From Tralee to Tanzania - not as far as you'd think!
by Jo Lambe

In September , along with seven other women from around Ireland, I participated in an exchange trip to Tanzania. This was jointly arranged between two organisations - Banulacht and the Tanzanian Gender Network Programme. Banulacht is a feminist NGO based in Dublin. Their work focuses on “linking women in Ireland and in the global South through a focus on awareness raising and activism around the gender dimension of development, trade and human rights issues.”

Jo with delagate at TGNP's Gender Festival

The Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP), is an NGO based in Dar es Salam, Tanzania. They work on “the practical promotion and application of gender equality and equity objectives through policy advocacy and mainstreaming of gender and pro-poor perspectives at all levels in the Tanzanian society, including the public and governmental sectors. These broad objectives have been effected through: Activism, Lobbying and advocacy; Training, Capacity building; Networking and Action oriented research.

The purpose of the exchange was to link women involved with women’s networks in Ireland with women’s organizations and groups in Tanzania, to share learning, ideas and experiences. Six women from around Ireland, working with women’s networks joined the two Banulacht staff to make up a party of eight. All of us were involved in fund raising in order to cover part of the cost of the trip, Irish Aid were part funding us.

We set out on the 8th September,and after 18 hours of traveling we landed in Tanzania’s capital Dar es Salam, the capital city of Tanzania. The journey from the plane to our hotel was fascinating, hot and humid, dusty, noisy and incredibly busy. I was'nt prepared for the sheer volume of people, with 4.5 million living in Dar es Salam it was a hive of activity. All along the roadside there were stalls and shacks where people were trading their wares, from eggs, candles and cashew nuts, to wooden furniture, bicycle repairs and shoe shine stalls. Crowds and crowds of exotically dressed people were walking along the roadside, heading to the city for work. The traffic was unbelievable, cars, bikes and over stuffed buses weaving in and out of each other.

Arriving safely to the hotel we all had a short rest. we went to meet with our hosts TGNP, who were busily arranging their four day Gender Festival which was to begin the following day. After brief introductions with their staff we left them to their arrangements, all looking forward to attending the following day.
As TGNP had anticipated they would be too busy to entertain us that day, they had arranged for us to visit a project that produced a youth magazine called Femina. Aimed at 15-25 year olds, Femina have a reputation of being quite outspoken in their subject matter and would cover topics such as sexuality, safe sex, HIV/Aids, bullying, violence against women, sexual violence, etc. The magazine has a wide readership and many discussion groups have grown up around Tanzania from this. The magazine has proven to be a useful community education tool, termed “Edu-tainment” The format of the magazine is as much as possible equally divided up between written word and pictorials, both cartoons and photographs, in order to over come the high levels of illiteracy within the rural communities. The magazine encourages reader participation and welcomes letters, reports, stories etc. A lot of the staffs time is spent in the rural communities, where the trained facilitators provide workshops and training opportunities around the issues discussed in the magazine. A couple of us had the chance to present our own work to Femina staff and they were interested in some of the creative ways we had raised awareness of the issues within our own communities.

The following two days we spent at the Opening ceremony and workshops of TGNP’s 4 day Gender Festival on “Gender, Democracy and Development: African Feminist
Struggles in the Context of Globalization”.

What an experience! Over one thousand people attended from all over Africa. And how different to our conferences here in Ireland. It made us look very reserved. There was so much music and dancing. When at one point the Minister for Education was arriving, everyone rose and sang, cheered, clapped and danced the Minister into the centre of the audience and then danced her to the top table! An interesting idea that maybe we could replicate when next we have our Ministers guesting at our events!

Participants in Gender Festival t-shirts.

The festival gave us a great chance to meet women from many African countries and to hear of their experiences. We were able to attend various workshops on different topics. I attended one on Gender Based Violence which covered topics including domestic violence, sexual violence, female genital mutilation, Fistula, HIV/AIDS. Hearing from the individual speakers within the workshop gave a real insight into the experiences of African women in the area of Gender Based Violence. The extent of the problem seemed enormous, some of the attitudes and opinions of the festival participant were challenging for us. It seemed that the violence against women, sexual violence, inequality between men and women was at a higher level than we in Ireland experience. With little or no legislation and poor attitudes of the judiciary it seems that women are extremely vulnerable and unprotected in their society. People spoke of incidences of violence against women, of raping of women and children, of forced marriage, of women being ostrasized and abandoned for ill health or disability, of the murder of women suspected of being a witch. Our group were somewhat overwhelmed by the enormity of the issues raised in the two days we were able to spend at the festival.

