“For a long time, water was a constant problem in our village, and we women definitely felt the impact,” explains 29-year-old Maria from Kingolwira, a small village in the mountainous region of eastern Tanzania. “Especially during the dry season we had to walk for eight hours to reach the river [in the Uluguru Mountains], which was contaminated. You could get diarrhea and a stomach ache if you drank it. Children were dying and there was a lot of conflict in our community, because everyone was … [Read more...]
Tanzanian women take matters into their own hands, pooling resources
January 17, 2013 by
“You need to join forces if you want to stand strong,” explains Batuli Massawe, a 46-year-old mushroom farmer who has become a respected entrepreneur due largely to training and solidarity lending in the community of Morogoro, 190 km west of Tanzania’s capital. In a country where agriculture provides the main source of livelihood for a large majority of the population — accounting for more than two-thirds of employment and almost half of Tanzania’s GDP — the the agricultural sector is … [Read more...]
