The NGO Hand in Hand forms entrepreneurs and involves their husbands to prevent them from feeding a feeling of inferiority.
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The eighteen mothers of family sitting on the Mlangarini market square exchange complicit eyes and discreet smiles. In this morning of August 2021, it’s Ann, who drives the discussion. Just quarantine, the one that responds to the nickname “Mama Deborah” has been “for years” group meetings, exclusively feminine. Every month, they are twenty in this Tanzanian village, southeast of the city of Arusha, to be rejected away from the eyes for a tontine.
Thanks to this savings system, where in turn each participant borrows money together by the group, several thousand Tanzanian shillings are available each month. A loan means appreciated for its ease and discretion when many homes at home and limited resources do not have access to banking services or financial support from their spouse or family.
” My husband is cleaning “
Ten months earlier, Mama Deborah was approached by the NGO Hand in Hand to participate in a development program focused on entrepreneurship. It and its partners have agreed to attend twice a month at the training sessions of this international NGO present in Tanzania since 2014. Basics in business management, finance and bank savings have been provided to them at the rate of four hours per month. “I was enthusiastic about doing and learning something else”, says Rehyma, 34 years old, a mother of three children, a corner half-smile.
These women grow for most corn or cassava, others sell used clothes in the region’s markets. Three months after the end of their training, each testifies to the founding pride and the satisfaction of having been able to open a bank account, increase its income, invest in new business or expand family exploitation.
In the assembly, two men are present. They have not said a word since the beginning of the round table but listen to an attentive ear the discussions that care about the changes perceived in the behaviors of many husbands in the community. “Mine is cleaning now,” says one; “My husband agrees to accompany the children at school while I’m going to work,” continues another.
In all, these are 95 men, 95 “husbands, who followed, in parallel with the formation of their wives, four sessions on gender equality, the sharing of domestic tasks to the necessary support for the activities entrepreneurial of their wives. An uncommon approach.
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