Girl Guides

In the summer 2010, the Livingstone Tanzania Trust planted the idea that Babati ought to have a Girl Guide group so that the guides can work with the girls in the community and assist them with health and hygiene issues, equality and rights issues and moral guidance and support to help them develop into good leaders for their families, their community and the country.

We are delighted that Mrs Kahembe took the idea and ran with it and has established Babati’s first girl guide group. Although none of the initial 12 dedicated and up standing members of the community can be called girls, these women represent women who want to make a difference and want the girls in the community to be empowered to change their lives and fight the problems they face head on.

LTT is honoured to have played a part in their establishment and is delighted to have been able to assist meet their early financial costs. We wish them success in all that they do. We continue to look for links for them with the girl guides movement in the UK so that they can grow and learn more about the outside world.

1st November 2011 – Update

The Girl Guide leaders have made great headway in recruiting and have 5 schools on board with at least 12 girls from each school. They are planning a 3 day training CAMP for them in December where they will broach some of is the issues that they face as girls.

To help us understand what problem the girls face we took the girls from St Dunstan’s College to meet them and start a discussion. It was a powerful and eye opening experience for us all.

So what are the issues they face?

Tanzania is a male dominated society where women are seen and see themselves as second class citizens and as such as not valued when it comes to education and so are given more chores at home as a consequence . Educating girls is seen by some as a waste of money.

Girls are on occasion forced to get married, forced into the sex trade to support the family, are abused if orphaned or if a step parents comes on the scene.

Female genital mutilation is still practised in Tanzania despite being illegal and this brutal, dangerous practice is performed by women and so can be stopped by women

By getting the girls to acknowledge the problem is a fantastic first step and the unity and support offered by the Manyara Girl Guide Movement is a fantastic way for the girls to start to tackle these problems, problems that the Livingstone Tanzania Trust could never approach.

The first step however is to join the guides and buy the uniform, this simple act is a massive statement of intent yet many cannot afford to join. For just £12.50 we can buy one girl a uniform and enrol her. Please complete this Donation Form 2011 and send a donation to us

Challenging gender inequality is one of the Millennium Development goals and one that we want to take very seriously. We believe that by supporting the Manyara Girl Guides we can help the girls fight the demons inside before they tackle the demons outside. The training costs just £220 for 75 guides. If you are able we would love a contribution to this cost.

Bravo, Bravo, Bravo