Violence Against Women
She is talking on the phone as she welcomes me for the interview with a benevolent smile. “Karibu sana,” she leads me to a seat at Econo Lodge at Kisutu Dar es Salaam.
Meet Maimuna Kanyamala, the executive director of Kivulini Women’s Rights Organization in Mwanza.
Earlier this week, she was recognised by the US Embassy in Tanzania as the ‘2011 Tanzanian Woman of Courage’ for her efforts in promoting women’s rights in Tanzania.
On the award Kanyamala says that, she is very happy that her contribution to the society has been recognised.
“It was a big surprise. I take it as a big thing and I think it comes with a lot of respect,” says Kanyamala, the 56 year-old, mother of three.
“I see this award as a challenge to me and the people I am working with. People are now looking at us and would like to see what difference the award will make in our work,” the woman who lost her husband in 2008, after being married happily since 1979, says.
Kanyamala believes that the award will propel the organisation to greater heights and will help the community.
The organisation that has pushed her to the spotlight is Kivulini Women Rights Organisation. It was established in 1999, by six women who decided to break silence on violence against women and girls at Bugando area, Pamba ward, Mwanza.
By then Kanyamala worked for another NGO, Kuleana so she first came in as a volunteer. In 2001 she formally moved over to Kivulini.
So how did it all begin? Concerned about the many incidents of violence against women and girls in the Lake Victoria region, Kanyamala felt compelled to do something. She sold the idea to her friends, one a retired teacher.
“At Bugando area there were so many cases of violence. It was done openly and no one dared talk openly about it,” Kanyamala who describes herself as a kind woman who likes challenges, says.
Female Genital Mutilation was also rampant, and I decided to take a step and do something to change the situation,” she adds.
Her idea was a hotcake. “My friends retired teachers and nurses agreed on the idea and it took us a month to start mobilising small groups of women and girls,” Kanyamala says. Since they didn’t have offices to conduct their meetings they would sit under a tree to discuss issues. That was the birth of the name ‘Kivulini’, Kiswahili word for ‘shade’.
Kanyamala and her friends went on to start fighting against violence as they were convinced that it undermines the respect, self-worth and dignity of women and girls.
Plus they saw a link between children who grew up in a family with violence and eventual violence in the society. Other children ran off to the streets to escape the violence at home thus creating a vicious cycle of poverty. But soon there was a problem. “Men felt threatened and the organisation was labelled as ‘anti-men’,” she says.
This justification had its root in a man who died after he was jailed for slashing his wife ears. “He died due to poor health and prison conditions,” Kanyamala says.
That was back in 2000.
“It was very challenging to handle such a situation. It is the worst experience in my work. I was very saddened,” she says.
But that was a tip of the iceberg. Most of the cases they handle at the organisation, she divulges are quite foregone. “Like we witnessed a pregnant women who was hammered to death while pregnant by her husband,” she says.
Yet, despite having grand plans the members had to bankroll Kivulini projects from their pockets. But luck came their way in 2001 when it received its first grant from McKnight Foundation, the grant was directed taken to economic empowerment to women programme as we worked with FINCA, SIDO, and Mwanza Women Development Association.
Today, Kivulini has 23 staff members, and the organisation get funds from Hivos-Netherlands, American Jewish World Service, Terre des Hommes-Switzerland, Better Way Foundation- United States of America, Ant Slavery Foundation and Oxfam GB/Novib.
One of her greatest pride is the fact that they have been able to win men by their side.
“Now I can see some improvement as men also take part in supporting our efforts,” she says.
In fact , to show how much the community appreciate her services, in 2006, Kivulini was awarded a plot at Nyakatenda Village in Musoma after they conducted training on violence against women. The people asked Kivulini to build a home at the village so they could get to learn different issues on women and Tanzanian culture in general.
Gerald Kasanyi, a leader at Nyakatenda ward, says that the training showed them and they would be happy to have a permanent home for training.
Kanyamala completed her primary education in 1969 at Mbalali Primary School in Mbeya. She did her O-level in Loleza Secondary School from 1970-1974, and later 1975 joined Shinyanga Commercial Institute for a certificate in secretarial duties.
In 1976 she joined army service for one year and got her first appointment in 1977 as a Secretary in Dodoma at the Capital Development Authority.
In 1991, joined the National Social Welfare Institute in Dar es Salaam, and gardauated with a certificate in labour studies.
In 1992, got a job as administrative officer at Family Planning Association of Tanzania.
“I have always been one to look for fresh challenges,” Kanyamala who admits that her mentors are Rakesh Rajan and Mustafa Kudrat, founders of Kuleana, a child rights group, says.
In 1994 she joined Kuleana Centre for children as an administrator. Three years later she was promoted to advocacy officer position. She was still at the Kivulini organisation that she thought up the idea of Kivulini.
Still the top gear would not stop at that. In 2004 she took her first degree in development studies in Arusha. In 2006 she got a sponsorship by Irish Aid through Irish Embassy in Tanzania to do a postgraduate Diploma for one year in Ireland. And in 2010 she got her Masters in development studies at the same college.
During her stay in Ireland she got a platform to interact with different organisations dealing with women and girls issues and she formed a partnership with some.
Banulacht, which deals with feminism issues, is one of them. And in 2007 a group of nine women visited Tanzania from there to attend a gender festival. Likewise in 2009, seven women from Tanzania visited Ireland.
Kanyamala says that the partnership called Woman now, is a grass root movement in Mwanza which, educates people from grass root levels to make the government accountable for people’s life.
The movement also educates on gender-based violence, maternal mortality and morbidity and the importance of education and poverty eradication.
The US has committed over $7 million in 2011 to help reduce gender-based violence in Tanzania.
Her future plans. To teach the community that ‘violence is unnecessary and costly, peace is the only way.’