A speaker from the audience presenting disabled women issues at the open forum of Festival.
Unfortunately due to our packed schedule we were unable to attend the final two days of the festival which meant we were unable to see the work done around moving forward. However we were given an opportunity at the end of our trip to meet and reflect with TGNP staff on our experience of the festival and of their preliminary evaluation of the event.

We flew from Dar es Salam to Mwanza (via Mount Kilimanjaro!) which is in North Tanzania.We spent the next two days meeting and working with community development organisations. Here Sarah Beth and I linked with an organisation called Kivulini. We spent the first day meeting with some of the workers within the Kivulini and hearing about the work they are involved in which included advocacy, community awareness, capacity building, community empowerment, media and learning material, legal aid and social counselling, research, documentation, monitoring and evaluation. We visited some of their training projects, such as the horticultural project that taught the uses and benefits of indigenous plants and heard how learning is brought back to remote and rural communities. The importance of proper nutrition for people suffering from HIV/Aids was focused on throughout the course in order to improve the immune system through diet. There was also an ecomomic aspect of the course which showed participants how to produce goods for sale.

We heard of the initiative where Kivulini were working with employers of young domestic workers, to foster best practice, discouraging abuse, encouraging fair treatment and continuation of their education whilst in employment.
Muimuna Kanyamala, Kivulini’s coordinator took us to visit some of the training projects they were running and heard how learning is brought back to remote and rural communities.

We travelled around some very rural areas, visiting various projects and meeting with women’s groups. At first glance many of the projects would appear to have an economic focus, for example the Buyumbo women’s group who were working on a 7acre cooperative farming project and selling their produce locally. Alongside this they had also developed a kind of credit union which everyone saved with and were able to receive small loans, to be repaid over three month period. All profit went back into the credit union. The group had also participated in Kivulini’s community education training programmes, so were community activists on issues relating to violence against women and raising awareness around issues such as female genital mutilation and on HIV/Aids. This women’s group took great pride in dancing for us and in explaining some of their work. It was wonderful to see this group of older women so actively raising awareness on women’s issues in their community.

A member of the Buyumbo Women’s Group, preparing for dance.

Another group we visited was producing oil from the jutropa bean which they sold locally and was used to fuel cooking stoves and light. This was both beneficial for the group’s finances as well as for the health of those using the stoves. The enormity of these benefits was explained to us later. With the use of traditional fuel, similar to cow pat, the smoke of which is so acrid that by the time many women reach the age of about 60 her eyes could be burned so that the whites of her eyes are permanently red. Some of these women will then be perceived as witches and as such could be murdered. In the one region there had been three such women murdered reported in the newspaper the week previous to our visit. So on one hand older women were active in their communities in raising awareness of violence against women, but at the same time were extremely vulnerable.

The health of women in Mwanza was evidently a cause for huge concern. We heard of the impact that HIV/Aids has had on this society and how women are unable to keep themselves safe from infection. Women are unable to insist on safe sex practices, even if it is known that her husband is promiscuous, or is in fact HIV positive himself. One in ten women die in childbirth in areas of Mwanza. We heard of a condition known as Fistula. This is damaged caused to the cervix wall during childbirth where the cervix can tear and women then experience leaking of the bowel and bladder through into the cervix. If untreated the impact on the sufferer can be devastating. She can be ostracized from her community,deemed unclean and left to suffer. Muimuna told us of a group of women from a particular region who were all experiencing symptoms. Kivulini organized to bring them to the main referral hospital where appropriate specialists were ready to repair the Fistula tears. However when the women were examined they were informed that they were not suffering from the effects of Fistula but all in fact had cervical cancer. The women were sent home without treatment. We also heard of the American company that bought the hospital to train their interns, they raised the cost of all their treatments so now none of the people of Mwanza can access the expertise.

