Tanzania kuwa Thailand? - siyo kuhusu Mvua ya EL!

[Mzee Mwanakijiji]

The International Organisation for Migration has launched a campaign to raise awareness of human trafficking in Tanzania, a country increasingly becoming a transit point, it said in a statement on Monday.

The three-month campaign dubbed "Uwe sauti Yao" (Be their voice) was launched on Sunday at a hip-hop rally in the capital Dar es Salaam, and is being followed by public service announcements on television and radio.

Posters, brochures, calendars, stickers, T-shirts and caps will also be distributed in all major cities across the impoverished African country.

“We're delighted that this truly unique event has received the full support [from] Tanzania's most famous hip-hop and gospel singers," Par Liljert, IOM's chief of mission in Tanzania, said in a statement.

"Just like the media, artists have a crucial role to play to ensure people do not fall prey to ruthless trafficking networks," he added.

Cases of international and domestic trafficking have increased in Tanzania, most being internal ones.

"Girls and boys are routinely trafficked from rural areas to urban areas where they are abused and exploited in domestic worker, commercial agriculture, fishing and mining industries, and in child prostitution," the statement said.

Women and children are also trafficked for sexual or labour exploitation to neighbouring countries as well as to the Middle East and Europe.

Over the past two years, IOM Tanzania has assisted more than 120 victims of trafficking with support from the United States State Department. – Sapa-AFP

My Take:

- Kwa wale wanaokumbuka sakata la "Mapanki" kati ya vitu vyote ambavyo wabunge na JK walilaani hawakulaani wala kubisha watoto wa "mitaani" na wale ambao walijikuta katika umalaya. Hadi hivi sasa serikali haina mpango unaooeleweka wa kukabili kadhia hii na kutegemea sheria zilizopo sasa haitoshelezi.

- Kwa makusudi kabisa wakati umefika wa Polisi kuanzisha kwenye miji mikubwa na ya mpakani vikosi vya "Anti-Human Trafficking and Smuggling Units". Ambavyo kazi yake itakuwa siyo tu kupokea malalamiko ya watu kutumikwisha bali pia kuingilia kati mahali popote ambapo pana hisia ya mambo hayo.

- Kama vile wenzetu Uganda, Sierra Leone na Liberia wanavyofanya kushughulikia watoto walioumizwa katika Vita (kama askari watoto au kama watumishi wengine hata wa kingono) na sisi tuanze hipo. Nakumbuka jinsi NGOs ya Kuleana (chini ya Rakesh Rajani wakati huo)pale Mwanza walivyoweza kusaidia watoto wasio na makazi maalum (wa "mitaani"). Jitihada za NGOs nyingi kuhusu watoto naamini mambo hayo yangefanywa na serikali chini ya usimamizi wa watu wenye maslahi maalum kama ofisi ya Jaji Mkuu au Magereza na idara za Elimu.

- Tusipoamua kuingilia kati (immediate intervention) Tanzania inajiandaa kuwa kama Thailand na siku tukifika huko tutashangaa why we didn't act sooner!

M. M.

 

[Mzee Mwanakijiji]

Kisa cha Mtoto Wanyenda

Wanyenda: A New Life for a Child Victim of Prostitution
by Rose Haji

Wanyenda’s* ordeal dates back to 1997 when she was in her third year at the Igawilo primary school in the Mbeya region of the southern highlands of Tanzania. Only 13 at that time, she decided to drop out of school and leave home, like many of her friends before her, to escape difficult living conditions.

She is the first born of a peasant family of six children -- two boys and four girls. Igawilo is one of the densely populated suburban areas where the incidence of prostitution involving children is high.

It happened one day when she was going to school and met a boy from a nearby village who persuaded her to escort him to the town where he lived. This boy, who was jobless, took her to a slum area called Mabatini and she never came back.

The boy would bring home two or three of his friends and force Wanyenda to sleep with all of them for cash payment. She was tortured, sexually abused and sometimes beaten by the boy if she refused to provide the services. Whenever the boy was away, she received customers on her own in order to earn some money for food.

"Such life was routine for a period of 18 months. I was weak, hurt and tormented," she recalls.

Life for Wanyenda at Mabatini became unbearable. After 18 months she decided to leave. Not knowing where to go, she began wandering the streets. There she met other girls her age who took her to a brothel.

Together they would leave the brothel each morning and go out to bars, guest houses, and local-brew shops to seek their fortune. According to Wanyenda, in these places they would drink and subsequently have sex with any man, sometimes for little more in return than offers of food or drink.

When Wanyenda was asked how much she earned daily, she said "between Tshs. 200 - 500 (US$ 0.25 - 0.60) and sometimes nothing but a drink."

IPEC Support Helps Rescue Girls from Prostitution

Wanyenda’s life took a dramatic turn for the better in 1999, when her mother persuaded her to accept counseling services from a local charity, supported by IPEC, which helps girls who have been withdrawn from prostitution.

