This week I had the privilege of speaking with Ms. Hidaya Salum. She is a WAGE
program participant and her story is truly inspiring. With that being said, it is my pleasure to introduce you all to her.
An Awakening in Mburahati
“Our group is called Amkeni” Hidaya proudly states.
Amkeni is Swahili for "Awakening" and -judging from the revival this group has sparked in the lives of women like Hidaya Salum- the name could not be more apt.
Like many women in the Mburahati ward, Ms. Salum was born and raised there. At the age of 46, she has been married, divorced, re-married, and bore six children all within the bounds of this one ward. While Hidaya has always been a financial contributor to her family, it was not until recently, when she joined CARE’s Village Savings and Loan program, that Hidaya began to truly change her family’s quality of life.
Last year, Hidaya and 22 other women from her community came together to form Amkeni. Hidaya was elected as the chairperson of the group. Together the women do everything from weaving baskets, sewing cloth, and designing jewelry while using only local materials in the process. The group then funds multiple micro-finance loans for its members from the profits gained from the sale of those goods. The women in the group also attend workshops about entrepreneurship and business management through CARE’s Women and Girls Empowerment (WAGE) Program.
Several months ago, Hidaya used one such loan to help her eldest daughter, Habiba, open her own beauty salon. Her next eldest, a pair of 25 year old twins named Paschal and Prisca, are already working as a designer and soldier respectively. But her remaining three children still live with her. Hidaya smiles proudly when she describes her hopes for her other children. Alex, her 17 year old son, wants to be a lawyer, while Jaclyn, her 12 year old daughter, dreams of being a doctor one day, and she wants Witness, her youngest, to be a traffic officer.
“I really want to help Jaclyn become a doctor,” Hidaya states.
For many in the impoverished ward of Mburahati, such a statement might be pure fantasy. But with Hidaya one gets the sense that it is more a statement of fact. To wit, Hidaya has just been asked by CARE to help with a new project, Women’s Forums. These forums will allow Tanzanian women to speak to local government officials and NGO’s about issues particularly pertaining to them. Hidaya is at the fore of this by helping to find representatives from her community to serve on the forum.
Even more telling, recently Hidaya with her husband Thomas’s help, bought a large plot of land. She wants to build a house there she says. With a drive like Hidaya’s, one knows that house is not far from becoming a reality.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, July 8, 2009
at 6:04 AM
and is filed under
human interest stories
. You can follow any responses to this entry through the
comments feed
.
