Relief as centre is geared to lost dreams of hundreds of Kilombero young mothers
Enlighten Development Organisation is imparting horticultural, tailoring, entrepreneurial, efficient energy, and life skills to the primary and secondary school drop outs.
WEDNESDAY January 15, 2025
By The Tranquility News Reporter, Tanzania
Intense emotions being fresh and strong experiences to teens pose full of risks to the adolescents. Learning to contend with compelling passions at the young age is crucial for crossing the threshold gracefully.
French fries omelet or chips mayai in Kiswahili, a popular Tanzanian street food, has, for instance, been a glamorous lure for schoolgirls.
Peer pressure towards chips mayai is not only real, but also irresistible to most of them, compelling some to cross the line.
Youthful lusts are further testing to schoolgirls from impoverished families. A yearning look in their eyes for the lifestyle of their schoolmates from posh families makes them easy prey for benefactors of a cause, mostly sugar dads.
Alas, serious consequences always await the schoolgirls’ actions as a Kiswahili adage – majuto ni mjukuu – goes.
At the age of 16 years, Brenda Herbert (not her real name) is a young mother to two children aged one year and six months, respectively.
The resident of Mombasa neighbourhood in Ifakara Township, Morogoro Region, Tanzania, is one of the victims of chips mayai.
She resorted to selling sex hoping to consistently munch chips mayai and fend for her family as well, leading her to conceive and drop out of school.
“Life hardships led me to where I am today, my dad had abandoned my mom while my six siblings and I were still at our tender ages,” she narrates.
Brenda is now a single parent just as her mother, a vegetables petty trader, is. “I thought I would save myself and my family only to feel more depressed and ending up into a deep dark pit,” she regrets.
Life hardships led me to where I am today, my dad had abandoned my mom while my six siblings and I were still at our tender ages,” Brenda Herbert, young mother to two children aged one year and six months, respectively.
The man, who impregnated her, disappeared in thin air, and her neighbours kept on ridiculing her.
“I became lonely and weak, with no one to console me, save for my mother,” she says as she recalls how she mulled committing suicide at times to avert the rot.
Brenda is but only one of millions of teens globally grappling with the chips mayai syndrome and the ever changing faces of temptations.
They include temptations to fooling around pornography, drugs, or alcohol, and sometimes to smarting off to parents or guardians.
Edith Kaboka (not her real name) had accomplished her Ordinary Secondary Education Certificate studies and was waiting for results when she conceived.
As we speak, she is another young mother of three children, all depending on her, as their fathers are nowhere to be seen.
“I saw my friends buying chicken chips and thought sex was a worth engaging deal to get pocket money,” she says. Edith confesses that she ended up pocketing a maximum of $1.3 only a day.
Pocket money also lured Gabrielle Mwaikambo (not her real name) into premature sex in 2022 when she was also about to accomplish her Ordinary Secondary Education Certificate studies.
“I could not ask for pocket money from my father, who is blind, and my mother is dead,” the 19-year-old resident of Viwanja Sitini neighbourhood also in the township defends herself.
Peer pressure had actually misled Gabrielle that selling sex would relieve herself and her family.
However, she too earned insufficient money to support herself and her family until the Enlighten Development Organisation (EDO) rescued her.
Gabrielle, Edith and Brenda are among 84 young mothers from deplorable conditions who EDO is through its Swiss Contact-funded Empower Her Through Skills Project training in horticultural and tailoring expertise.
“EDO has renewed my hope and rebuilt my confidence; no man can now lure me into sex once again,” Brenda avows.
She can now feed and raise her children, support her mother, and is grateful to her neighbours for considering her as a mature woman.
With tailoring skills she acquires, Brenda sees light at the end of the tunnel. “I feel peaceful, even my previous thoughts on committing suicide have melted down,” she affirms.