Wanyenda is now among the 360 girls who have been taken out of child prostitution by an IPEC partner organization, the Kiota Women’s Health and Development (KIWOHEDE). This non-governmental organization, active in the promotion of women and children’s health and development, as well as advocacy for their rights, runs centers for the rehabilitation and vocational skills training of girls withdrawn from prostitution in four wards of the Mbeya Municipal District.

In the Igawilo ward, Wanyenda was one of some 80 girls targeted by KIWOHEDE when the agency was implementing an IPEC-supported project that included the social and physical mapping of Tanzania’s Southern Highlands region of Mbeya to find out how many young girls ended up in prostitution. Having heard about the organization, her mother, with the help of fellow village women, convinced her to go for the counseling services that KIWOHEDE was providing.

"She had to be treated for gonorrhea twice during her rehabilitation period," says Ms. Justa Mwaituka, Executive Director of KIWOHEDE. "Most of these girls suffer from sexually transmitted diseases and are vulnerable to HIV/AIDS because they practice unsafe sex."

The girls reached by this project are now undergoing rehabilitation and recovering from the trauma they experienced. They follow group and individual counseling, as well as instruction on the dangers of prostitution, reproductive health education and HIV/AIDS counseling. They have a community theater group for public awareness raising on the problem of child prostitution, and Wanyenda is an active member.

"We do not want girls to be sexually exploited by men, we do not want unwanted early pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases," Wanyenda was heard telling her colleagues at the center.

So far, a total of 240 girls from Igawilo, Ruanda, Iyunga and Nzovwe wards in Mbeya Municipality have completed a three-month training course in tailoring, embroidery, cooking, tie and dye, driving and setting up a small businesses. An additional 40 girls have been reintegrated into formal primary school.

The Igawilo center has already registered important achievements. Individual and collective tenders for making dresses, school uniforms, tablecloths, etc. are flowing in. The Mbeya Municipality is helping with marketing by integrating the display and sale of products into its fund-raising plans. Following the sale of the items, the money is divided among the girls. Each of them receives between Tshs. 8,000 - 12,000 (US$ 10.00 - 15.00), depending on the proceeds from the sales. Such sales are held two or three times every month.

Wanyenda Looks to the Future

Wanyenda said that after receiving her tailoring certificate from KIWOHEDE, she prays to God that she does not go back to prostitution and hopes to continue educating other girls at risk of getting into prostitution. She is a good counselor and trainer at the community counseling center, where she and two other friends assist with its running under the auspices of KIWOHEDE.

"KIWOHEDE has changed my life really. It has withdrawn and reintegrated me within my family and community set up. We now live as a happy family. I appreciate the gains of knowledge acquired," she said.

Now 17, Wayneda makes sure that she manages her time productively. She is busy at the center which is a only few meters from her home; on Sundays she goes for prayers in the Church. The rest of her time she is at home helping her parents or counselling girls in the neighborhood against prostitution.

Her dream is to generate enough funds in order to buy a plot of land and build a house. She also wants to be involved in efforts to establish counseling and rehabilitation clubs for girl victims of prostitution in the communities.

Ms. Mwaituka admits that girls like Wanyenda need immediate humanitarian interventions such as grants for income generation as a means to increase the cash incomes of poor parents and families.

Whenever Wanyenda sees Justa she is mute. "I thank KIWOHEDE for changing my life," she will say at last, "I have found a new life."

*not the child's real name

 

[Nurujamii]

Mwanakijiji samahani kidogo naomba unisaidie: NGO ya kuleana ilipigwa marufuku na serikali au bodo ipo?

 

[Mzee Mwanakijiji]

Sina uhakika nadhani bado ipo ila haiko chini ya Rakesh anymore. Ila sijui inafanikiwa vipi kwa maana yawezekana ikageuka kuwa kama Haki Elimu...

 

[Susuviri]

Kuleana haiko chini ya Rakesh. Na issue iliyopata ni kwamba ilishindwa ku-account for funds iliyopata. Hii Kuleana ni ile ya Mwanza. Walipata pesa nyingi za RFE na other donors.

 

[Mafuchila]

Rakesh Rajani alikuwa Hakielimu mpaka alipoachia ngazi miezi michache iliyopita. Lakini amebakia kama mmoja wa wakurugenzi wa bodi ya Hakielimu.

 

[Halisi]

Mkjj PM yako ASAP

 

[Kichuguu]

Tatizo hili linatokana na kuporomoja kwa kiwango cha usawa katika jamii na kujengeka kwa matabaka makubwa sana nchini.

Ninadhani kurudishwa kwa serikali inayosimamia ustawi wa raia ndilo jibu kamili kuliko kuwa na serikali hii ya sasa ambayo swala hilo ni hadithi ya alinacha.