Posted on August, 25, 2021 at 09:19 am
Dar es Salaam. 20-year old Joyce Zephania was abandoned after falling pregnant, but she now has a reason to smile after she was enrolled in a project that might see her gaining financial freedom.
Agro-ecology inspires adolescent girls and female youth to shape their stories and helping them take their future into their own hands; standing up for their rights and speaking up for them; as well as advocating change of the social, political, and economic systems that impede access to girl’s rights.
It targets to contribute to the development of sustainable agriculture, ensuring at the same time preservation of biodiversity and an inclusive economic growth of smallholder farmers.
Ms Zephania, a resident of Kongwa District in Dodoma Region, is among vulnerable girls facing numerous hurdles. It was thanks to Agro-ecology that she received some vocational training that has empowered her and other young women to realise financial freedom in the regions of Dodoma and Tabora.
Through the Msichana Initiative, under the title “Girls Empowerment in Agroecology and Permaculture (Gape),” more than 2,000 girls are supported.
The project identifies girls aged between 18 and 24 and through their local governments they are helped to lease land and are set in groups to grow paddy, sunflower, cotton, maize and vegetables.
“I had lost all hope of a bright future. Here I am a young girl abandoned with pregnancy, but after undergoing training and starting our own farm with assured markets, there is hope for me and my child,” she said.
Asha Emmanuel, 24, and Joyce Kinizwa, 22, from Kiniziwa Village in Nzega District are among the other beneficiaries of the project.
Violence against women and girls is one of the most prevalent human rights violations in the world. It knows no social, economic or national boundaries. Worldwide, an estimated one in three women will experience physical or sexual abuse in her lifetime.
Gender-based violence (GBV) undermines the health, dignity, security and autonomy of its victims, yet it remains shrouded in a culture of silence. Victims of violence can suffer sexual and reproductive health consequences, including forced and unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, traumatic fistula, sexually transmitted infections and HIV, and even death.
Speaking about the project, Msichana Initiative executive director Rebeca Gyumi said the Gape project aims to empower girls to understand and claim their rights while empowering them economically as a way to increase their power of voice.
The purpose of the project is to contribute to the elimination of sexual and gender-based violence in Tanzania while contributing to the development of economically and environmentally sustainable agriculture.
These are two very distinct ends that the project brings together by offering young girls in vulnerable situations professional training in agro-ecology, to which socio-psychological support and awareness of their rights is integrated.
It aims to empower 2,000 vulnerable girls in the Dodoma and Tabora regions through a dual intervention that provides both psychological and social support and training in agro-ecology to integrate into the labor market by creating micro or small businesses.
They include agro-ecological training where young girls realize their potential and create micro or small businesses around agro-ecology and psychological and social support where girls dare to speak and become actors in changing attitudes and attitudes in their communities.
Msichana Initiative (MI) is also working with the government to implement the National Plan of Action against Violence against Women and Children, notably by supporting the setting up of inter-ministerial committees for the protection of women and children at regional and departmental levels.
“We came up with the project after there being a trend of more cases of sexual and gender-based violence through girls in the communities we work with, but many girls lack the power to make decisions due to economic dependence and unequal power relations in our society,” said Ms Gyumi.
According to her, their target among the 1,000 girls they were able to reach, they will also be able to identify out-of-school girls and especially those who have experienced violence or are young mothers.
“We will encourage them to be in groups and show leadership in bringing about change in their communities, especially those related to girls’ rights,” she said.
The beneficiary groups include victims of sexual and gender-based violence (20 percent), girls out of school (40 percent), young mothers (30 percent), girls with special needs (including disability, 5 percent), and men aged 15 to 35 (5 percent).
According to reports, sexual and gender based violence is a daily reality for a large part of Tanzanian women and girls.
In Tanzania, GBV is widespread; the most recent Tanzania and Demographic Health Survey (TDHS) found that 44 percent of ever- married women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime.
A project funded in 2017-2018 aimed to enhance access to justice for victims of sexual and gender-based violence and to sensitize parliamentarians on the need to amend the Marriage Act, which allows at the moment the marriage of young girls from the age of 14 (Project DEFI - FSPI 2017-19).
However, many studies in recent years show that for the fight against gender violence, to be effective, it must be accompanied by the economic empowerment of women, without which women face a process of victimization.
In Tanzania, more than 14 million people (26 percent of the population) live below the poverty line and 60 percent of the female population lives in extreme poverty. In addition, subsistence agriculture alone accounts for 80 percent of women’s jobs.
While agriculture still provides nearly 77 percent of jobs in the country, the sector supplies only 25 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). At the same time, a majority of women are in the economic sector of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) where excellence can be achieved, provided they have access to financial support and reinforcement of capacities to professionalize and develop their activities.
The impact of economic empowerment projects on women through agroecology (“Preserving biodiversity and supporting small farmers for agro-ecological transition): the training of women’s groups in agro-ecological practices and their support in the development of micro-enterprises create substantial leverages to support their empowerment.
The project to support girls in vulnerable situations through a holistic approach that includes both personal and social emancipation and economic empowerment includes building the confidence of girls and their ability to stand up for their rights.
Source: The Citizen