We would like to introduce a project group called WAMAHU which is also in Mwika Town.
They are group founded by active ladies, who are called the "Mamas", which is used to show respect and friendliness.
WAMAHU stands for Wanawake Maendeleo na Huduma (Women, development and Services).
1. MISSION AND VISION OF WAMAHU Vision
The vision of WAMAHU is to be the leading women organization in Moshi Rural aiming to develop women and support the needy.
WAMAHU has a mission to facilitate training, education and to provide services to the needy groups while investing in small businesses for capital development.
some members of the group
2. THE PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES OF WAMAHU
i. To improve and raise the life standard of the members of the group and their communities through establishment of different small projects and also providing different services where they can.
ii. To provide education and training to the fellow women so as to bring changes in their lives and also enable them to work together to fight poverty in their families and the community.
iii. To provide education to the youth on the following issues;
· To understand themselves on adolescence and changes in their bodies
· The proper use of their time in performing different activities (time management)
· The effects of drug abuse and alcoholism
· To help and support them in forming different groups to bring solidarity and the spirit of working together.
iv. To support and provide different services to the orphans, widows, old/aged people and the sick in their communities.
3. CURRENT CHALLENGES WHICH WE NEED SUPPORT
WAMAHU group has a dream of reaching all those who are in needs which falls in their scope of work. The major obstacle in fulfilling this dream is finances. To be specific these are the challenges we are facing;
- Lack of permanent office
- Poor technology and lack of appropriate equipments since we are doing our activities locally, we wish to have the following equipments to facilitate our operations;
- Sewing machines for our students
- Tractor to expand agriculture and help other women within the area of our operations.
- Computer to keep our records effectively and also for preparing some required notes for the seminars.
- The demand of services from WAMAHU group is rapidly growing, we need to expand the level of our operations since there are so many people who are in need of different support and also services provided by WAMAHU. Example
i) Orphans:
Currently there are 350 orphans in our community who needs support to sustain their education. They need school fees, uniforms, pens, pencils, rulers, exercise books, bags and different contributions. We get information concerning the orphans from the people in the community and some of them they face us asking for certain support as mentioned above.
ii) Geriatrics
There are 60 geriatrics that are living in poor houses which needs to be repaired. We need iron sheets, some equipment to repair their windows, doors etc. There are some who need blankets, mattresses, bed sheets, clothes and some food staffs. They also need some advice and counseling so that they can be able to eat balanced food. We met these people in the course of walking around our communities visiting and helping the orphans. Most of them were asking for help telling us about their conditions that they were facing some difficulties and there was no one to help them and also no one was taking care of them so we thought it was important for us to support them to solve some of their problems.
iii) Alcoholism and drug abuse
The number of young men and women involved with drug abuse and alcoholism is rapidly growing due to life hardships and these need education about the effects of drugs and alcoholism.
iv) Education about HIV/AIDS and other Sexually Transmitted Diseases
WAMAHU wants to go through primary schools to provide education to the pupils about HIV/AIDS and other STIs. As such to start with we want to start with 10 schools. To accomplish this we shall need facilitating equipments like books, chalk, duster, pens, flip charts, marker pens, masking tapes etc. We are trying our best to educate the youth and we think visiting them at their schools providing education we shall be able to educate a good number of them and most of them will be aware concerning HIV/AIDS and other STIs.
4.1. Establishment
WAMAHU stands for Wanawake Maendeleo na Huduma (Women, development and Services). This group was started by six women in November 1996. Today the group has fifteen women.
The idea of establishing this group came in October 1996, when three of the founder members attended a workshop which was conducted by women journalists from Dar-es-salaam called GRAFCA. The workshop was about the importance of communication and networking in business for the development of the communities. So the group was established to enable the members to work together to improve their own living standards as well as those of the surrounding communities through service provision.
In 1999 this group was recognized at the Local Government level and it was operating in Mwika Southern ward, Moshi. WAMAHU is operating covering the population of about 18,702 people according to the 2002 census and it has got an excellent track record in helping people in need to meet some of their basic necessities of life like food, shelter, health care services and education. Due to its excellent reputation and eagerness to expand coverage of its activities, WAMAHU was registered as a Community Based Organization (CBO), at the District level, with Reg. no. MJ/MDC/06122010, in year 2010.
4.2. Source of income
When we started, the source of income for this group was the entry fees and the shares from the members of the group. Then we started small businesses in agriculture, animal keeping and needle works. We were operating at an economic cost making sure that the members and the community benefit from our operations so we were not aiming at profit maximization. As a result the community saw our efforts and in the year 2000 this group was approached by several orphans who needed support from the group. Some of them were asking for different school equipments, food, support in hospital bills and some wanted advice and they were given so more of them came and as a result the members agreed to start the orphanage services and many orphans have benefited from WAMAHU.
In 2001, a small group of old women from Germany, saw the efforts of WAMAHU group in helping orphans and decided to join hands by providing some funds in orphan services for seven years, this funding lasted to 2008. Since then we have maintained the services to orphans but under critical financial constraints.
4.3. What have we achieved so far
Almost fifteen years since its establishment, WAMAHU group is proud for its achievements though not to the extent the group would have liked. With the great commitment we have in doing this work we were able to perform the following;
i. We initiated different small projects which we are dealing with them to improve our incomes, these includes;
· Pig and cow keeping
· A sewing workshop and class for the orphans
· Making tablemats
· Tie and die of batiks and also painting and decorating different clothes
· Buying and selling different food products such as maize and beans (arbitrage)
ii. We were able to provide support and different services to the people in our communities
· 288 orphans were helped
· 29 geriatrics (old people) were supported and we enabled them to establish their group
· 64 sick people were supported and given different healthcare services
iii. In education, WAMAHU was able to conduct different seminars to various groups in the society. Lessons conducted were about the following issues;
· Youth, adolescence and changes due to growth
· How to formulate small groups and writing constitution for the group
· Family planning
· HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases
· Effects of alcohol and drugs
original post card
various textiles used for making clothes
