From Tuam to Tanzania
by Sarah Oates

I travelled to Tanzania in September as part of the Banúlacht exchange.

The exchange aimed to:
• to provide a space for women in Ireland and women in Tanzania to engage in exchange and learning, whilst developing strategies for working in solidarity
• to raise awareness of gender and development issues and look at how women in Ireland can work in solidarity with women in the South to promote the fulfilment of human rights commitments
• to provide an opportunity to gain an understanding of development contexts in Tanzania, with a particular focus on the position and condition of women, and the diverse roles of women’s organisations

Sarah with Mary Kabati of Tanzania Home Economics Association.

Over the weeks, we talked to women’s organisations in Tanzania and Zanzibar about the issues facing women in Ireland and Tanzania including health, domestic violence, interculturalism, women in poverty and community education.

We also attended two days of the Gender Festival in Dar es Salaam, with over 1,000 women from all over Africa and from Europe and America. The theme of the Gender Festival was ‘Gender, Democracy and Development: African Feminist Struggles in the Context of Globalization’. The Festival was organised by TGNP (Tanzanian Gender Networking Programme) and FemAct. TGNP's vision is the realisation of a transformed Tanzanian society with gender equality and equity; equal opportunities; access to and control over resources for all citizens. The organisation works through activism, lobbying and advocacy; training and capacity building; networking and action oriented research. It aims to raise public awareness and influence government policy on issues concerning gender, economics and budgeting, macro economic reforms, as well as women's land rights, HIV/AIDS, sexual violence against women/girls and food security.

Sarah with Lynne Muthoni Wanyeki, Director of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission, who was keynote speaker at the Gender Festival

The Irish Ambassador and three of the Embassy staff met with us on the last day to get some feedback from our experiences. They are very aware that gender is not a factor in providing aid to African countries and they seem anxious to develop links with groups that will help to promote change in this area.

As a group we worked very well together and rose admirably to the challenges including the heat, the mosquitos, early morning flights, Tanzanian time-keeping etc. It was also very important to have the group’s back up and support especially after some the visits to the poorer areas and groups who are working with HIV/AIDS.
Many of the groups we met were of mixed religious beliefs and some of them provided food for us. This was during Ramadan when Muslims are not permitted to eat between sunrise and sunset. Even though they couldn’t eat the Muslim women sat with us while we ate. I was amazed to see Muslim women and Christian women working together so well even though their differences were so obvious.

Everywhere we visited we saw extreme poverty, lack of adequate basic needs and very poor infrastructure but we also saw women creating change and a great will to work together regardless of class, wealth or religion.

Rural Mwanza

Banúlacht is organising a photo exhibition as a follow up to our trip. To complete the exchange, four women from Tanzania will travel to Ireland next year. They will attend a human rights workshop with Irish women and spend one week with organisations/groups which are of interest to them.