Christ’s Daughters Foundation is a non-profit organization established in June
2007, with a vision and a mission to ensure that women and girls in Tanzania live a dignified life in a society that empowers, protects and promotes their rights.
This goal is enriched by the motto of the organization “Restoring Hope to Women and Girls”, in this abides the spirit and passion of Christ’s Daughters Foundation members, staff and supporters.
The vision of Christ’ Daughters Foundation is an empowered community of women who access their rights for integral development.
The mission is to improve and empower vulnerable and marginalized women and girls by protecting them, promote and protect their rights, advance their leadership and economic skills, and broaden their livelihood options. more assertive of their rights and conditions.
The foundation works to see that there is a change in communities’ attitudes towards marginalized, vulnerable and undeserved groups of women and girls, and that women and girls themselves are more assertive of their rights and conditions.
The leadership of Christ’s Daughters Foundation consists of a board of Directors which has six members (4 women and 2 males) and a management committee which oversees the daily running of the foundation. The management committee is lead by a director who is assisted by an executive secretary, the finance and administration officer, the monitoring and evaluation cm advocacy officer and other supportive staff. All members of the management team are women except for the monitoring and evaluation cm advocacy officer and the driver. Most of the works of Christ’s Daughters are conducted by volunteers and part time employees.
Currently Christ’s Daughters Foundation is engaged in two programs. The first program involves provision of Sexual and reproductive health education, care and supportive services to vulnerable girls, girls who dropped out of school for different reasons and women engaged in commercial s*x.
The provision of care and supportive services is done through counseling of vulnerable women and girls commercial s*x workers both at Christ’s Daughters offices and by use of mobile counselors who visit them at night and in their work site. This program has developed a referral and continuous system of support in which vulnerable girls and women at risk do receive s*xual and reproductive health care and services at hospitals, health centers and psycho-social support (pastoral care) at different church centers.
They also engage in recreational and creative activities before being repatriated to their upcountry homes or re-settled back into communities of their choice as competent and dignified productive citizens. The program has currently registered 20 girls who are aged between 12 and 19 years. Three of these girls have children of 11 to 24 months, both living at the shelter house.
The organization is still in its rudimentary stage despite the prolonged dates of establishment. Some of the challenges it is facing now include;
The designated training for women and girls especially in entrepreneurship and economic development skills need an area for practical and hands on tool training such as land and green houses. The organization has still limited resources to secure land and materials for such important training.
Girls living at the shelter and being formed and trained in different skills stay at the shelter as a boarding house. This is a prerequisite requirement by the government for establishment of such programs. However the daily girls’ needs according to their lives and government standards escalates organization costs so much so that it can only enroll very few girls at a time while the needy are many.
There is still stigma and discrimination from communities living around the girls’ shelter which at times lead to vandalistic acts which aim at demoralizing program activities and Christ’s Daughters efforts in supporting vulnerable women and girls.
i) Future and immediate plans for the foundation include working with girls’ domestic workers who have been transported from outside Mwanza and entered the city with disguised hope of finding jobs and being taken to schools and colleges. This program will work to protect their rights as domestic workers and improve their employment contracts and working conditions. It will work with the labor department and the trade union responsible for domestic.
ii) Widows’ inheritance and widows cleansing practices which is at rampart in the Lake Zone area is another intervention which comes high in the foundations future programs and agenda. Women and girls will be taught about their rights to choose life partner as long as it doesn’t contradict the law of the land. Saying no to customs that oppresses women and girls.
iii) The program is seriously looking into the opportunity of a program for educating girls in secondary education through existing special programs and Non-formal systems of education girls who left school for different reasons.
iv) Establish a farm whereby girls will be taught farming skills and crops production. The farm will also become a source of income for the foundation to insure sustainability of the programs.
v. Establish vocation training school that will award certificates for the girls who complete various trainings and skills. This will enable women and girls to get employment.
