I... I think the... the issue of satisfied with MCC should have com... should have been asked me.
MCC has been great assistance from the United States government to the people of Tanzania.
There are three.... three... three sectors here. There is the road sector. And the good thing about the MCC is that we decide on the..... on the areas or sectors that we need assistance. But even we decide on where. For example in the case of roads. There are roads that we spo.... we talked to many donors, who were not ready to support us. But when... when you said there is going to be support on roads I said "Let's try these roads, let's see what the American are going to say." The American said fine, if you think you need these roads fine, we will give you the money.
Those fellow Tanzanians know Namtumbo-Songea-Mbinga, Tunduma-Sumbawanga, Tanga-Horohoro, the roads in Pemba. But we chose those roads because, these roads are actually in our bread basket area. This is where we get the corn: Ruvuma, Rukwa and Mbeya.
We decide.. we chose the US to assist us to increase water supply in Dar es Salaam. It is our decision. The project is now being implemented.
With electricity we said, one of our biggest problems is access to electricity for people in the rural areas. The US said fine. We have m m .. in grid 10 regions of Tanzania. Coverage of electricity has increased from 10% to 21%, is phenomenal increase.
So I want to underscore the fact that I am satisfied with the support from MCC.
Is US doing enough? The US has done a lot, but if I say they have done enough, then the President will not listen to my new requests... hahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaa
But so far so good.
Deaths from malaria have declined by over 50%, infant mortality rates have declined, HIV infections have declined. Through PMTCT (Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission) more children born by HIV infected mothers are born free of the disease. More people now...
The US has supported us now with over 2 million books. And today I asked the president we want another 2.4 million and he said we will ... to .... and I see from their face that they are in agreement with the president. So that when it comes to science and mathematics books, we will have every Tanzanian child .. have a book of his or her own, instead of the ratios that we are talking today 5 to 1 now reduced to 3 to 1. So the list is endless.
We have a lot of support, we are very appreciative, we are very thankful, it has really helped changing the lives of our people.
