WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR US?
At CARE, we put women at the centre of our programming, as like most of you, we know that investing in women creates results for the whole household, community and country.
In Tanzania, we promote women’s economic empowerment, advance gender equality, and address social injustices affecting rural women in Tanzania through a blend of innovative programming. We aim to increase women’s income and economic security in order to improve rural livelihoods.
CARE uses Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) groups as the point of entry for the vast majority of our programming; with a membership of on average 70% women, these savings group collectives provide a strong platform from which to empower, train, raise awareness, and engage members in life altering activities. Since establishing Tanzania’s first VSLA in 1998 on the island of Pemba, CARE has supported over 23,000 VSLA groups to date.
Our strategy cannot be to only work with women; to achieve change we must work with men and boys at a household and community level. Our GEWEP programme, delivered in Zanzibar, paves the way for our ‘men engage’ approach, with:
- 128 young men, married men, religious leaders and influential men in the communities engaged in trainings, role play and dialogues around gender and power relations, gender based violence, and oppression of women;
- Four religious leaders’ networks formed to support women’s empowerment efforts, using platforms such as Friday prayers to create awareness on gender and gender based violence issues; and
- Four male change agent networks - with 20 members each - established to support women empowerment efforts, particularly in challenging perception.
Download our Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment strategy, and contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.- Director, Gender and Women’s Empowerment - for further information on CARE's gender programming.