the book - tmep

Tanzania Men as Equal Tanzania Men as Equal Tanzania Men as Equal

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RESOURCE ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE

This publication is made possible with support from the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU)

The contents of this publication are the responsibility of RODI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the donor. The photographs of these stories are the property of RODI, and are not necessarily the

subjects referred to in the stories.

The Tanzania Men as Equal Partners (TMEP) project in Rukwa is implemented by the Resource Organisation Development Initiative (RODI).

Writer: Leah H. Mwainyekule I Editor: Gideon Manda I Photos: RODI I Design & Layout: Leah H. Mwainyekule


TMEP project it is implemented at Rukwa region by the Resource Oriented Development Initiative – RODI in collaboration with Local government authority. The project goal is for communities to fully exercise their rights to sexual and reproductive health as a basic human right. Furthermore, the purpose of the project is to scale up access to sexual and reproductive health and rights information, education and services for all, especially underserved groups. TMEP is implemented in the Sumbawanga District Council (covering 27 wards), Sumbawanga Municipal Council (covers 13 wards) and Nkasi District Council (covering 17 wards), making the total of 57 wards in the region. The project implementers are the Education Department- In school youth peer education and teachers from primary, second-ary schools and colleges; the Health department; Service provid-ers from government and private health facilities; Community development; Youth and adults peer educators; folk media groups; Faith Based Organizations; Collaborating NGOs and Local government leaders – from district to village level.

The project implementation and achievement focuses from five project results, which are: Result 1: Men as agents of change. Improved involvement and participation of men in promoting SRHR and tackling gender ine-quality in their communities. Result 2: SRHR information. Men and women have increased access to accurate information and dialogue on SRHR. Result 3: SRHR services. High utilization of SRHR services (including family planning, HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment) by both men and women. Result 4: Capacity building. Implementing partners and stakeholders with strong capacity for promoting gender oriented SRHR and meeting the needs of both men and women. Result 5: Mainstreaming and advocacy. Male involvement and gender-oriented SRHR integrated into plans and activities of national government, local government, and civil society organizations. The projects special effort is emphasizing men’s shared responsi-bility and promoting their active involvement in responsible parenthood, sexual and reproductive behaviour which includes family planning.

Getting to know the TMEP project

Foreword

W HEN fourteen year old Michael Kasitu told his dad that he should start helping his mum to tend to the baby, he did-

n’t know what to expect. He was waiting for either a slap or a beating of his life. Neither of them happened. Instead, his dad asked what the hell was he talking about. And when Michael explained, the old man agreed to adapt to the changes. Today, Michael is one of the many proud pupils from Sumba-wanga Rural in Rukwa region who have helped change the com-munity. They are ambassadors of change regarding the subject of Tanzanian Men as Equal Partners (TMEP). TMEP is a program that is implemented in Rukwa region by the Resource Oriented Development Initiative (RODI) with funding from the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU). The aim of the project is to partner with Tanzanian men for gender oriented sexual and reproductive health and rights promotion. “We are six in our family and I am the fourth born. Ever since I started understanding things I had never seen my dad involved in household activities. So after I received the training on sexual and reproductive health, I decided to sit down with him and ask him to help mum with our younger brother,” explains Michael, a standard seven pupil from Ufundi Matai Primary School. Of course Michael was terrified that he might be reprimanded from his action, but instead his father just asked him why is he the one delivering the message, instead of a grownup. The young boy told his dad that even he was capable of delivering the message and be understood. And his dad did understand. “Ever since that day my dad changed completely. My younger brother was sick one day and he carried him and took him to the hospital. In the past it was only my mum who used to do that,” he explains, adding: “And to top it all, my dad normally calls my brothers to sit down and listen to me give them this education, so the whole family is really involved in all the household chores nowa-

