Support street-connected girls & women in Tanzania

 Dear Friends,

I’d like to share with you a story from Amos Trust's partner in Tanzania, Cheka Sana.

Neema* is 21 years old, and a mother of two. Her son is 5 years old, and her daughter is just four months old. The Cheka Sana outreach team met Neema on the streets of Mwanza’s city centre one night in June this year, where they regularly meet girls who are involved in sex work. Neema was involved in sex work too. She was 9 months pregnant when the team met her. 

Neema had come to live and work on the streets of Mwanza because of the abuse she was suffering from her parents at home, after the birth of her first child. Most of the time, her parents wouldn’t provide her with food, and kept on asking her about the father of her child, who had run away when he’d found out about the pregnancy. “I remember the first day I came to the street; it was terrible, and I was so scared because I didn’t know if it was the right thing to do”.

Neema started sex work because she needed money to survive; she said when she started, she believed sex work might make her rich and she could start a different business. However she soon became pregnant again; she was so distressed, she even tried to abort it but wasn’t successful. Neema continued working while pregnant; this was when the Cheka Sana team met her. It had taken time to build trust, due to the many times she had been let down by adults in the past. But eventually Neema began to trust the Cheka Sana staff, and began to attend counselling sessions with her own case manager, who also helped her to get to a clinic to be supported with the later stages of her pregnancy; she gave birth to a healthy baby girl. 

The self-defence and business training offered by Cheka Sana gave Neema the boost to take some steps into a life she wanted for herself and her children. She made a business plan for selling women’s underwear. She received a small grant of 11,000 TSH in October, with a friend, and to date has grown her capital to 54,000 TSH. The regular profit she is already turning is helping her to pay rent on a house for herself and her children. She is no longer involved in sex work, and has been rebuilding her relationship with her parents, with the support of Cheka Sana’s family workers. Neema also feels connected with the community members around her, in the neighbourhood where she lives; she is healthy, happy and looking forward to a bright future.“I believe one day I will own my own shop; I will be a good entrepreneur, and my children and I will have a happy family”.

Thank you for your support. Wishing you a peaceful and healthy New Year. 

*names changed. 

Dear Friends, 

In the last three months, Amos partner Cheka Sana Tanzania has kickstarted a project responding specifically to the needs of teenage mothers living or working on the streets of Mwanza. The team had identified on outreach that this was an increasing need, and that there were increasing numbers of girls on the streets who were becoming mothers themselves or were at risk of early pregnancy. 

During the first three months of this initiative, Cheka Sana have identified 27 girls who they have invited to become involved: 11 are already mothers, 13 were at risk of early pregnancy and 3 were currently pregnant. The project has started using mediation and counselling to build trust and a friendly relationship with these girls; offering play sessions for the young children of girls who are involved; and using individual and group sessions to support them. The group sessions on the street in particular are intended to help girls get to know each other and form a support system for each other whilst still on the streets. 

Cheka Sana’s team has already linked a number of girls with essential health services, including helping 17 of them register for health cards which enables them to access healthcare for themselves and their babies. Two girls who were pregnant also required legal assistance, because they’d previously been domestic workers and their contracts had been terminated unlawfully, leading them to come to the streets. 

With your support, Cheka Sana can continue to build trust and provide support to these girls and young women, as well as many more they may encounter. 

Thank you.