From Dublin to Dar es Salaam: Development Education in Action
by Niamh Farren

Member of a credit copperative in Lugoba Village, Mwanza.

A memorable two weeks in Tanzania offers a unique insight into another culture. Niamh Farren took part in an exchange organised earlier this year by Banúlacht : Women in Ireland for Global Solidarity.

From Dublin to Dar es Salaam
I arrive in Dar es Salaam Tanzania to a sunny September morning. I’m greeted by a collection of exotic and unrecognisable smells, an unfamiliar landscape and kaleidoscope of colours. It’s only dawn, and already the heat is stifling. The anticipation of entering my two week adventure in Tanzania and Zanzibar fills me with energy, despite minimal sleep on a long flight. Backpackers, and honeymooners spill out of the plane, to create memories of climbing Kilmanjaro, and spice tours in Zanzibar. Almost everyone on the plane is white.

This trip is the outcome of an incredible amount of preparation and planning. We are eight Irish women active in the community sector, all from different parts of the country and who have signed up for this experience. Over the past few months we’ve cautiously volunteered some personal information about ourselves, given that we’ll be living out of each other’s pockets for the next little while. We’ve devoured the Lonely Planet, taken a crash course in Swahili, and googled every unfamiliar place mentioned on our itinerary. Our bags are stuffed with products designed to protect our western skin from unfamiliar climates. Our two week itinerary is packed – from attending the Gender Festival organized by the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme, to a field trip to a rural housing project in rural Mwanza at the foot of Kilimanjaro, and onto experiencing Ramadan on the exotic island of Zanzibar.

Just off the plane in Dar es Salaam

Banúlacht, a feminist NGO based in Ireland organised an exchange between Irish women and women in Tanzania, with the aim of deepening the understanding between women in Ireland and women in the Global South. Over the past two years I’ve been a member of the Banúlacht Executive, and this exchange has constituted a key part of our workplan during that time. Banúlacht has cultivated a strong relationship with TGNP (the Tanzanian Gender Networking Programme), and invited both Mary Rusimbi and Gemma Akilamali to speak at conferences and meet with women’s groups all around Ireland.

Gemma Akilimali

The exchange is funded through the Development Education Unit of Development Co-operation Ireland, Trócaire and Concern, all of whom support the work of Banúlacht. In addition, each exchange participant was required to fundraise in order to get here – by packing bags at the local supermarket, organising table-quizzes - one woman even climbed Croagh Patrick barefoot to fund her contribution.

Banúlacht works in the context of development education by organising training and capacity building initiatives, and raising awareness about women’s human rights issues. Irish Aid defines development education as ‘an educational process aimed at increasing awareness and understanding of the rapidly changing, interdependent and unequal world in which we live. It seeks to engage people in analysis, reflection and action for local and global citizenship and participation. It is about supporting people in understanding, and in acting to transform the social, cultural, political and economic structures which affect their lives and others at personal, community, national and international levels'. This is the theory behind why I’m here. While my experience has given me some insight into the reality of women’s lives in Tanzania, my perceptions and attitudes are very much shaped by the images of Africa that haunt mainstream media. I’m wondering if being here in person will change that.

Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world following an economic crisis in the 1980s and has been identified as one of eight priority countries in Africa by Irish Aid, the Irish governmnents funding programme which targets ‘developing countries’. The statistics speak for themselves and make the case for aid – life expectancy averages 46 years; almost one third of adults living in rural areas have no formal education. Poverty is further exacerbated by a high incidence of HIV/ AIDS. In 2005 it was estimated that almost one and a half million people were living with HIV AIDs in Tanzania. But it’s not only through aid that Ireland and Tanzania are connected - the cultural ties run deeper, when you think that Nyerere, the African socialist who was president of Tanzania up until the mid eighties was educated by Catholic missionaries.

Lost in Culture
The Gender Festival hosted by TGNP is an event that happens every two years. We arrive the day before the beginning of the festival as the shady grounds surrounding the offices are converted into workshop spaces, exhibition stands and market stalls. The festival is a four day event which this year aims to explore the theme of ‘African Feminist Struggles in the context of Globalization’ – the first day providing some of the context, the second day identifying the key issues, the third day is about ‘putting patriarchy on trial’ and the fourth and final day examining the way forward. Workshops group participants together according to their interests – from education and information to gender based violence, women’s participation in politics and decision making. The participants may be speaking Swahili but the similarity of the issues is striking.