All the groups we met enjoyed hearing about our work and about some of the issues women in Ireland face. Many of the women expressed surprise when we shared that some women in Ireland experienced violence, inequality, lack of education, insufficient medical care.

We were able to spend a couple of days in Zanzibar which is a small island off Tanzania. It is a beautiful place with stunning scenery. Zanzibar would be a predominantly Muslim island and we arrived on the first day of Ramadan, which is a month long religious festival where Muslims will fast from sunup to sunset. There is much time spent in the mosque praying and we were able to observe much of this from where we were staying in Stone Town. We visited a women’s education programme whilst here and were able to interact with the women through our interpreter, to share some of the experiences of Irish women and to learn a little about life for Zanzibar women. We were interested to see if the experience of Zanzibar women differed to that of mainland women in terms of violence. However those that we spoke to would say not.

Getting ready for a photo: Meeting with the Zanzibar Women's Education Programme

With all of the projects we visited there was singing and dancing on our arrival, so much so that we felt we should have a song that we sang back. We practiced a song that told the story of an Irish Queen, called Granuaile, who was also a sailor. The story went that at this time in Ireland, Brehon Law afforded women more rights then they later experienced under Imperial Law. So much so that they were able to select a husband, to divorce him if she chose and to take back her dowry for herself. This was translated to the group we were visiting and then we sang. I can imagine we sounded very different to Tanzanian songs but we were well received by all. Until we came to the Zanzibar Women’s Group who although managed to respond politely, could be later heard mimicking our high pitched rendition, followed by howls of laughter!! They thought we were hysterically funny it seems!!

On our return to Dar es Salam we met up with TGNP staff and visited with some of the projects and organizations they work with. We visited with the GOIG organization (Getting Older Is Growing) who had originally come together as a kind of active retired women’s group. They have now developed a training centre for early school leavers, weaving and cloth making, rug making as well as providing a playschool for young children. They sold their wares in a store within the school.

We visited many small business concerns, like the bakery that was operating out of the front room of a small house, the dried fish stall that was run by local women. We visited a house that in the front yard had a chalk board and some benches, which was a small school for local children and in the back yard there were four dairy cows and a clutch of hens. The woman of the house told us how her cows were producing well and she was able to make a profit on the sales.


A woman potter making stoves in Tanzania.

We had the chance whilst in Dar es Salam to meet with the Irish Ambassador and staff of the Irish Embassy. We had a very enjoyable lunch together and were able to reflect on our time in Tanzania. They were interested to hear our perspective of the work we observed whilst here. The Irish Embassy have a role in allocating Irish Aid funding to projects in Tanzania. One of the projects they were considering funding was Kivulini in Mwanza, and we were able to share with them our observations of the vital work Kivulini are involved in.

Reflecting on our experiences in Tanzania it struck me that the experience of many African women can be directly compared to that of an Irish woman in an abusive relationship, she has none of the power yet has all of the responsibility to bring about change. Some opinions and attitudes differed from our own but yet reflect more traditional attitudes that can still be found in parts of Irish society today. There are many in both Tanzania and in Ireland who think that it is the sole responsibility of women to change attitudes and to make their environment safe for themselves and their children. They fail to acknowledge the responsibility of society to support women, to challenge negative attitudes and behaviour towards women, for the judiciary to fully protect women in society and for legislation to reflect this, and for governments to ensure equality for all women. Without these changes, how can a woman in fear of her life, who has been given less importance in her own society, who has at times no way of protecting herself or her children, who’s physical, mental or sexual health may be compromised, how can she be solely responsible for changing the very society that lets her down.

We may look at the experience of African women and feel that we are far removed from that place but we need to ask ourselves just how far are we? Sadly we still have many women who find themselves marginalized in our society for reasons such as abuse, poverty, ethnicity or disability. These women experience violence, inequality, prejudice, isolation, being unsafe within her own home and her own community, not having access to adequate health care or housing, or appropriate education. We too have a long way to go for equality for all women. Our time in Tanzania compounded my belief that in order to right the inequalities that women experience both home and away, we cannot work in isolation. By becoming aware of the issues that some of us face, educating ourselves and each other on the issues and resources available, lobbying for change to policy and for extra resources, supporting those of us that need support, then we can develop a global community response to women's issues.