Pamoja Tunaweza - Together We Can

Our Programs

Pamoja Tunaweza Women’s Center opened for clients in the beginning of June 2007. This became a reality through the initiative of Prevention Through Empowerment (a Project of Canada-Africa Community Health Alliance) and our Tanzanian partnership organization Kilimanjaro Women Information Exchange and Consultancy Organization-KWIECO). Our vision is to support marginalized women in the Kilimanjaro region who suffer from poverty, gender based violence and, who may be infected with or affected by the impact of HIV/AIDS. Historically, society in the Kilimanjaro region of north-eastern Tanzania has been dominated by a culture of patriarchy. This is visible in the society in different ways where women are not treated equally.

Pamoja Tunaweza Women´s Center is trying to approach the issue in ways that are not very common in this region and Tanzania overall. We are running a center for women were we are offer a wide range of support, and consider each client as unique and support them depending on their specific needs.

Since our opening we have been able to network with different NGO's and government institutions in the region to be able to assess the most marginalized and needy women. We are working with different categories to identify clients and their need of support. Depending on our clients needs we are able to provide them with temporary shelter, individual and group counseling, information on various aspects such as HIV/AIDS and business education. We also want to empower women through understanding their bodies and health.

Our Women's Health Clinic

We have opened a small, yet functional licensed health clinic on site that is staffed by a clinical officer named Peninah Moraa. Through this clinic, our clients receive free basic health care and medicine for them and their children. They can participate in health teaching on general health, women’s health and sexual health. We aim to help them negotiate safer sexual encounters and prevent HIV infection if they are not yet infected. We provide care for those who are already infected and offer safe and compassionate HIV testing and counseling in the center.

Our experience is that more women are willing to be tested when they are among peers in a safe, women-centered environment. We will encourage them to impart their knowledge to their own daughters and teach respect of women to their sons. Our overarching goal is to give each of our women the possibility of starting a new sustainable life and to be self dependent.

Our latest program

In April 2008 we launched this program which involved a 12 week business training and entrepreneurship program of 12 of our clients who were struggling with maintaining a sustainable income for food security and school fees for their children or orphaned grandchildren. The women met three mornings per week for 12 weeks and learned from successful business people about key concepts in establishing a business and keeping it running. They learned about how to make a business loan work best for them so that their efforts would have the best chance of success. The women formulated business plans (some who are illiterate developed and presented their plans verbally). All managed to acquire a loan to start their businesses at the end of the training. All of these women are in the process of payinghteir loans back (weekly or bi-weekly) to the center. These loan repayments ar eused to lend money to other women who have gone through subsequent programs. We now hold the programs every 4 months with 12-14 women in attendance.

Our success may appear small and our client's businesses may seem unsophisticated to you but these are true stories of success. These women now have ongoing peer support at the center. Some have accessed a second loan to expand their businesses. Many of them have resolved issues of food security and also report that they are finding it easier to keep their children in school.

The loans our women receive are the equivalent of $50 to $150 CDN. If you want to sponsor a woman and her business idea then please go to 'donate' and instructions are there to tell you how to do this. For descriptions of some of the client situations and business projects click on 'Stories in Success'.