VashtS - Hope for girls and women

October 30, 2018 VashtS Human Rights

Rhobi’s Global Mission: ‘In The Name of Your Daughter’ UK Film Premiere

Rhobi Samwelly has been spreading the word globally of her fight against FGM. Starting in the General Assembly in New York, the next leg of her journey took her to London, to the UK premiere of In the Name of Your Daughter. The documentary, directed by Canadian Giselle Portenier, follows Rhobi’s active fight against FGM in rural Tanzania and was a highlight of London’s Raindance Film Festival – Britain’s largest independent film festival.

The film, which highlights stories of individuals who have found shelter in Rhobi’s safe house, underscores the life-saving impact of Rhobi’s work. One of the central stories is about young Rosie Makore, who at 11 years old, has to decide to submit to cutting and child marriage or run away from everything and everyone she knows. Rhobi’s safe house gives girls a place of peace where they are accepted and protected. Additionally, the film presents how FGM in Mara is intricately weaved into the local cow-based economy and the view of women in society, with husbands claiming that cutting will reduce a women’s tendency to be unfaithful.

After the showings, Q&A’s were held with Rhobi and filmmaker Gisele Portenier. The audience, noticeably moved and affected by the film, was desperate to know how they could help Rhobi in her fight. You can do so by donating through our Girl’s Rights Fund page on MyDonate: https://mydonate.bt.com/events/nofgmtanz/4. Important: please mark your donation ‘For Rhobi’ in the comments box.

More economically conscious minded audience members asked how Rhobi expected those benefitting from FGM practices i.e. ceremony organises, cutters, to accept their incomes being tightened. The conclusion pointed to a need for the government to intervene in the form of grants to wipe out the illegal practice in its entirety.

No one who watched this film could avoid being deeply moved by the fear of girls facing FGM, unable to trust those who should be caring for them. Equally, however, all were uplifted by the spirit of the girls and their determination to realise their dreams. By the end, the audience was enthused by Rhobi’s fights and joined in with a group photo, declaring that FGM is #MYISSUETOO.

October 28, 2018 VashtS Human Rights

Rhobi’s Global Mission: Visit to the UN

At the end of September, Rhobi Samwelly was invited to speak in front of a high-level panel as part of the UN General Assembly in New York. This marked a major step in her fight for protecting girls and women against FGM.

As the powerhouse behind the Safe House project, Rhobi spoke about her personal experience of being forced to undergo FGM as a child. Rhobi recounted to the panel how a friend of hers passed away from FGM at age 11 and as dictated by tradition, her body was thrown in the bushes to be eaten by wild animals rather than buried. This experience haunted Rhobi’s memories and when Rhobi’s family started to organise her cutting ceremony at 13, she was terrified and strongly resisted. She pleaded against her mother but was told that not complying would bring shame upon the family and that she would never marry. For a moment, Rhobi considered running away but that plan was abandoned as she realised she had nowhere to go. Rhobi had no option to go ahead and her procedure caused her to lose so much blood that for a moment her family thought she was dying. Rhobi explained that her harrowing memories have inspired her lifelong commitment to saving other girls from a similar fate.

The following day, Rhobi participated in a mapathon at the UNFPA’s Orange Café. Young open-source mappers, consisting of both university students and activists, gathered to edit and update maps of rural areas. Rhobi explained how their use of open source data and mapping were making a real difference. Firstly, it helps local NGO’s, activists and policy to physically get to girls-at-risk. Poorly mapped villages hinder the ability of NGOs to respond to a tip from community members that a girl is in danger of FGM. Secondly, it informs girls and communities about rescue centres and safe houses.

“During the seasonal cutting, girls are now — those who are educated — they are running. They’re escaping FGM and they run to be protected to the safe house” said activist Rhobi Samwelly, in a video interview produced by the global news organization Al-Jazeera. “We can’t work directly and get to the village and save them because we don’t know which road is short, which road we can use, even to go to reach these villages. So mapping villages is helping us to identify some of the villages that have girls who are at risk,” she continued.

The young open-source mappers who were taking part in the UNFPA event, plus 6,000 volunteers who were taking part remotely across the globe in over 60 countries were using OpenStreetMap, an online open-source map that everyone is able to access and update. Together, their efforts mapped over 49,000 buildings and almost 7000 km of roads to better protect girls at risk. The mapathon, led by the creator of Crowd2Map Tanzania, Janet Chapman, stated that this was just a sample of what is happening on a continuous basis, volunteers contributing to rural maps that end up making the difference between life or death for a girl at risk of FGM. Crowd2Map Tanzania is creating volunteer programs in partnership with several universities around the world to try and systematically map and document villages in areas where FGM is present. “We are building a global network to unite people from across the world so that activists can better protect (girls at risk),” explains Janet Chapman. Janet presented the tools — the different software and the ins-and-outs of mapping and tracking — to the group in the Orange Café, which included a number of UNFPA staff members.

Mapathon at the State University of Zanzibar hosted by Drone Wings

Mapping at the UNFPA by university students and young activists

Those in the room noted a special atmosphere during the mapathon as young and passionate “mappers” felt the pivotal role their commitment of time and effort was having on the lives on young girls in Tanzania. Indeed, the project serves as a prime example of how technology can not only bring us together but also help to solve the world’s most pressing and difficult humanitarian issues.

June 26, 2018 VashtS Human Rights

Communities Coming Together for 2018’s Day of the African Child

On the 16^th of June, 28 years ago the Organization of African Unity (OAU), now known as the African Union (AU), honored the 1976 Soweto student uprising and established Day of the African Child (DAC). Each year on June 16^th a new theme is collaborated and agreed upon for DAC in order to honor that momentous moment in history. In 2018, the theme is “Leave No Child Behind for Africa’s Development”. This theme targets those children who are slipping through the cracks in Africa’s growth and development with goal of implementing more well-rounded and inclusive educational programs to ensure that each of Africa’s children benefit.

