Angels in Tanzania

Angel (on left)

Angelina

I've been in Mwanza in Tanzania for the past 12 days and instantly fell in love with the place and the people there. I was working with Kivulini our local Partner in Tanzania who are trying to help an organisation called Wote Sawa (meaning all are equal) to set up by themselves.  Wote Sawa is led by 24 year old Angel Benedicto - a former child domestic worker who came to Geneva in June last year to lobby for the rights of children in the ILO's Domestic Work Convention.  It was wonderful to see her again - and her colleague 17 year old Angelina (yes Tanzania is full of Angels!).  Both these young women have grown in confidence since I last met them, Angel's English is really coming along.  We spent every day together in one way or another - we're developing a project together so we had 4 days of meetings discussing the activities, budget, outcomes, I watched her facilitate a workshop with other child domestic workers, she organised a photo shoot for me of children working (for use on our website and publications), she participated in a workshop that I was facilitating, we ate together, even danced together!

Angel and Angelina are inspiring young women.  When I was hearing about a baseline survey that Wote Sawa had just made, the list of 'key issues' was astounding - it is slavery.  Child domestic workers in Mwanza very often don't get paid for their work, they don't even get given enough food to eat, they don't have a private place of their own in their house (have to sleep in a store cupboard or on the floor in the kitchen), their parents are not allowed to contact them, they work 365 days a year - and particularly harder at festival times because they have to serve all the guests, many of the girls (95% are girls in domestic work) are raped by their employers, made pregnant and then kicked out.  This is one of the issues Wote Sawa wanted to address urgently as they are 'fostering' the girls themselves - Angel has of these girls and her baby living with her at the moment.  All the staff of Wote Sawa are young - in their 20s, yet they displayed such responsibility and dedication I was humbled. As you can imagine after hearing this (and although I have heard of and read this stories often enough I'm a big cry baby when I hear it first hand) I felt a bit weak at the knees - but I wasn't in tears.  To be honest, I was surprised I by this, but in fact I didn't cry the whole time I was there (which if you ask my kids you'll know is quite an achievement)...and I think that's because all the people I met were so focused on the solutions not the problems: on the empowerment of children. And we had such a laugh during everything we did - the workshops, the meetings - even the discussions on budget!!  Perhaps this is what Angels are really all about - the power of positivity?!

I'm going to ask Angel to write a blog post for Children Unite, so you can hear for yourself what she's up to.  But for the moment here is Wote Sawa's own blog

And on a final note a huge ASANTI SANA (thank you very much in Swahili) to the Angels of Tanzania.