Defending Our Land: Defending Our Livelihood!

This green land is in Sambaru and Londoni villages in Singida region. It is a home of a nomadic  tribe called Mang'ati. They are  depending on land for grazing their animals and farming. Young girls and boys are responsible for grazing animals and they are depending on this land. Women collect firewood from this land for domestic use. Maize, millet, sweet potatoes, beans, green vegetables, onions and rice grow on this land once sometimes twice a year. But underneath it, there is an enormous deposit of gold.

This land is now owned by Shanta Mining Company. Production have not started yet. The company is putting up structures and fencing the land. There are areas within the land where people are not allowed to access. It is guarded by state police paid by both the state and mining company.

There is no much hope among communities of benefiting from this project. They already know that they will not be employed by the company or provide services and goods to the company. Women are much more devastated. They will loose their source of  food, energy and water. The current fresh air  will be polluted by dust and their children and their families will be sick. HIV prevalence will increase due to the immigration and their families may disrupt.

In this community, men own cattle. They will loose the land for grazing and their economy will be shaken. They are still wondering how they are going to provide for their families once their land is gone. This areas will turn into desert in a couple of years, taking away  livelihood of more than 10,000 people. 

Security Questions in mining Areas

Security issues have been discussed several times and mostly under the questions of human rights abuse. In Tanzania, being Artisanal and Small scale mining settlements or in areas where there are Large Scale mining, the question of security and protection of communities and especially women is unanswered.In ASM settlements, women face every kind of abuse, from domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment, economic violence etc from both people they know and people they do not know.

The security questions extends to economic rights in terms of property ownership and disposal. For example, More than 80% of communities in Sambaru ad Lononi villages in Singida region depend on farming for food and other needs.  Taking their land away for mining purposes does not only take away their food security but also their settlements and other services. The group which is affected more are women because they are providers of services and livelihood in their commuities.

Large scale mining comes with a lot of challenges to women  and communities in general. It is characterized by securitization (and sometimes by state police) and restriction of land use. People from outside the communities are   employed as security guards and are instructed to kill anyone who crosses the land. There are evidence of deaths and abuses by these company security guards, but they are  addressed as incidences. The question would be addressing securitization of mining companies (with state police) and safety of communities.

Women Miners Leadership Development: Round 1

 Learning is Fun-Tastic - Women Learning Conversation skills by picture drawing

 Everybody is a facilitator; Mjomba Hussein presenting

 Bahati Msuya: One of the participants of Women Miners Leadership Development

 Group Photo: Women Miners Leadership Development Round 1

Alando and Lulu: Participant and Facilitator

Women In Mining Leadership Development; The story So far (2): The Incentive for Organizing.

 Women Group meeting  In Londoni Singida

Marietha addressing the group

Women come together for different reasons, in most cases in Tanzania, women organize through self help groups,  for supporting each other financially. Ready cash in form of merry-go-round is  one of the  incentive to organize. In rare cases, women self organize for discussing issues that affect women such as domestic violence, health, services, policy, laws etc. After organizing for financial support, in most cases the groups formalizes into Serving And Credit Schemes. The formalization   lives behind women who cannot “formally” meet the criteria for Credit, and sometimes “uneducated” as it becomes sophisticated with systems and rules. The spirit of organizing goes down and replaced by money and power, with technical people coming in.

In case of Singida where eight women participated in the Leadership Development course organized by HakiMadini, women have found a new incentive for organizing. At first, they started as a servings and credit group, it started formalizing and they learned that most women were left behind. One woman named Marietha re-organized the group and facilitated women in identifying the reason for coming together apart from money. They identified violence against women in mining areas as a major challenge that hinders them to participate fully in economic activities. “It comes in different forms, women are facing domestic violence in their homes, and sexual harassment in public and physical and emotional violence while at work in mining sites  Its like we do not have a safe place to be. There is no respect for women because there is no defined values as community. Most people are migrants and everybody is here temporarily…” Says Marietha. That is a reason why women came together to prevent and respond to women human rights abuses in the mining area of Londoni and Sambaru in Singida.

Eleven women from the initial group formed and raised an issue, that they needed a new incentive. They started mobilizing other women, mostly by identifying those who have faced violence. They helped other women see the connection between violence and women poverty by pointing out specific examples. Then they invited them to join their monthly discussion on state of violence in mining area and strategies for prevention and response. In these meetings women have chance to share stories and experiences and look at violence against women in new perspective. They intend to grow together as a group, supporting each other emotionally while the Servings and credit schemes support those who need money for their business. 

It’s a process and it takes small steps!

Women in Mining Leadership Development: The Story so far: (1)

Initiated in the past eighteen months, Women leadership Fellowship Course took place on   Arusha and Singida. The course was organized by HakiMadini, through Gender and Mining program, and it brought together a total of 35 women from five regions of Tanzania, namely Arusha, Mwanza, Manyara, Singida and Tanga. They are women activists engaging directly and indirectly in mining and who are affected by  exclusion within the sector.

