A lack of sex education and the dream of a life without poverty lead to teenage pregnancies in Tanzania. EBLI’s education program in Mwanza on Lake Victoria coaches young mothers in need to lead a good, independent life for themselves and their children. Diana Marco has successfully completed the holistic training with the partner organization of terre des hommes schweiz. She is the everyday heroine in the SRF program “mitenand” from July 18, 2021.
Diana Marco is 21 and has a two-year-old daughter, Leokadia. The two of them live with Diana’s mother in a simple dwelling in the city of Mwanza, a regional industrial and economic center on Lake Victoria in the northwest of the East African country.
Diana is doing well again. She earns her own money and is full of confidence. She sells homemade vegetable doughnuts to people in the neighborhood and has also found a part-time job in a dormitory at the nearby university. “I’m no longer the Diana I was before,” she says. “I stand up for myself and can do what I want. Because now I’m accepted in the community.”
Also supported by Swiss Solidarity
Diana Marco is the everyday heroine in the portrait by journalist and filmmaker Bruno Amrein. The report will be broadcast for the first time on July 18 on the SRF program “mitenand” before the Tagesschau. “mitenand” presents the work of charitable organizations every Sunday evening.
Diana completed a six-month training course with the non-profit organization EBLI (Education for Better Living Organization) in the Tanzanian city of Mwanza on Lake Victoria, with which terre des hommes schweiz has been working for nine years. Top chef Tanja Grandits is an ambassador for the Tanzanian partner organization of terre des hommes schweiz. The Swiss Solidarity Foundation, which is involved in humanitarian and social projects thanks to private donations, also supports the Tanzanian partner project of terre des hommes schweiz.
Insulted and ostracized
A good two years ago, when Diana was 19 and gave birth to a girl, she was desperate. She had been expelled from school because of her pregnancy, the child’s father was over the hill and she didn’t know how she was going to support her small family. On top of that, she was insulted and ostracized for breaking a taboo. Getting pregnant as a girl or young woman and not having a husband is considered sacrilege in Tanzania – and for a long time it was the same in Switzerland.
Diana’s family was also shocked and initially distanced themselves from her. “When I got pregnant, I had no hope,” she says looking back. “I almost lost it and cried a lot because everyone was bullying me.” But then she was able to take part in EBLI’s education program, she says: “And suddenly I saw a new opportunity.”
Holistic training
Diana has completed a six-month training course with EBLI. The holistic education program helps and empowers girls and young women from humble backgrounds like Diana, who find themselves in a precarious, seemingly hopeless situation. The young single mothers are educated on the topics of sexual health and rights. They learn the practical basics of business management so that they can set up their own small business.
And they are strengthened in their self-confidence: Because they absolutely need this on their path to independence and autonomy. “In the EBLI program, I learned that you first have to clarify the market environment if you want to set up a business,” says Diana Marco. “I found out that no one here in the neighborhood offered anything fresh for breakfast. I then found out how to make the doughnuts and sell them for a small profit at an affordable price. No one else offers that here.”
Diana Marco still regularly attends EBLI courses in Mwanza. This should help her to stand on her own two feet in the long term. When Bruno Amrein visits her in May this year with his film and smartphone camera, she is taking a computer course in Excel and Word for Windows. “I learn so many things at EBLI, not just on the computer,” she says. “For example, how to protect myself against male violence or an unwanted pregnancy. I also heard about infectious diseases for the first time here. And learned how to think like an entrepreneur.”
Trap sex for safety
Diana’s situation before she benefited from training with EBLI is not unique in Tanzania. Even if the population has high hopes for Samia Suluh Hassan, the new president of the East African country since spring 2021, the protection, rights and equal opportunities of women and girls in Tanzania remain poor. And the health crisis, prolonged by the Delta variants, will certainly not alleviate this imbalance for the time being.
In Tanzania, one in four girls becomes pregnant before the age of 18. “Many girls and young women enter into sexual relationships with older men who make them financial promises or offer them supposed security,” says Susanne Furler, program coordinator for Tanzania at terre des hommes schweiz. Safe contraception is a foreign concept, as this topic is taboo and sex education is non-existent in Tanzania’s schools. “If the girls get pregnant, they are left in the lurch. Many teenage mothers lack the education and income for a secure future.”
The legacy of the old president
Costantine Nyambayo, who coordinates the country program of terre des hommes schweiz in Tanzania from Dar es Salaam, tells Bruno Amrein: “Far too many teenage girls have to leave school. They struggle with poverty and violence in their families and communities.”
Former President John Magufuli, who died suddenly in spring 2021, had ordered that Pupils who become pregnant must leave school. The order is still in force for the time being. “Many girls are then isolated and receive no support, which is very difficult for them,” says Costantine Nyambayo. “They should actually go back to school quickly, but the government doesn’t allow that.”
Regaining a foothold in life
EBLI therefore helps young mothers like Diana to regain a foothold in life. Every year, 120 young mothers aged between 13 and 20 are given a new chance to take their lives into their own hands and give themselves and their children a good future through the educational program of the partner organization of terre des hommes schweiz in Mwanza. Around 1000 young people are reached each year with information events and a further 500 young people in youth clubs in Mwanza.
All in all, these are not figures with a huge reach. But for each individual young woman and her family, as well as for the young people in Mwanza who benefit from EBLI’s education program, this is a godsend for life.
Our projects in Tanzania
Together with four local partner organizations, terre des hommes schweiz is working in Tanzania on the issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and against gender-based violence (GBV).
Three partner organizations are located on Lake Victoria in north-western Tanzania: EBLI and WADADA in Mwanza, HUMULIZA in Nshamba in the Kagera region. The fourth partner organization, KIVIDEA, operates in Kigoma on Lake Tanganyika in western Tanzania. terre des hommes schweiz is currently clarifying the possibility of cooperation with another local organization in Mwanza.
With its projects for and with young people and their social environment in Tanzania, which the SDC supports, terre des hommes schweiz contributes to the following UNSustainable Development Goals(SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda: SDG 3 Good Health Promotion (3.3 and 3.7), SDG 4 Quality Education (4.7), SDG 5 Gender Equality (5.2, 5.3, 5.6).
Anna Wegelin, collaboration Sue Furler
Young mother: Diana Marco, young mother in the EBLI education program, from 18 July 2021, 7.15 pm, SRF 1 in the program“Mitenand”
Expert: Interview with Abubakar Mutoka, youth work consultant for the partner organizations of terre des hommes schweiz in Tanzania
Manager: Costantine Nyambayo, National Coordinator of terre des hommes schweiz in Tanzania, in an interview