days. Actually I normally teach my 22 year old brother how to protect himself from unsafe sex,” he says with a smile. Elisha Kasongo is another young ambassador. Since he received the education on sexual and reproductive health, he made it his personal mission to preach the word to his colleagues at school as well as neighbors. “Some of them laugh at me, teasing: have you become a woman nowadays? But I explain to them that we should all be doing the house chores together, because even girls need to rest and study just like us when we come back home from school. They under-stand, and they are honestly changing because I have shown them by example,” the boy says. Sarah Kusongwa, a fellow ambassador says that her focus has been mainly to her fellow girls, focusing on sexuality. “I normally advise them not to start engaging in sexual acts while still at school. I explain to them how early pregnancies could affect them, especial-ly during child birth. It has helped; the last time we heard a pupil was pregnant at this school was early last year. Since then every-body knows that it won’t do them any good,” she says. Another ambassador, Teresia Msangawale says that it has been a good thing to include them as peer educators, since sometimes it has been a taboo for parents to sit down with their children and tell them about the changes in their bodies as they reach puberty. But now that they know, they are able to spread the message to their peers. For a place that is best known for parents shunning away from speaking to their children about reproductive health issues, the TMEP program has been an eye opener to the whole community and a strong wheel for change. They have been taught, they have listened, and now they are taking positive action. It is definitely something to be proud of.

The Proud Pupils of Rukwa

F IVE years ago, Henry, Sweetbert and Justine were proud fathers.

Each of them had more than six chil-dren, and they still had room for more. Actually, they still wanted more and were in the process of add-ing to their number. But now they feel ashamed. All they can do is dedi-cate their lives into preaching to their fellow men that manhood is not found in the large number of children that you have. These preachers are part of a number of villagers from Swaila village, Mkwamba ward, who are now peer educators in the Tanzania Men as Equal Partners (TMEP) project in Rukwa region. Their aim is to make sure that absurd beliefs do not exist anymore. TMEP is implemented in Rukwa region by the Resource Oriented Development Initiative (RODI) with funding from the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU). The aim of the project is to partner with Tanzanian men for gender oriented sexual and reproductive health and rights promotion. “I was actually intending to continue having children until God tells me to stop,” says Henry Fungameza, a resident of Swaila. “I have 13 children from three different women, and if I hadn’t re-ceived training on sexual and reproductive health, I would have definitely gone on.” Henry says that the education he got was an eye opener for him to see that what he was doing wasn’t right. He now knows that some of the problems that come along with having too many children; are not being able to take care of them, health problems for the mother and even death, as well as the mother not being able to engage in developmental activities and failing to maintain her beauty. “The other problem is that in our culture, it is normal for a healthy man to have not less than twelve children,” says Sweet-bert Satele, who is also the Village Chairman. He adds that even women themselves feel proud in having too many children, saying that they have to continue making babies until all the eggs finish in the womb. The village chairman says that he already has eight children, and after having the first four from his first wife, he decided to marry another woman so that he could get more children. But now he feels the pressure because he has to pay cows as bride price for all his sons when they want to get married. And according to him, it is wearing him out.

“But now things are changing in our village,” says 30 year old Jus-tine Kasonso who got married when he was 23 and already has five children. “We made a mistake because we did not have this edu-cation, but we do not want our colleagues to make the same mis-take as we did. We now teach them on sexual and reproductive health, and trust me, it is working,” he says. Just like the other fathers, Justine is now a TMEP peer educator. He makes sure that he talks with all young men and women who have not gotten married yet, so that they could understand the dangers of having too many children without planning. Through the program Justine has formed a choir group at church called the Choir of Saint Cecilia. The group involves young men and women who are single, and they have benefited a lot from the teachings of the program. He says that there was a time when unmarried young women used to fall pregnant, but right now that is no longer the case. All those villagers agree that the program has helped them a lot to understand that birth control is a very important thing. They now feel like they were really unknowledgeable and wish that the pro-gram had arrived earlier. But nevertheless, they have decided to help educate others. And the best part is that even women now do not want to wait for all the seeds in the womb to be used. If one doesn’t follow birth control, they scold her. For the villagers of Swaila, that has been a very important step. They have learnt their lesson and now they want to educate others to be as educative as they are right now. For them, being the fa-ther of too many children isn’t really something to be proud of anymore.

