Tanga NGO to promote gender equality

GENDER discrimination will now be a thing of the past in Tanga Region after the establishment of a non-governmental organisation, Tanga Women Development Initiative (TAWODE) to address issues which hinder the development of women in the region.

TAWODE has directed itself in addressing several critical issues facing women including gender discrimination with the inspired vision of “a society where women and children in Tanga Region live to their full potential and their rights are respected and promoted”.

The organisation which is chaired by the Deputy Minister for Community Development, Gender and Children, Ms Ummy Mwalimu was inaugurated on Friday by Tanga Regional Commissioner, Ms Chiku Gallawa in a colourful ceremony held at Mkwakwani stadium.

Briefing the gathering which drew together almost all prominent women in the region, Ms mwalimu said that TAWODE aimed at improving the lives of women and advocacy for education, development for girls in the five districts where the project would be implemented.

She mentioned the districts as Tanga Urban, Mkinga, Pangani, Muheza and Korogwe. “Women have been facing many challenges which are to be addressed, they are deprived of their rights like land ownership and as of girls many of them don’t get access to higher education as they drop out of school at lower levels of education due to pregnancies and early marriage.

We must change that,” she said. She further said that TAOWDE aims at seeing women overcoming challenges by empowering them with education and a spirit of self-confidence so that they could do better and participate fully in economic development activities in the region.

She added, “we have a mission which is to improve the socio-economic status of women and children in the communities of Tanga Region and to advocate for gender equality and social transformation in the region and beyond.

As we focus on both vision and mission statement at the end of the day such challenges will be gone and women get the required development.”

Speaking during the occasion, Ms Gallawa said that women should regard themselves as potential for socio-economic development, thus urged them to be self-confident in whatever they do in order to get the best results.

She said inferiority complex was an enemy for women’s welfare and therefore women should be incapacitated to do away with such a mindset so that they could perform better even than men in academics and at workplace.