The event is a dizzying and vibrant display – from the colours of local kangas (traditional Tanzanian dress) to the fiery outbursts that follow the keynote address, the personal experiences that have been rehearsed and are now articulated with emotion to an audience of over one thousand. A roving mike and facilitator allows the opportunity for these very personal stories to be told. But this isn’t only about the serious business of gender and development; it’s also an opportunity for dancing, performing and celebration. From the provocative theatre piece ‘Putting Patriarchy on Trial’ to the alternative Miss Tanzania competition, this is an event which experiments with every creative option in order to engage everyone present. The other thing that surprises us is the visible presence and participation of men in the festival.

Drama Group at the Gender Festival

In terms of the issues facing women, we’re not just lost in translation, we’re lost in culture – the cultural framework here is so different, that it defies and challenges our own western analyses. In Mwanza we learn how older women in rural communities have recently become a target for violence. The type of cooking fuel used by the women often causes their eyes to go red by the time they reach 60 and in some cases these women are branded as witches. They now constitute an extremely vulnerable group in society. Local community initiatives have developed a new type of cooking stove which prevents the women from developing red eyes, and now what they really want to do is run an educational campaign on this issue in order to try and change people’s attitudes.

Working in Solidarity
Another challenge faced by community initiatives in the rural village of Lugoba involves dealing with the impact of HIV and AIDS on rural communities. A unique peer education model in operation there trains local people so that they can identify the symptoms of HIV/ AIDS and promote preventative measures, but also link those who are HIV positive into existing services in the area. Later that day I meet a teenage girl who is raising six children because her mother died of AIDS, which really brings reality home to me. It was an emotional few days for everyone in the group – the personal stories of abuse, poverty, and the level of violence experienced on a daily basis by women made for difficult listening. Obviously, these projects and initiatives are desperately in need of resources. But this is only one part of a more complex solution. Sometimes the expectations around what aid can achieve over a short space of time can be unrealistic. ‘Capacity Building and community development takes time’ says Ashililya Nyanda, Manager of Mwanza Rural Housing Scheme. Maimuna Kanyamala of the Kivulini women’s rights organisation also points out the need for research and statistics, which document the levels of violence experienced by women around the country, thereby making the case for additional resources or changes in legislation. The women we meet also encourage us to talk about what we have seen, and to raise awareness to the reality of women’s lives in Tanzania. Globalisation connects us all, and we have the opportunity, but also the responsibility to advocate in support of organisations like TGNP that are working in the face of huge challenges to advocate for women’s rights in Tanzania.

A Learning Experience
There’s not enough space to list all the things I’ve learned from being part of this exchange. Maybe not just what I’ve learned, but how I learned it. From the politics of aid, to my very basic greetings in Swahili; things I would never have learned about Tanzania in an academic environment. Although women in Tanzania experience difficulties, they believe they have come a long way. Within the credit co-operative in Lugoba, women occupy positions of power that they would never have years ago. Men are seen as partners in the struggle for gender equality, although the key decision-making roles within TGNP will always be occupied by women. Better access to education is giving women more choices. The individual and collective stories of women, setting up their own small enterprises, walking for miles to attend classes, gathering in community centres and making changes happen in their communities, despite huge obstacles, will continue to be an inspiration for those of us who were lucky enough to meet them. And that inspite of our differences, we have so much in common. Our final day in Tanzania included a meeting with the Irish ambassador to Tanzania and embassy staff who manage the Irish Aid programme. We talk to them about what we have seen, and raise the issues that the women have spoken of. It seems like a small thing, but a few days after our return we get an email from Maimuna telling us that the Embassy will be visiting Kivulini Women’s Rights group. Let’s hope that it goes well.

Niamh Farren represented NEAR fm on this recent exchange. She recorded interviews with the group with a view to producing a one hour radio programme documenting the experiences of the group. The programme received funding from the BCI (Broadcasting Commission of Ireland) under the Sound and Vision Broadcasting Funding Scheme. For more information on the exchange see www.banulacht.ie

Tanzanian Travels
by Sarah-Beth Watkins

Sarah Beth, second from the right, with, from left, Maeve Taylor (Banúlacht), Fatma Alloo (TAMWA) and Gemma Akilimali (TGNP), at the TGNP Gender Festival (see below).

Key issues for African women and actions for solidarity were shared with the eight women who travelled to Tanzania as part of a learning exchange organised by Banulacht. Following an intensive itinerary, the women met with the Tanzanian Gender Networking Programme, Kivulini Women’s Rights Organisation and other projects to discuss their programmes, share their experiences and be shown the reality of African women’s lives. The aim of the exchange was realised through meetings with women’s groups, economic empowerment projects and policy workers.