Using birth control as a tool to development

F OR the people of Rukwa, their culture is something they hold to

with high esteem. And some of such cultural norms are very clear, for example: The man decides, the wife obeys. Furthermore, when it comes to the harvest season and one of them takes the produce without letting the other know, the conclu-sion is also clear: The man has taken what is rightfully his, while with the woman, it means she has stolen it. That has been the lifestyle of resi-dents of Swaila village in Mkwamba ward, Nkasi district in Rukwa region. To them, equal opportunities were simply not on the menu. But now all that is changing, thanks to the Tan-zanian Men as Equal Partners (TMEP), a program that is imple-mented in Rukwa region by the Re-source Oriented Development Initia-tive (RODI), with funding from the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU). The aim of the project is to partner with Tanzanian men for gender oriented sexual and reproductive health and rights pro-motion. “It has always been terrible during the harvest season,” explains Juve-nile Mmanzi, the Swaila Village Exec-utive Officer (VEO). “I solve so many cases that have to do with men sell-ing all the produce that was harvest-ed without involving their wives in the decision making.” And to top it all, when the case reaches the village office the man claims that he is the head of the house and could do whatever he pleases. But in Swaila, that was never the case when it came to the wom-an selling harvested produce without the man’s permission. She was simply called a thief, accused of stealing from her own hus-band, even if they both dripped sweat in the farm. Since the TMEP program was introduced in Swaila, they have seen a lot of change as well. The peer educators in collaboration with the village government have been able to use public meetings to address the issue. The village government has even reached a point of inviting peer educators into the village development

committee, so that they could assist in training other mem-bers about the matter. Right now there has been a decline in reported cases in-volving a harvest dispute com-pared to previous years. In 2010 and 2011 there were so many cases being reported to the village government office, but until now only two cases have been reported. “In the beginning of the pro-gram when we used to talk with men and tell them that they have to involve their wives in decision making, they were shocked. They actually asked if we were planning for women to take over and con-trol them, but we continuously explained to them that even the women had the right to be involved in matters pertaining to household issues,” says Paulo Maliyatabu, the Mkwam-ba ward councilor. He adds that even during meetings that have to do with HV/AIDS topics, the sexual and reproductive health topics are included, and nowadays peo-ple do not murmur anymore about it as it was in the begin-ning.

In his meetings the councilor is normally accompanied by both a primary and a secondary school teacher so that they could help educate other villagers who are there. This involvement of teach-ers has helped a lot because the teachers now feel that they have the power to continue spreading the word to everybody in the community, and especially their students. For African societies, culture is very important. And of course some cultural practices are good and have to be encouraged. But as the Swaila residents had realized, the cultural norm of not in-volving women in decision making wasn’t doing anyone any good at all. They have now gotten rid of it, and the TMEP program has proven once again that good change can happen.

Making decisions as a couple

T HE end of the month is here and the villagers are gathered at the lake shore for the game of the day. Everyone is excited

and looking forward to it. Some are cheering, some are clapping, and some cannot believe their eyes. The contestants are women, and they want to prove that they can do anything. The game at hand? Rowing the boat! Rowing the boat, widely known as “kusoza” in the local language, is a kind of game played by women of Kipili ward in Nkasi district, Rukwa region. They do this game as an awareness campaign for the Tanzania Men as Equal Partners (TMEP) project, aiming to partner with Tanzanian men for gender oriented sexual and re-productive health and rights promotion. The project is imple-mented by the Mwambao Development Movement (MWADEMO) through their partnership with the Resource Oriented Develop-ment Initiative (RODI). It is funded by the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU). “We play this game to show the community that as women, we can also be able to participate in such sports activities. It’s not only rowing the boat that we do; we also have swimming compe-titions and play soccer as well,” says Leokardia Kaloto, one of the sports ladies. She says that after the TMEP program started and they learnt about reproductive and sexual health matters, they decided to get into action by showing people that they can also do anything. They started their sports group in 2011 and have a lot of support-ers. “And actually we have even more male supporters than fe-males during competitions,” she says, adding: “One day we want to have a match against the men. It would be great and we will definitely win.”