Hope for Girls and Women in Tanzania works to advocate for girl’s and women’s rights by fighting back against female genital mutilation (FGM) and other gender based violence. An integral part of Hope for Girl’s success is our education-centric approach to building awareness around gender issues. In honor of this year’s Day of the African Child, Hope for Girls partnered with the Serengeti District council as well as other social impact collaborators such as Right to play, Imara foundation, Mugumu police gender desk, Washehabise, Tumaini Jema, District community Development office and DC’s office to celebrate the children of this community. June 16^th was a joyous day of celebration for the 3,700 children from Hope for Girls, Majimoto, Nyamakobiti and Busawe Primary schools. Community members from Majimoto, Nyamakobiti, Magatini, Hekwe and Busawe village gathered to hear their children acknowledge and advocate for their rights through conversation, song and poem. Among those in attendance were the District leaders as well as the guest of honor, Mr. Nudin Babu, the Serengeti District Commissioner.

Day for the African Child is a day that holds many sentiments, however, each of us can agree that this day in particular is an important time to focus on what matters most, our children, our future. This day provides a forum for each child’s voice to be heard and give each child the freedom to raise awareness around issues that violate children rights. At Hope for Girls, our goal is to continue partnering with the Serengeti District council as well as other partners from neighboring villages to continue to spread the word of the importance of education and awareness around the impact that gender violence and FGM has on not only the girls and women but on the community as a whole.

May 14, 2018 VashtS Human Rights

Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX)

Canadian filmmaker Giselle Portenier’s new documentary ‘In the Name of Your Daughter’ about our director Rhobi Samwelly’s work to end FGM premiered this past March at the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival! The premier was attended by over 200 people, followed by two more screenings with Q & A sessions and screenings for students at Virum Gimnasium and St. Joseph’s Catholic Institute. Rhobi along with two girls featured in the film, Rose Makori and Neema Chacha, were able to travel to Copenhagen with Giselle to attend the screenings.

Below is a trailer of the film, which also played at the NorthwestFest Documentary & Media Arts Festival in Edmonton, Canada earlier this month.

Rhobi says what she enjoyed most about their trip to Copenhagen was meeting so many different people interested in learning more about FGM, including the ambassador of Canada to Denmark Emi Furuya, the Minister for Development Cooperation Ulla Tørnæs, and MP Trine Bramsen. The film’s positive reception has encouraged her to continue working hard to help communities in Mara and she said that many people in Denmark were surprised parents could do such a practice to their children.

What Rhobi found most surprising about the trip was learning during a Q & A session after the film that male circumcision isn’t a social norm in Denmark, unlike in many parts of Tanzania. In addition to speaking out against FGM at village community outreach events, Rhobi also encourages boys to get circumcised in hospitals rather than as part of traditional Kuria initiation.

Giselle Portenier's documentary about Rhobi's work to fight FGM premiered at the CPH:DOX film festival in Copenhagen in March. Here is a clip from that Q&A where Rhobi discusses the importance of hospital-based circumcision for boys. pic.twitter.com/CeUeMz2Xad

— Hope for Girls and Women (@HopeForGirlsTZ) May 3, 2018

March 12, 2018 VashtS Human Rights

International Women’s Day

To celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March and raise awareness of the importance of gender equality, we held an event in Nyansurura in collaboration with the local Serengeti District government. Five girls staying at our safe house in Mugumu were presented with sewing machines at the event. These girls are in our vocational training programme and will use the machines as part of their training. After they complete their training and are safely able to return home, the girls will take their sewing machines with them.

Photo 2.jpeg — Our social worker Neema Meremo

The event’s slogan was “To head for an industrial economy, we should strengthen gender equality and women’s empowerment in villages”.

The event’s guest of honour, District Administrative Secretary Qamara Cosmas, can be seen here presenting a sewing machine.

February 9, 2018 VashtS Human Rights

Celebrating 16 Days of Activism

The annual 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign originated out of the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute in 1991 at Rutgers University in the United States. One initial goal of this campaign was to emphasize that violence against women is a violation of human rights. This point seems obvious today, but was a matter of contention at the time.

The American feminist and founding director of the Center for Global Leadership at Rutgers, Charlotte Bunch, argued in 1990 that, ‘despite a clear record of deaths and demonstrable abuse, women’s rights are not commonly classified as human rights… The narrow definition of human rights, recognized by many in the West as solely a matter of state violation of civil and political liberties, impedes consideration of women’s rights’. The two-week long institute and its campaign against gender-based violence sent a powerful message that issues such as rape, female infanticide, genital mutilation, compulsory sterilization, forced marriage, and discrimination against girls are violations of human rights.

To celebrate 16 Days of Activism in December 2017, we officially opened our safe house in the village of Kiabakari in the Butiama District and organized a march against gender-based violence. Girls from the new Butiama safe house and students from Kukirango Secondary School marched together to raise community awareness.

16 Days of Activism Ceremony 1 — Here Rhobi Samwelly, our Director, speaks to the crowd at the opening celebration.

16 Days of Activism Ceremony 2 — Rev Canon Francis Sender addresses the crowd. Behind the table stands Titus J Kamwaga (acting as District Executive Director), Dickson Mwandala (acting on behalf of the District Commissioner), and Major EP Mkama (head commander of the Kiabakari Tanzania People’s Defence Forces).