Gongo Mamas

Myquest Tanzania is being developed during eight years thanks to Wheeling2help in collaboration with Saving Africa’s Nature in Gongo’s Village for helping to the African local people to improve their quality life.

One of the projects on which Wheeling2help is focused is women empowerment. Beside SANA’s help, our volunteers help Gongo Mamas to create their crafts at the same time that both sides learn how to improve their skills on handmade works.

The question is: why we collaborate on Gongo Mamas development?

The women social exclusion in Tanzania still already being present. This exclusion is especially pronounced in rural communities, where women’s traditional roles play a significant meaning. Since years ago, women role consists in taking care of the children and their families, as seem as they are the responsible of the house tasks (water and fuel collection, for example).

These type of tasks don’t allow them to get out of the poverty, because they require lots of time, so they can’t get into other actions for winning their own money, as seem as they can’t rich their own independence.

Why Gongo Mamas was created

To address these gender disparities and empower women in Gongo and Matipwili, a cooperative for women empowerment and development, known as Gongo Mamas, was established. This cooperative aims to promote gender equality and develop projects that empower women while supporting gender-equitable rights in the region.

The project will address SDG number 5, which aims at empowering women and girls achieve equal rights and opportunities, and be able to live free of violence and discrimination. Their objectives consist in providing awareness on women inclusion and gender rights, strengthening girl and women voice and participation in their communities, and promoting and empowering women through Entrepeneurship and Microfinance skills.

What we do

In order to reach these goals, SANA and Wheeling2help, promote Community Awareness Building and Information Sharing related to gender rights and women inclusion, teach them skills on financial literacy and tools to help women on their business grown process; and help them on the handmade baskets for selling them in sustainable local markets.

Africanism Collection, founded by Dora, the co-founder of Wheeling2help, has established a partnership with Gongo Mamas, providing trainings together with Wheeling2help volunteers, as well as providing the necessary resources to create new products, buy them in a fair price for the Mamas and export them in foreign markets, like Greece.

The impact of these actions has been realized on an improved community of women rights and gender equality, being six member of Gongo Mamas officially elected at the Gongo village Administration. Also, the Vibrant Batik group was recently awarded a 10,000,000 Tsh grant to scale up their business.

In our days

Nowadays, the group faces equipment challenges that hinder the scaling of their batik making business, and also the group heavily relies on the tourist market, making them vulnerable during events like the COVID-19 pandemic when product demand is limited.

The equality is being reached in this community, but still needs a lot of help to fight the roles established in these villages in which mamas still being in; and that’s why we are still helping them to develop their skills in order to improve their quality life.