From 2004 until 2011 Tree of Hope organized major interventions around HIV/AIDS in the Anglican Diocese in Tanga. The success the Anglican Diocese recorded in taking up HIV/AIDS advocacy in its Ministry led to the Diocese, through Tree of Hope, taking the lead in an interfaith forum when the gendered impacts of HIV/AIDS were first broached. The interfaith forum brings together members of the major
religious groupings in Tanga region, one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Tanzania. During the implementation of HIV& AIDS Prevention Program, Tree of Hope gathered experience since 2004 to date that, there is little understanding of gender concepts, stereotypes and gender based violence among community members, and also low level of interventions addressing gender equality and gender equity, gender based violence which in one way or another contributes to the HIV infections. At this juncture, Tree of Hope came up with a gender program where it now implementing a project titled promoting activism against gender based violence among faith institution in Tanga. In this project, Tree of Hope Tree of Hope conducted a mapping exercise to identified potential stakeholders to take on board during project implementation, where 13 stakeholders were identified. This project provides a room for faith female leaders to attend training on gender based violence so as to become champions in pro gender agenda within their faith institutions. In total 120 women leaders have been trained. In gender based violence project, Tree of Hope provides education in gender based violence in schools, establish interfaith forums, train religious leaders, local government to improve their knowledge o gender issues and gender based violence. Other activities include conducting workshops, seminars, community dialogue, community mobilization meetings, TV and radio programs, networking with other stakeholders. Another identified gap was legal support program for victims/survivors of gender based violence, and people living with HIV (PLHIVs) Orphans & Vulnerable children, Most Vulnerable children, widows/widowers. In order to overcome this problem Tree of Hope came up with another project titled, Tanga gender initiative and legal support program where trained lawyer has been employed to provide free legal aid support, case processing and legal consultation in general for vulnerable groups. The Senior Legal Officer is assisted by another trained lawyer who works as a volunteer to the program. Tree of Hope also trained 30 trained paralegals that provide paralegals services in three districts of Tanga, Pangani and Mkinga. Being the emerging Civil Society Organization, ToH solicited funds through engendering change program funded by Oxfam Canada to build organization internal capacity, and also at program level. Tree of Hope works hand in hand with central and local government structures. Through this collaboration, Tree of Hope managed to review Tanga city Council gender policy which seemed to have missing links with the National Gender Policy of 2000, and the National Plan of Action of Eradicating gender based violence (2001 – 2015) a guiding document which has been developed by the Ministry community development gender and children. The activities were also un coordinated as a result Tree of Hope established a networking among different faith groups, NGOs, and local government authorities. Problem Statement
GBV is a reality in the lives of many Tanzanians. Most major research on GBV in Tanzania[i] indicates that disproportionately women and children suffer most from this human rights violation. The Law of Marriage Act of 1971 allows girls under 18 to get married under consent of their parents while the Sexual Offence Provisional Act of 1998, prohibit the girl under the age of 18 to be married. According to different case studies presented during the session, there is proof that sexual violence is rampant in Tanga region. The presented data showed that children are highly affected by the sexual violence incidences. It was learned that the perpetrators are close relatives, strangers
Project Description
This project will involve research work that will be conducted by the National Medical Research Institute, Tanga branch (NIMR) to measure the prevalence rate
thus try to lobby school authorities to take concrete action on GBV matters coming before schools as required by law and recommended practices. It will emphasize supporting school based interventions to translate key GBV provisions in law as well as response standards to become part of their institutional responses such as by developing respective code of conducts in handling such matters. This will, however, require that faith institutions first map the range of GBV matters coming before faith institutions and assessing the adequacy of existing GBV responses in faith institutions. The question the assessment will try to ascertain is the level of legal compliance of GBV response in place in faith institution. The assessment will provide the basis of developing and adopting response standards in faith institutions to respond to GBV. Once done it will be important to build the skills of religious functionaries in handling and disposing of GBV related matters before them so that the practice improves from what it is presently. This will entail orienting service providers and leadership of religious bodies in essentials of GBV laws and responses and periodic ally monitoring their practice to ensure that the handling GBV related issues in faith institutions is according to acceptable response standards. Certainly the absence of clear policies and standards in responding to GBV incidence in faith institutions has impacted the performance of faith institutions in handling GBV cases and survivors. Hopefully by urging faith institutions to adopt GBV guidelines there will be an obligation to act and respond to GBV incidence coming before them in line with accepted standard.