The course focused on strengthening their personal values as women leaders and facilitating their leadership skills in the context movement building. Their activism spirit, influence within the communities they come from and engagement in the mining sector will bring about the change and shifts in the society. They are bringing a new form of leadership which depends mainly on values, accountability, responsibility and facilitation while responding to the traditional ways of leadership which focuses on the position and power. The course is a landmark for the community based movement led by women in the mining sector. It helps women to achieve the right attitude for leadership in learning societies, learn to face hardship and grow through adversity, courage, patience, dedication, perseverance.

Women in mining sector and in mining areas encounter challenges everyday. Apart from sharing their communities’struggles over limited resources like water, land or jobs, many systematically face discrimination simply by virtue of being female. This includes physical and sexual violence, being kept out of school, disproportionate vulnerability to HIV infection and lack of access to property and other rights.

HakiMadini believes that women in mining communities possess the collective power to change their lives, their communities and the world we live in. Just as they face daily challenges, they are continually developing innovative, effective ways to improve their lives. By bringing together their wisdom and creativity, women are leading change. HakiMadini is supporting these women   by empowering them to acquire skills and to enable them to provide leadership on the issues that concern them. It offers engaging and dynamic activities to motivate and enable women to believe in their abilities to catalyse change and to mobilise others to do the same. It is a flexible tool for learning and exploring issues from human rights and violence against women to body image, self-esteem and developing leadership skills.

Women in Mining Tanzania: Developing Women in Mining Leadership Skills; The ...

Women in Mining Tanzania: Developing Women in Mining Leadership Skills; The ...: Background T anzania is endowed with a vast and very valuable extractive resource industry consisting of forestry, petroleum and mine...

Tanzania Minerals, Whose legacy??????????!

Tanzania has more than 43 types of minerals. It is said that minerals in Tanzania contribute 3.6% of the GDP. The country produces the only precious stone in the world, Tanzanite. and the story continues... But the paradox is, Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world. It has high maternal the mortality rates while the quality of its health services is questionable? The question still is...Minerals in Tanzania, Whose legacy?

Developing Women in Mining Leadership Skills; The HakiMadinis' Approach.

Background

Tanzania is endowed with a vast and very valuable extractive resource industry consisting of forestry, petroleum and minerals. It is ranked fourth in terms of diversity and richness of mineral resources in Africa, after South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria.  This includes a wide range of minerals from gold, diamond, colored stones, industrial minerals and gas. Tanzania mining sector is fast growing at an annual average of 10% since 1999 with an average 3% contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Mining development has both positive and negative impacts for communities in Tanzania. A growing body of evidence shows that, gender bias exists in the distribution of risks and benefits of mining projects. Benefits, which include employment, income, and compensation, typically accrue to men, and costs such as family/social breakdowns, cultural harm and environmental degradation, fall most heavily on women and children

Despite women significance in mining sector, women receive minimal attention by researchers, development programs and governments. Although there are  many studies in mining, there is rarely very little quantification of how mining impacts on women and children. There is no clear segregation of the benefits of the sector towards this unprivileged group.  Laws and policies provide no avenue for voices of women in the sector governance. Lack of different skills in mining, poor technology lack of access to information and strong and organized leadership limits women participation in policy reforms within mining debates  and processes

The Approach

HakiMadini is supporting women in mining through empowering   them to acquire practical technical different   skills and knowledge  to enable them to provide leadership to others on the issues that concern them. It seeks to motivate and groom women to believe in their personal abilities in order to catalyze change and to mobilize others to develop into a movement. Some of the approaches used to empower women includes  learning visit to likeminded organization, women leadership training, networking, field visits, parliamentary engagement and mentorship and coaching of women leaders.

General Overview

“Women in Mining Leadership Program”  seek to support women  leadership development in mining areas in four regions of Tanzania namely; Tanga, Singida,Manyara and Geita. The project aims at enhancing the quality of women participation and representation within the mining sector  focusing on three focal points in Mkinga, Simanjiro, Geita and Singida rural districts. These was  achieved through trainings, policy engagement initiatives, coaching and mentorship and  networking.

The engagement with women resulted into women group  formed into  street based daily savings and loan association supporting the women to grow financially. The groups become the nucleus of community organizing and mobilization, while the incentive being an issue that is pressing and immediate to them: ready cash. Natural leaders have  surfaced in the process expanding  from the group of fifteen women  trained by HakiMadini.

HakiMadini facilitated empowerment for the women through  linking and  throughout the program. The process helped in creating a democratic space providing opportunity for women to speak for themselves. This empowerment and learning has  enhanced community  conversation on the need for  open spaces and   greater participation of women in decision making positions in mining sector. Their acknowledgement in the communities and participation in community  structures has been  reported to have positive impacts in strengthening women movements in mining areas. The impacts of sharing and networking between women miners and other stakeholders has been evidenced in the increased women leadership roles in Mining Associations over the last 12 months.