Gaudensia Mnyema is 58 years old, and she explains that during her years when she was in the twenties, it was not normal for a woman to be doing such activities. “People thought that we were weak, and therefore not strong enough to be able to handle a paddle; but not anymore,” she says. She explains that when the TMEP program was intro-duced, they were over-whelmed. “We were so hap-py that now people would believe that even us can do stuff being done by men. The

men didn’t believe that we could perform, so they were so sur-prised when they finally saw us engage in these sports activities,” says a happy Gaudensia, adding: “And besides, it even helps us to exercise and be fit.” Zulieta Sumba is also a member of the team. She says that nowa-days men are happy when they see the women competing in a soccer match, and they even shout out their names while they are in the pitch. Recently, the Kipili women’s soccer team had a match against their Kilando counterparts, and they won by 2-0. And even during their ‘rowing the boat’ competitions, the shores of Lake Tanganyika along Kipili are full of cheerful fans. It is nor-mally a huge event mostly during the end of the month, and fans come all the way from the neighboring villages of Mandaulwile, Kalungu, Mandakelenge and Kipili itself. “We are now teaching our children in our homes on how to share responsibilities, and it is helping a lot. Things are changing here and at least we can now see ourselves as equal partners. Even our children love it and love helping around the house without caring whether they are boys or girls,” she explains. The women of Kipili are very grateful for the program, believing that at least now they are being recognized as equal partners, as real human beings. They want to prove that they can be useful whenever possible, and they also want the program to go beyond their borders so that many more women could be respected as well. These women will continue to row, row, row the boat and they will never be stopped.

Row, row, row your boat…

F OR most of the parents from the rural areas of Rukwa region, sending a girl to school meant trouble. All they expected in

the end was a pregnant child who hadn’t even finished primary education. Little did they know that one day, a pregnancy-free school could be possible. Now they know. The introduction of the Tanzanian Men as Equal Partners (TMEP) project has been a savior for most girls living in Matai ward in Rural Sumbawanga. The education they get on gender oriented sexual and reproductive health and rights promotion has been the answer. Scholastica Lupogo is a teacher at the Matai Primary School. She is a peer educator in sexual and reproductive health for the pro-gram on Tanzanian Men as Equal Partners (TMEP) that is imple-mented in Rukwa region by the Resource Oriented Development Initiative (RODI), with funding from the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU). The aim of the project is to partner with Tanzanian men for gender oriented sexual and reproductive health and rights promotion. According to Scholastica, they have now introduced the subject at their school and it has helped a lot of pupils to know that there are some things that have to wait until when the time is right. “Our school, for example, has seen a tremendous fall in pregnan-cies at school since the program started and since we started teaching the children,” she says. According to the statistics, there were six pregnancy cases at the Matai Primary School in 2010, three in 2011, but now there are none. “We have been teaching them about the dangers of early preg-nancies and it has helped a lot,” the teacher says. That is also the case with the Mkapa Primary School. Teacher Boniventura Feruzi admits that the program has helped a lot in educating the kids about the things they are supposed, and those that they are not supposed to do. At their school, there were five pregnancy cases in 2010, two in 2011, and now the count is zero. But Boniventura also claims that parents are the root cause for some of these early pregnancies to their kids: “Parents here normally convince their daughters to start associ-ating with boys who come