Travelling to the North of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar meant a hectic trip with 8 flights over 13 days but it truly gave an eye opening view of the struggles African women face, the society they are hoping to change and the transformation that has already begun through the hard work of the African feminist movement.

This year saw the 8th Gender Festival organised by TGNP and entitled ‘African Feminist Struggles in the Context of Globalisation’. The festival is a collective event for sharing skills, experience and capacity. It features plenary discussions, an African feminist night, workshops, presentation of case studies, artistic performances, celebration and networking. Sixteen workshops were held over 4 days to look at key issues, linked by the over-arching theme of gender. Discussions were held on bodily integrity, water rights, struggles over natural resources, HIV, gender based violence, corruption and much more. And the sessions ended with participants making demands of their government. Not the softer recommendations that we might offer but challenging demands and a call for immediate response and action. Petitions were signed and later presented to the respective ministers.

Demonstration by Gender Festival Participants

We had an idea of the poverty and struggles African women face but the Gender Festival also showed us their strength. It was the group’s first experience of being in Tanzania and meeting with women working for women’s empowerment. Mary Rushimbi of TGNP said, ‘We are not all victims. We are very good doers. Yes, there is trouble in Africa but there is also organising.’

The women are strong and they are vocal. I watched as women grabbed the microphones to tell the audience that rural women demand an education, that women must be involved in the national economy, that combating patriarchy is a must, that women will no longer sit by and watch large transnational companies destroy their environment through the pillaging of Tanzania’s own natural resources – the list goes on but what shocked us even more was that men too were making these demands.

A young man stood up and told the crowd that he believed women to be an important part of society and that patriarchy must end. He was followed by a male university teacher who added that women can also be patriarchal and oppressive of their own gender. Women present agreed and also spoke of men suffering from patriarchy.
This was gender being discussed in a way that those of us who work in women-only spaces found challenging. Men were as vocal here as women. Did this put women and their issues in the shade? Or was there more of a balance here than we had expected? Was gender equality really working? It took a visit to rural Mwanza for us to realise that women were still being oppressed and abused. The balance was still far from being equal.

We were incredibly lucky to make contact with Maimuna Kanyamala of Kivulini Women's Rights Organisation, who was studying at the Developmetn Studies Centre in Kimmage, Dublin. Maimuna facilitated a session on Tanzania culture during the first part of our orientation course, and then organised a programme for us in Mwanza, near Lake Victoria. The eight women from Ireland divided into pairs and spent a day with four different organisations in and around Mwanza. The following day the whole group, women from Ireland and the representatives of the Mwanza organisations participated in a reflection session facilitated by Maimuna.
Sarah Beth WAtkins with Maimuna Kanyamala

Kivulini Women’s Rights Organisation is based in Mwanza, in the North of Tanzania, on the banks of Lake Victoria. Kivulini’s vision is to have a community that is free from domestic violence and where women’s rights are respected and valued. Jo Lambe and myself spent two days with the Kivulini project finding out from the inside what life for women in Mwanza is really like.

It’s not a pretty story. High on a hill above the project sits the local hospital, recently bought out by an American company, and now charging such high health care fees that none of the women can afford it.
Women's Group in Mwanza

Kivulini tries to combat this lack of affordable care by teaching women about medicinal plants, showing them how to prepare aloe and neem oil for aids related skin conditions, to use basil tea for a tonic and to prepare artemesia to improve stomach function. Their work doesn’t stop there. They teach child domestic labourers the skill of sewing so that they can set up their own business. They operate a legal aid centre which deals with cases of rape and abuse. They support rural women’s projects and work endlessly to empower women to claim their human rights.

Take the Buyumbo group we visited in the Nyamadoke village. These are elderly women living in constant fear of being condemned as witches. Women who cook over charcoal stoves for most of their lives end up with red bloodshot eyes. Red eyes are seen as the sign of a witch. And witches are disposed of with machetes. Maimuna from the Kivulini project told us that one outreach group of 15 was reduced to 9 on her last visit, the women having ‘disappeared’. Yet these women welcome us with open arms and bright, happy smiles, showing us their tribal dances and laughing at our attempts to speak Swahili. The sense of community spirit is so strong and the spirit of being an African woman remains unbroken.
Buyumbo Women's Group

Kivulini aims to help in as many ways as it can. Just down the dirt track from these women is a project that produces candle lamp oil from the jatropha nut. This burns clearly and with minimal smoke, women who use it can avoid red eye. This oil might just save their lives. But Kivulini knows that there is more to change than just the physical requirements of Mwanza people. Women will still be called witches if perceptions of older women are not changed. Women’s awareness of themselves as second class citizens has to change but in a world where the raping of young girls and the killing of older women is common, marriage and the security of being protected by a male breadwinner helps to create the subordinate role and positioning of women. 56% of African women believe that their man has a right to beat them.

