Pastoral Women's Council

 The Pastoral Women's Council of Tanzania was founded to conceive and implement long-term structural solutions for the poverty and marginalization of Maasai pastoralist women and children.  We are women-led and encourage Maasai women to openly discuss the positive and negaitve aspects of Maasai culture, to act on their findings, and to mobilise local efforts and resources.  Through its work, PWC has developed large networks and strong relationships with various international NGO's and donors, as well as district, village and regional government.

PWC’s vision is: “to promote sound cultural, political, environmental and educational development of pastoralist women and children to facilitate their access to essential social services and economic empowerment”. It is guided in its work by principles of solidarity, equality, trust and transparency.

Since its founding in Tanzania in 1997, PWC has worked to address three key problems facing Maasai women:

1. Lack of property ownership rights.  Lack of financial assets and resources deprive women of health care and make it impossible to ensure a balanced diet for their family, provide for practical household needs (clothes, shoes, medicine), or educate their children.
   
2. Lack of participation in political decisions. Traditionally, Maasai women are not allowed to speak in public/community meetings or participate in decisions.  As a result, community agendas are determined by men and issues of concern to women, such as domestic violence, forced marriage, women’s property rights and HIV/AIDS are not given appropriate priority. 

3. Lack of education for Maasai girls.  Normally Maasai women are expected to concentrate on building and repairing houses, fetching firewood and water, and milking animals, as well as raising and feeding children and cooking for the male family members. The lack of educated or professional Maasai women to fight for gender equality and against patriarchal household structures is therefore self-perpetuating.

PWC has implemented programs to address each of the critical areas.

Economic empowerment:  providing food security, income generation opportunities and cultural status to Maasao women.

·         A revolving livestock programme  for poor women (e.g.,  a woman receives a goat then provides the first kids that goat produces to another poor woman, and she in turn is required to do the same) which has also helped women gain respect from men and raise their cultural status. Another key objective is to fatten bulls and sell them to raise funds for PWC; over the last two years, 60 bulls generated Tsh 9 million (approx. USD 8000) which paid school/college fees for a total of nine girls.

·        A small-scale agricultural development programme which persuades village governments to provide small plots of land for women to farm and is enabling women to produce food not only for their own household but also as a surplus to sell.

·       A revolving credit scheme has supported activities including selling salt, sugar, tea and other household goods, buying and selling livestock, growing and selling maize and sorghum, and making and selling beadwork to tourists.  This scheme initially provided support to 20 women; today it supports 335.

Women’s rights and leadership:  promotion of women awareness, understanding and participation in politics, legislation, women’s rights and their role in development.

     ·         Paralegal training on civil and land rights

     ·         Political education through study tours, meetings and talks by experienced guest speakers

     ·         Support for victims of domestic violence thru the legal process up to and including support and assistance in taking cases to the primary court and magistrate

·         Working with indigenous communities to secure their rights to natural resources and recognition of their role in the management of these resources.

Educational opportunities for Maasai women and children: 

·         Tuition assistance for academically able girls who would otherwise leave school due to lack of guidance/academic support or arranged marriages

·         Counselling support to enable young women to understand their new school environment in conjunction with their traditional lifestyles and values

·         Internship programme hat secures work placements for secondary school graduates before the young women continue higher education

·         Nursery school and adult education program which brings girls into education at an early age and encourages parents to aim for higher goals for their children.

Through our efforts: 

• 175 students are attending secondary school, 6 students are in university and 7 are in teaching college
• 15 girls escaped forced marriage
• Hundreds of women now have tangible financial support thru our credit scheme
• Girls are graduating from secondary school and are now teaching in PWC schools