from a family that owns a lot of cows, thinking that it will help them financially. In the end the girl gets pregnant and is aban-doned,” he explains. However, that is now changing, thanks to the TMEP program. Boniventura is also the peer educator for adults in Matai. He therefore teaches them about not forcing their daughters to start being involved with men. “We have formed two different groups of men and women, and these groups are also involved in soccer games. When there is a soccer match a lot of people attend, and after the match we start educating them about sexual and repro-ductive health,” he explains. The peer educators of Matai also have different groups of children involved in educating their friends on the same subject. The chil-dren are involved in performing arts where they act and sing dur-ing market day, and the messages in their performances help change the mindset of people regarding the subjects. “The matches have been so loved in our community. If two weeks pass by without a game, people start asking when the next match will be. They ask lots of questions. Of course it was challenging in the beginning because the community thought that we wanted to change them into women, but now they have understood that we all have responsibilities to carry,” he says. The two teachers point out that in the culture of the Wafipa – the local tribe of Sumbawanga – you could never see a woman play soccer or a man fetch water. But now that has all changed. And the best part of the story is that girls in Matai have now real-ized what they are worth – priceless. They have learned to respect their bodies and they definitely do not want to drop out of school because of an early pregnancy. And they also know that this edu-cation has to be spread to all girls out there, because they deserve it.

Saving the girl child from unwanted pregnancies

T HE pregnant wife has gone to the antenatal clinic for check-up. The husband is home and furious that his wife has taken

so long there. He is waiting for her return so that he could show her who the real man is. And yes, as she comes back he sends her packing, accusing her of infidelity. What he doesn’t know is that he has been totally unfair to his wife. But there is only one way to know…the puppet show! The puppet show is a performing arts tool being used by youths in Kipili ward in Nkasi district, Rukwa, to campaign for the gender oriented sexual and reproductive health and rights promotion. And these youths even have an artistic name – Sound Beach Boys. The Sound Beach Boys of Kipili are the favorite artists of Kipili. They perform their duties under the coordination of the Mwam-bao Development Movement (MWADEMO), who are partners of the Resource Oriented Development Initiative (RODI) in imple-menting the TMEP project. It is funded by the Swedish Associa-tion for Sexuality Education (RFSU). The Tanzania Men as Equal Partners (TMEP) is a project that aims to partner with Tanzanian men for gender oriented sexual and reproductive health and rights promotion. The Sound Beach Boys (SBB) implement this project through performing arts, whereby they use puppets to send the message and even sing rap songs that campaign for the program. Bazilio Kapunda is MWADEMO’s Executive Director, he says that the artists have managed to do public awareness using puppets after attending a two week training in Sumbawanga, and the shows they do have managed to attract a lot of people because it is something new seeing puppets do the talking. But what is most important is that the message reaches the community. In the puppet show called “what you don’t know…” Mama Sadiki is being accused by her husband of going to meet other men and

coming back home late, claiming that she took long at the antena-tal clinic. The husband sn’t want to listen. He first beats up his pregnant wife and tells her to leave his house. Unfortunately, some neighbors who are his friends agree with his decision, saying that women now have so many excuses to meet their boyfriends behind their husbands’ backs. Luckily, one passer ----by hears the men talking proudly, then he advises them not to misjudge their wives. He tells them that husbands have the responsibility of es-corting their wives to the antenatal clinic, and that way couples who go there are given first priority than those who do not. Baba Sadiki understands, and promises to take his wife back and be with her whenever he is required. “When we perform shows like this, you see a lot of people listen-ing to us attentively and laughing at the humor. But what is most, they get the message and have their questions answered after the show,” says Desderius Msafiri, who plays Mama Sadiki’s voice. Lazaro Godfrey Kayumba is a rapper of the SBB and William Medad Kamangu is a dancer. “We use all these methods to attract people. People love entertainment, people love a little bit of laughter, and so if you use performing arts to send your message to the commu-nity you will definitely get good results,” they explain. The boys say that their aim is to do as much shows as possible so that they could create awareness on reproductive and sexual health issues, and they believe that by working hard on their per-formances, the community will really appreciate the education that they are getting. The Southern Beach Boys might be a group of only seven young men, but it is a group with a difference. It is a group that performs to bring positive change in the community, and all this is done through puppets. Through such kind of entertainment and humor, you could definitely expect the best.