Schoolgirls often prefer to appear fashionable as others with wealthier parents do, that is when they are trapped in the lures of sex,” Gabrielle Mwaikambo, 19-year-old young mother from Viwanja Sitini neighbourhood in Ifakara Township, Kilombero District, Morogoro Region, Tanzania.
The young mothers from five wards of the township, namely Lumemo, Ifakara, Viwanja Sitini, Mbasa and Katengeuka, are also trained in life and entrepreneurial skills, including dyeing fabrics, creating decorations, and applying efficient energy technologies.
Horticulture heavily relies on water from Udzungwa Mountains National Park. Widespread use of the technologies will reduce pressure on the catchment areas, says EDO Director cum Instructor Josephine Said.
In fact, with income from the horticultural and tailoring skills, the young mothers will no longer solely rely on natural resources from the park and other protected areas to eke out a living.
Many other young mothers envy Gabrielle, Edith, and Brenda, as they would also like to join EDO.
“I can now fend for my four siblings and my child,” admits Gabrielle, calling on the government and other well-wishers to establish many other such centres and to equip finalists with working gear.
One of the well-wishers provides each young mother at the centre with $2 a day for commuter bus fare. Gabrielle admits that she goes to and returns from the centre on foot in her bid to spend the money provided on buying foodstuff instead.
“Schoolgirls often prefer to appear fashionable as others with wealthier parents do, that is when they are trapped into the lures of sex,” she observes.
Upon their arrival, along with their children, the first step the centre takes is to awaken the young mothers to the reality of life, their roles in the society, and their own reproductive health, Josephine, the instructor, says.
“Initially, they never bothered the whereabouts of their children while at the centre, we used to force them to breastfeed the children,” she explains.
Josephine pleads with family members to befriend the young mothers instead of isolating, harassing and stigamatising them.
Work hours at the centre officially begin at 8am and end at 3pm, yet some of the young mothers leave late in the evening for fear of huddles they face back home.
High on the agenda of the Empower Her Through Skills Project is imparting various expertise to young mothers for them to either become employable or self-employed.
EDO Executive Director Benitho Miwandu says the project has divided the young mothers into two cohorts of horticulture, with 48 students, and tailoring, 36 students.
Major qualifications for a young mother to join the centre being at the age of between 15 and 30 years, having delivered a child, and becoming a single parent, with neither income nor support from the community she lives in.
EDO identifies the young mothers through village, neighbourhood, and ward leadership. The organisation advertises vacancies at these offices for qualified young mothers to apply.
Finally, EDO, along with the leaders of the local authorities, picks candidates who tick the boxes the most ready for the young mothers to join the centre.
A special room at the centre has been designated for the young mothers’ children, with a matron taking care of them. The centre also provides the young mothers and their children with breakfast and lunch.
After three months of the young mothers pursuing their studies, the project applies for sufficient land for finalists in the horticulture cohort to walk the rhetoric and learn to stand on their own feet.
EDO also negotiates with professional tailors in the township to receive finalists in this cohort for a one month internship before the project provides them with offices and working gear, including tailoring machines and fabrics.
“We thank Dunstan Kyoba, Kilombero District Commissioner, for providing the young mothers with a five-acre land for practicing agribusiness and ultimately, improving their livelihoods,” says Miwandu, pledging:
“The project will be linking up the young mothers with markets, financial institutions, and other development partners for them to focus on their startupsΩ
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The Tranquility News Reporter/Sub Editor, Tanzania
Patty Magubira is an experienced environmental and business editor whose career started at the Tanzania's state-owned newspaper - The Daily News. He is a man of perfection. Aided by his extensive training as a community forestry expert before joining Tanzania School of Journalism. Magubira had successfully held various key posts in newsrooms, giving him an unmatched connections in media fraternity. Having worked as a bureau chief in Arusha and Mwanza, he managed to build a team work, boosting sales to the highest level ever. He was then promoted to a sub-editor after completing a training in Nairobi, Kenya. His incredible experience, critical thinking and exposure are critical to the quality of any media outlet.