Kivulini see challenges ahead. They want to change the way women think of themselves as lesser people. They are challenging the effects of globalisation, in particular foreign investment, displacement and access to water. Young girls are suffering from early pregnancies and can no longer avail of education. Kivulini wants to change this and believes that there should be free education at primary and secondary level. They aim to make that a reality. Extracting oil from beans to make soap: income generating project run by Kivulini<

This project showed us both the horrors and the happiness of women’s life in rural Tanzania. The women and their projects are fighting for change. We questioned what we could do to help. Was it about buying shoes for bare footed children? Should our own organisations donate something? Our immediate reaction was the quick fix but women in Africa don’t need sticking plasters, they need long-term solutions. Gemma, from TGNP, summed up that, ‘International policies are affecting us negatively. We look at you, our Northern sisters, to support us with your critical voice’.


Meeting the Ambassador

Banúlacht Exchange Group with the Irish Ambassador to Tanzania, Anne Barrington, centre, and Irish Aid personnel, Lucy Merere, and William Carlos.

The new ambassador of the Irish Embassy in Tanzania, Anne Barrington, invited us to a lunch to discuss our trip to Tanzania and give us the opportunity to feedback on the projects we had seen. We used the time to link what we had seen to the need for long term funding for projects, to underline the need for a firm response to gender based violence and to impress upon the ambassador the situation of women in the north of the country and in more rural areas.

“Passage (East) to Tanzania”
By Breda Murphy


My experience of Tanzania
Breda at the office of Femina, a youth organisation in Dar es SalaamBackground and context

My name is Breda Murphy and I am the Coordinator of the Waterford Women’s Centre (ACCESS 2000). I have been involved in women’s development in Waterford for over twenty years. My first introduction into women’s development was as founder member of the Passage East Women’s group, the village I come from in county Waterford. Little did I realise then that this work would take me all the way to Tanzania.

First impressions
I had never been to Africa before and my first impression was that it did not resemble anything I had previously seen. We landed in Dar es Salaam, with a population of 4 million, where the overcrowding, poverty and poor infrastructure is clearly visible. The country is also so bright, beautiful and colourful with its red clay and blue skies and sea. The smell of sweet wood burning outside mixed with petrol fumes from the constant traffic made for a heady combination. The ordinary sights are so amazing that with each step a new picture emerged, which is why we took almost 2,000 photos between eight of us. The numerous street sellers lined the roads selling such items as: fish, fresh coconuts, cashew nuts etc., along with women carrying a variety of containers on their heads combined to make many amazing sights.

Street scene in Dar Es Salaam

I feel I gained personally form the exchange
I feel that the exchange gave me a global perspective on my work with women. It put the work with women in Ireland into perspective and showed me how manageable it is and how possible it is to make an impact. The work in Tanzania however, is so vast, the issues so enormous that when you see the projects we visited and the impact they can expect to have you realise that it is only a drop in the ocean in relation to the needs. The exchange renewed my vision for women’s development and highlighted the attitudes and prejudices that are not so visible in modern Ireland but still there alive and well once we scrape the surface. I particularly valued the opportunity to meet with women’s group in Dar es Salaam, Mwanza and Zanzibar. The meetings confirmed what I know to be true of women: how well we work together, the work we do for others for the good of all despite all the obstacles and barriers in our way. It renewed my respect for women.

Women from the Kinondoni Women's Network, Dar Es Salaam

The exchange has benefited my work by broadening my understanding of women’s liberation and seeing it as a global issue and helped me realise how close the global and local are. I can see the importance of the work on the ground with women in order to bring about social change and alleviate poverty.

While I feel I learned a great deal from the exchange, there was not enough time to present our own work in a way that was worthwhile or useful. This was due to number of groups that we met and the short time frame. I feel that the work which has been developed by the Women’s Centre over the past 13 years could very easily transfer to the Tanzanian situation. It is perhaps something that could be continued through exchange of materials with the projects we met.

Highlight of the trip
There were many highlights of the trip from beginning to end. The first meeting was with the Tanzanian Gender Network Programme. This organisation was in the process organising a four day conference for 1,000 people when we first arrived. This did not however stop the whole organisation from being both welcoming and delighted with our arrival. Before the conference we visited Femina an organisation that works through the media with young people to raise awareness and educate young people on issues like HIV AIDS through the publication of magazines and radio and TV shows. We then spent two days at the FEMACT/TGNP Gender Festival which had over 1,000 people attend. The theme of Festival was: Gender, Democracy and Development: African Feminist Struggles in the Context of Globalization.