The puppet show as a life changer

“THIS program arrived late. Where was it all these years?

It is such a pity that it is about to end while people have just

started to realize its importance. We pray that it continues

so that we could be able to reach other people who need to

know about this.”

Those are the sincere cries of sincere people with a sincere

objective of serving the community. Their cries – if heard

– will help save a lot of people, including the girl child.

The girl child, who, culturally is vulnerable. If their sincere

cries are heard, the community will be a better place to live

in.

Ward Coordinators of the Tanzania Men as Equal Partners

(TMEP) project in Nkasi district, Rukwa region, are the

sincere citizens who want to make their community a better

place. To them, partnering with men for gender oriented

sexual and reproductive health and rights promotion, is the

best thing ever.

TMEP is a program that is implemented in Rukwa region by

the Resource Oriented Development Initiative (RODI), with

funding from the Swedish Association for Sexuality Educa-

tion (RFSU). And the ambassadors of this program in

Rukwa have learned a lot, and believe that a lot is still to be

done to bring change to the society.

“We come from the coast over here, and people there have

misconceptions about women, they say a woman should

work more and a man should rest,” says Sweetbert Kapala-

ta, TMEP’s Ward Coordinator in Kirando. “If the project

could be expended we would be able to reach the cattle

breeders who are very difficult when it comes to these is-

sues.”

Sweetbert explains that there are some cattle breeders from

the Sukuma tribe who take care of cows, and to them, a girl

is not supposed to go to school. They believe that she

should help in taking care of the cattle and other chores.

Giles Chabani agrees with him. He is the ward

coordinator for Mkwamba, and also a teacher

with Mkwamba Secondary School. “In the past

we didn’t have students from the Sukuma tribe

being enrolled in schools, but right now ever

since the program started there has been an im-

provement. We now have two boys and one

girl. But we still need more,” he says. “For the

Sukumas, a child has to take care of the calves,

so we still have work to do to change that,”

adds the teacher.

He explains that the other problem is that the

Sukuma women are so afraid of their husbands,

because to them, the husband is the one who

makes all the important decisions. So even if they do want

their kids to go to school, they wouldn’t dare raise the issue.

And this also needs more time so that it could change.

“The program has been so great because most of us didn’t

know a lot of things, but then the change started with us and

we have been able to spread it to other people. But we need

more time. Ending the program in 2013 is like having a very

tasty sweet in your mouth and then it is taken away before

you finished it,” he exclaims with a serious look in his eye.

Giles insists that if the program continues, they will be able

to reach more people. When the program was starting, he

says, they had real difficult time in educating people about

reproductive and sexual health, and they were laughed at a

lot. Now that people are really starting to understand, it is

better to continue to maintain that.

John Kibabila is the ward coordinator for Korongwe. He

says that they have done a good job in educating the commu-

nity about reproductive and sexual health, and people are

now getting used to seeing them educate in various places,

such as clinics and even bars. He has even managed to form

different clubs that have helped people to be aware of the

importance of respecting the woman and assisting in various

forms of work.

“But it is also true that if we end the program in 2013, we

wouldn’t have reached a lot of people, especially those who

are in the interior. And I think that it is very important for

the program to reach them, and it will be a huge success,” he

explains.

The voices of the TMEP ambassadors are a good indication

that the program has been accepted and the community is

also ready for change. If change is what they want, change

is what they should get. After all, at every end there is sup-

posed to be a success story.

Crying for a well deserved extension

“This product is made possible by the generous support of the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU). The contents are

the responsibility of RODI. and do not necessarily reflect the views of the donor.”


the book - tmep

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