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TAWIDO Success Story

By WFT

25 February 2023

TAWIDO is an NGO based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania that operates a call center providing counselling, referral, and health information services for GBV survivors and families, HIV/AIDS patients, and other marginalized groups. TAWIDO also provides support for women’s economic emancipation by fostering links between economically disadvantaged women and dedicated economic empowerment groups.

They have a toll-free hotline through which any person receives clear messaging and guidance on reporting GBV and testing for HIV thus promoting health-seeking behaviors especially around HIV. Calls received cover a wide range of issues including inheritance,

From December 2020 to Mid-2021, TAWIDO’s call center has received 577 GBV cases of which 566 are closed or resolved. Resolution could mean that a teenager has been saved from being married off, or a sexual violence case has been processed in court and a perpetrator been jailed. TAWIDO’s Call Centre that now boasts 3 operators had humble beginnings in 2016 with only a landline and everything written by hand. Currently, all information is capture online: the case registers include the location from which the call is made, the relationship between the client (survivor of abuse) and the caller, brief case narration, whether the call needs referral (in the case that the subject is not covered by TAWIDO e.g., STI information) or whether the caller needs to be linked with another organization.

TAWIDO prides itself on reaching people who were previously not able to report and is able to achieve this through a two-pronged approach: Peers go into communities to create demand by sharing their personal stories and give education on sexual and reproductive health and rights.

They follow the Social and Behavior Change Communication model which promotes changes in knowledge, attitudes, norms, beliefs and behaviors following the strategic use of communication approaches at the different levels of influence.

Miss Rosemary Michael, a board member with 3 years of experience in peer education commented, “people are becoming more self-aware, they understand what GBV is; they test themselves and seek access to healthcare services”.

When speaking on challenges faced, peer educators responded that the lack of cooperation from GBV victims themselves or family members create roadblocks in justice being served.

TAWIDO prides itself on focusing on special groups who are afraid to attend health centers for fear of being judged.

TAWIDO’s peer educators successfully collaborates with key stakeholders including Social Welfare Officers, Regional Police Commissioners, lawyers, paralegals, gender desks, Officer Commanding Stations, and Officer Commanding Districts.

MSICHANA Initiative- inter-generational MSICHANA Initiative is a young women and youth led organization, working to advance gender equality through advocating for girls’ right to education, as a result, contributing in creating a society where rights of girls are safeguarded, and girls enjoy the recognition, dignity and excel to their fullest potential. We employ feminist approaches and principles in implementing core agenda of economic empowerment, inspiring activism and SRHR to inspire adolescent girls and female youth to shape their stories, build their agency and determine their own future. Msichana Initiative works with girls and young women directly, communities and the government in the advocacy for gender-sensitive legal frameworks as well as engaging with broader national and local women movements in catalyzing and sustaining feminist movement in Tanzania and beyond.

Msichana with support from Women Fund Trust is conducting the ENHANCING WOMEN AND GIRLS’ RIGHTS MOVEMENT THROUGH ENDING CHILD MARRIAGES EFFORTS IN TANZANIA project. The project aims to build strategic alliance within and across girls and women’s right spaces in designing and implementation of ending child marriage strategies. Moreover, to enhance collective advocacy amongst national and grassroot women and girls to demand the government through the parliament to table the Bill for the amendment of section 13 and 17 of the Law of Marriage Act, 1971 which allows the girl child to be married before the age of maturity i.e18 years. The project also intends to promote intergenerational linkages and learning between veteran women rights activists and emerging young feminists, on advocacy for gender sensitive legal frameworks and gender equality. To bring young women leaders together through the child marriage agenda, inspire activism amongst them and influence young women to advocate and carry forward their agenda.

Overall goal of the project is to build strategic alliance within and across girls and women’s right spaces in designing and implementation of ending child marriage strategies.

Through this project funded by WFT-Trust, MSICHANA Initiative supported 80 women and girls on women rights, movement building and enhanced capacity on the Model bill and have gained common understanding of the agenda. 10 empowered movement representatives were immersed into actual ground situation, known the actual magnitude (cause-effect) of child marriage in Loliondo (Masai communities) and now have become champions in advocating for ending of child marriages in Masai communities. (Narrative Report 2022)

On 24thOf January 2022, Msichana Initiative conducted stakeholders meeting which brought together women and girls’ rights representatives across the five regions in Tanzania (Arusha, Tabora, Shinyanga, Dodoma and Dar es salaam) to understand the proposed model bill for the amendment of the Law of Marriage Act, 1979 Bill so they will be able to internalize the demands and use their different platforms to advocate for the change and campaign for the amendment of the law.

DOOR OF HOPE: Success story of Door of Hope Advocacy campaign towards transforming lives of survivors of sextortion at workplace in Mtwara (example of mainstreaming funding into human rights realm- he introduced the agenda of sextortion and has used funding to influence human rights sector).

Door of Hope to Women and Youth Tanzania (DHWYT), popularly known as the DOOR OF HOPE received a grant of TZS 15 million from WFT-Trust to implement a grassroots focused awareness and educational campaign titled DOOR OF HOPE CAMPAIGN BRINGS HOPE TO WOMEN AND GIRLS AT THE WORKPLACE. The campaign was kick-started as part of the 2018 commemoration of 16 Days of Activism in Mtwara and is an initiative that continues to-date with great outcomes. To achieve this DHWYT employed several strategic interventions for an impactful and successful implementation of the project. It engaged key holders in knowledge sharing and gender senstive dialogues, which has resulted in these issues being perceived differently. School Clubs and Youth Platforms have been instrumental in grounding the fight against sexual corruption issues in young women in Mtwara district as well as empower them to advocate for themselves. Similarly, through increased collaboration and engagement with government officials and departments (duty bearers) such as PCCB, Police officials, and others at the community level, Door of Hope has managed to influence transformative changes in duty bearers. They are now ready and committed to engage in different capacities in the campaign to eradicate GBV, sextortion against women and girls in Mtwara District and beyond. WFT’ s grant enabled Door of Hope to successfully manage the roll-out of the national Anti-Sextortion campaign to communities and public institutions in Mtwara District- it did not only ground the movement locally but gained transformative result in government offices and the corporations.