Hope for Girls and Women Tanzania (HGWT) was established in 2017. In Rhobi's words, “the vision is to free societies of gender-based violence, including FGM, child marriage and wife battering. The mission is to protect human dignity and improve the respect for women and girls in Tanzania.”
HGWT operates two Safe Houses, one in Butiama and the other in Mugumu, both in the Mara region; the organization employs 19 staff members. The location of the two Safe Houses can be seen on the map. Mugumu is on the border of the Serengeti National Park; Butiama is closer to Lake Victoria.
Since its inception, HGWT has saved almost 2,000 girls from FGM.
Impact of COVID-19 on HGWT and S.A.F.E.
The COVID pandemic has increased the danger of FGM globally and also in the Mara area. Schools were unexpectedly closed in March because of COVID, resulting in an early cutting season that started in April.
HGWT rescued 55 girls; six of the girls found were already cut. One girl required hospitalization and a blood transfusion; the other girls were all taken to the hospital for assessment and support, including issuing pain relief and prophylactic antibiotics. Unfortunately, there were 118 FGM cases confirmed in the villages.
The Safe Houses housed 182 girls at the height of the pandemic. Schools reopened on June 29 and with that, the reconciliation process with the girls’ families started. Fifty-nine girls from the Butiama Safe House and 75 from the Mugumu Safe House were reconciled with their families. Twelve girls unfortunately could not be reconciled with their families and they will continue to be housed at the Safe Houses for the time being.
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There was one confirmed COVID-19 case very near to the Mugumu Safe House. The staff of the Safe Houses worked very hard to keep the girls in their care safe. Some of the measures implemented included restricting the number of staff and others visiting as much as possible.
There is no community outreach being done at the moment. The vocational classroom has been turned into a quarantine area for the new girls rescued from the villages. HGWT introduced more hand washing, but social distancing remains a huge problem with the Safe Houses so full and with three girls having to share a bed or mattress.
The Impact of COVID-19 on Tourism
As of early June 2020, Tanzania started to allow tourists under normal and regular ‟pre-COVID” border rules; there is no mandatory quarantine period, but tourists will undergo temperature checks on arrival and will be required to wear masks and adhere to social distancing. There are no tourists in the Serengeti yet, and HGWT therefore has not been able to sell bags and other goods. The needlework skills, however, were used to make masks and in total, 2,500 masks have been made to date! A Four Seasons Hotel close to the Mugumu Safe House ordered 1,000 masks for their guests. All the girls have to wear masks to school.
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Mapping Project
The importance of maps must never be underestimated. Mapping rural areas of Tanzania is helping us reach girls who are going to be cut, often within hours. Girls fleeing FGM come from very remote villages, which until recently were not on any map. For the past number of years, HGWT partnered with Crowd2Map to map Mara into OpenStreetMap, a free open source map of the world.
Creating Global Awareness
HGWT participated in two webinars on the Impact of COVID-19 on the elimination of FGM globally. You can watch the recording of the webinar here and see Rhobi’s presentation here. The series of webinars will continue addressing different geographies. It is expected that an additional 2 millions girls will undergo FGM as a result of COVID-19.
Another Award for In the Name of Your Daughter
Defying the Cutting Season, the shortened version of In the Name of Your Daughter, the award-winning film featuring Rhobi’s work, was named Best Feature Documentary at the recent One World Media awards. Congratulations to everyone involved!
Legal Update
A cutter was arrested recently; she admitted to having cut 192 girls over the past few months. She is now in prison and will be prosecuted according to the Tanzanian law.
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Visualizations of the Activities of HGWT
HGWT was selected to be featured as Viz5 MakeoverMonday, where data analysts visualize data related to gender equality. You can see some of the amazing results and learn more here.
Research Project with Nottingham University
HGWT has been selected to participate in a research project by Nottingham University on factors influencing FGM starting in June 2020. This will involve our Digital Champions surveying attitudes and other factors in the villages where they live.
Use to Date of the FAWCO Funding
The last few months have been extremely challenging for everyone in the world, and we sincerely hope you and your loved ones are safe and well, and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support, particularly during these difficult times. The funding has been used to support the girls in the Safe Houses with food, clothes, school supplies, mattresses and mosquito nets.
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''Asante sana'' (thank you)
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