PWC
Pastoral Women’s Council
PWC is the only indigenous women-led pastoralist organisation in Tanzania. Working in remote rural locations of the Arusha region in Northern Tanzania, PWC aims to reduce the barriers faced by pastoralist women in accessing their rights to education, productive resources, security and participation.
"What we need is education. Most of the time we lose our land because we can't understand what is being written. If we could be educated and read and write then we would know what is happening to our place."
Maanda Ngoitiko, Pastoral Women's Council
Pastoralists are semi-nomadic livestock keepers, the best known being the Maasai. Their communities are patriarchal and polygamous and women suffer from a subordinate position and are routinely discriminated against. This is reflected in every aspect of daily life. They have no right to own property or cattle and regardless of their disproportionate workload have little access to the resources they produce. They also have no right to choose their husbands and are often married by the age of twelve or thirteen, soon after they have undergone female genital mutilation. Few will be allowed to continue attending school after they are married and many are illiterate.
Click HERE to read about Veronica Kindaye and her extraordinary life story.
Maanda Ngoitiko is an inspired and dedicated community leader who, unhappy with the lack of commitment by male dominated pastoralist NGOs, started mobilising and supporting Maasai women in claiming their rights while addressing their basic livelihood needs.
PWC is a membership organisation, and to date has over 1200 members. It exists to empower women both socially and economically. PWC promotes cultural, political, environmental and educational development for pastoralist women and children and facilitates their access to essential social services.
Education and Social Empowerment
Education is at the core of PWC’s mission and activities. PWC believes that education is the key to a change in pastoralist society and the rights violations against women and girls. Not only have PWC been given the responsibility of managing a secondary school and pay pre-school teachers salaries, they also sponsor girls throughout their education and try to stop the practice of early and forced marriages. At the end of their education, these girls are expected to return to their communities and help in their development and transformation.
Women’s Action Groups and Economic Empowerment
PWC facilitate the formation of Women’s Action Groups or WAGs. Each WAG has approximately 50 members. PWC, funded by African Initiatives, has been providing microfinance services, (credit and savings facilities) to some of these WAGs which has transformed these women’s lives, both economically and socially.
Security and Participation
The low status given to women and girls means that they are often victims of abuse and domestic violence without recourse to security or justice. PWC uses the Women’s Action Groups to take a stand against domestic violence and raise awareness in the community of its causes and effects. In addition, in the face of traditional male leadership structures, pastoralist women are excluded from community decision making and Village and District political decision making that affects them. PWC provides leadership training and encourages women to use their democratic rights to gain positions of leadership within communities and Village and District Government.
Advocacy
The economic security and educational activities of PWC are a prerequisite base from which women can start asserting and claiming their rights to local institutions; the government, donors and other NGOs. African Initiatives provides information and briefing on important issues; training on advocacy strategies and media skills; and we lobby on behalf of PWC's interests in the UK and Europe.