We then flew to Mwanza on Lake Victoria via Kilimanjaro and met with with Maimuna Kanyamala from Kivulini Women's Rights Organisation, who organised for us to visit different organisations in pairs around Mwanza.

Cooks at the Kivulini Kitchen, Mwanza

Sarah Oates and I visited the TAHEA (Tanzania Home Economics Association) with its coordinator Mary Kabati. This association is a Non-Governmental organisation set up in 1980, with a primary goal to improve the quality of life for families in Tanzania particularly women. The work the association is involved in is as follows;

• Education and Training for Capacity Building and Human Resource Development
• Water care and rural health development
• Research and needs assessment
• Sustainable development of natural resources
• Family poverty alleviation and economic empowerment
• Professional and support advisory services
• Food and Nutrition Health and Disease
• Capacity building of local communities and women in particular



The project supports local growers to grow sweet potatoes and produce flour from it to sell. They also provide small loans for women to start enterprises themselves. Part of the work that TAHEA does is to support early childhood education through the building of pre schools and through the retraining of pre school teachers. Because it is not mandatory to sent children to school until seven, many children are left to mind younger children up to the age of seven while the mothers go to work in the fields. We visited one school in a rural village that had just been built by the community.

Once the school is built, the government will supply a teacher. The local communities had built all this school including making the red bricks. The only assistance they got was some money for cement. The aim of the project is to encourage young children to attend Pre School by making it look attractive through having outdoor play equipment that would be visible. Through discussion with Mary, who showed us around, the vision for the playschools and the understanding of early childhood education was very inspiring. She described the re-training that teachers would participate in which would facilitate the childs development through play and provide opportunities to learn through creativity and play.

In addition to these projects this organisation also brings HIV Aids and health care information to groups in the most rural areas of Mwanza. We spoke at some length of the benefits of women-only groups. Mary acknowledged that the women in the villages spoke little at the meetings and it was mainly the men who voiced opinions and asked questions. She said that the women would speak after the meeting when the men had left because the women were conditioned not to speak in front of men. She said she would try out women-only groups and identified the need for women’s leadership programmes in the local villages. She told us of the practice of polygamy being still strong in that area and spoke of the negative impact of these living arrangements on women. The enormity of the work that this project aims to do with such limited resources and personnel is inspiring.

The power of women’s collective organising
The highlight of the exchange for me was meeting so many women’s groups and their hospitality to us. All the projects we visited deliver programmes for women on the development of small enterprises to alleviate the abject poverty that exists. The main issues visible for women were: poverty, reproductive health care, violence against women and HIV/AIDS. While all of these basic needs must be met there is also the visible need for rural village women who live in poverty to come together at another level and develop women’s leadership at a local level in order to have their voices heard. While there are many local and regional structures in existence, it was not clear how active rural women are at participating within these structures. From the stories we were told, there is a hefty tradition of male dominance and obvious class divisions in the African culture which makes it difficult for some women to lead without interventions. It is most important that the work on the ground is supported to enable these women to have a voice.

While the basic framework is already in existence and a willingness, and excitement in women to engage in development work, there are few resources and they must go were they are needed to concentrate on basic survival. I think the projects we visited are ripe for collective learning and community education.

It was so impressive to see women come together so easily. African culture supports this coming together of women and is easily seen the way lives are organised communally around such activities as cooking, washing and childminding. Women work together naturally. Women’s conditioning both in Ireland and in Tanzania allows for us being together and enjoying each others company. As women we are conditioned to ensure that everything around us works well. This skill alone is the essence of good leadership.

Mary Robinson when speaking to the Global Forum of Women said;

“Through their community sense, women may well be establishing a new kind of leadership; one that does away with the traditional relationship between the individual and the group, one that is enabling and empowering of the individual and the group. When women lead, when they contribute and articulate their purpose in a society, it seems to me increasingly that the individual women and the community of women work together in a fresh and radical way. This method of dialogue and co-operation blurs the old distinctions and heals the old divisions”.

When we talk about collective action in relation to women who are we taking about? Some women? Women who can read? Women who have transport? Women who are educated? Women who have money? Or are we talking about all women working collectively. If this is the case the task is great and needs a multi pronged approach. It appears that an important part of the work we do is sometimes missing because it is assumed we speak for all women. Our task as women activists in the 21st century is no longer to assume but to facilitate and support those women who are excluded to remove the barriers they face when aiming to have their voices heard.

“When sleeping women awake mountains will move”

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.

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.