The WWO Ambassadors' commitment to ending violence against women in Tanzania

By Sr. Maureen Ogundeph

Tanzania. The World Women’s Observatory (WWO) ambassadors in Tanzania are committed to “Listening to transform life” which is the motto of the World Women Observatory, in being the voice to the voiceless and making visible the invisible. They have been doing something to address this issue and they took it even more strongly during the Workshop held in Dar Es Salam in July 2023 on the African Network against Violence and Discrimination of Women, the fruit of establishing a network has bonded the lay and religious women to collaborate together in achieving this goal.

In the month of September 2023, Sr. Fatima Jacintha Rani of Daughters of Mary Immaculate (DMI) and Dr. Sylvia Ruambo of the organization Support for Future Foundation (S4F) came together to empower women by conducting training on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Discrimination at Malamba Mawili Village for the 65 Women group members and a good number volunteered to be ambassadors. They have been doing this in different parts of Dar Es Salam and this has brought positive impact at the community levels.

As in many other countries of Africa, although the government of Tanzania has made some efforts to end Gender-based Violence there are still gender gaps in human endowments, economic opportunities, ownership and control of assets, and women’s voice.

Support for Future Foundation organization has been working towards supporting the most vulnerable children and youth with disabilities to unlock their potential. The organization also works to support women with disabled children who have been abandoned by their husbands and families by enrolling them in vocational training colleges and after graduating, providing them with start-up toolkits based on the courses undertaken (for example a sewing machine for those who did the tailoring course).

S4F advocates for the rights of women organize campaigns against GBV and Violence Against Children(VAC) and train Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) on digital security.

The Institute of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate has promoted a total of 221 women through Self Help Groups(SHGs) with more than 5,000 women members to initiate the process of Socio-economic and Political Empowerment and Self – Sustainability. They also try to form villages, Districts, and regional women's Federations to Uphold the leadership and women's dignity to safeguard women's rights and poverty eradication through Microcredit. The Microcredit program helps and supports over 2000 rural women to address household poverty and poor family income and transforms the lives of rural women economically. They also offer Vocational Skills Training like tailoring and catering courses which facilitate 400 rural and young girls/women to start trades and generate income. Another approach they use is the Promotion of Sustainable Farming and Food Security where they reach out to 400 poor farmers and support them with Agricultural training, tools, and seeds for better agricultural practices and preventing them from hunger and starvation. The Society of Daughters of Mary Immaculate & Collaborators (SDMIC) has been promoting livestock programs supporting 200 rural families to address food security to generate sustainable household income and improve the overall economic situation. They have also Empowered women in entrepreneurship through an entrepreneurship program that enhances women's ability to start, build, and scale up their businesses and take leadership to secure their socio-economic rights through these 550 women entrepreneurs are promoted over 3500 women entrepreneurs are aware of their basic rights in Tanzania.

In as much as these organizations and institutes try to do all these any hands of support for this noble mission for the development of the women at Tanzania will be highly appreciated.