literature at St. Augustine University of Tanzania and then worked as a teacher for a couple of years after graduating. Currently, I am pursuing a Master of Education in Management and Planning degree at St. Augustine University of Tanzania.

I founded KARUDECA because I wanted to serve my community in a different way. Whilst working as a teacher I could see that many students could not pay their school fees or buy school uniforms. I decided to develop KARUDECA to help people develop a sustainable income.

This job is great because I can see how our efforts are transforming people’s lives in our community. In my free time, I enjoy reading books, especially novels, searching the internet for opportunities, listening to music and spending time with my family.

The Karagwe Rural Development and Environmental Conservation Agency (KARUDECA) is a local NGO based in Karagwe district, Kagera region, in the northwestern part of Tanzania. It was registered in 2007 to work in Karagwe district Tanzania. Following its good performance, in 2016, it was re-registered to operate all over the Tanzanian mainland.

KARUDECA deals with environmental conservation, disability, education promotion, micro-finance, agriculture, health and women and youth empowerment. The organisation was formed to alleviate poverty in Tanzania. The main projects include vocational education for Microfinance Institutions (MFI’s), Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR), the construction of rainwater harvesting tanks in secondary schools and financial education projects in primary and secondary schools in the Kagera region Tanzania.

The NGO partners with the SBFIC (Saving Banks Foundation for International Cooperation) to implement a financial education project for young Tanzanians in schools to learn basic financial and saving principles so that they can be good consumers in the future. The project is now serving eleven schools with a total of about 3200 students. Topics taught include responsible consumption, personal and family budget, saving, credit, borrowing etc.

KARUDECA has also been in partnership with the Wabia Network, a UK based organization since 2015, in implementing a microcredit scheme among vulnerable women in Karagwe Tanzania. So far, the project has benefited about 200 women with soft loans and transformed their lives.