Finland Embassy in Tanzania

ESTL in collaboration with Singida District Council and Singida Municipal Council under the funding support from Embassy of Finland Tanzania, through Finish Fund for Local Cooperation (FCL) managed successfully to implement the project titled “Kick FGM out of Singida Project”  for duration of 2-years from February 2020 to October 2021 in - 9 wards whereby 5 wards of Singida DC namely Maghojoa, Mwasauya, Merya, Kinyagigi and Mughunga and - 4 wards of Singida Municipal (MC) namely Uhamaka, Unyambwa, Mungumaji  of Singida District in Singida region.

The project aimed at raising awareness, changing attitudes and promoting behavior change on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and other forms of violence against children (VAC), young girls and women in Singida Region.

ESTL used a number of approaches such as meetings, dialogues, trainings, workshops, media engagement and use of ESTL’s ICT-Mobile Data Tracking System which accessible via a link (http://estl.or.tz/sms/index.php ) and social medias – Facebook and Twitter for promotion of project interventions to a wide population.  With system impact from June 2020 to September 2020, ESTL received 29 cases which were reported on the system. 15 are currently being investigated by the police and 14 are already underdoing court proceedings. Of the reported cases, 18 were GBV cases (i.e., beating, child neglecting, family separations), 2 early/forced marriages, 2 FGM, 6 raping and 1 raping and sodomy.

The project successfully reached and impacted directly a total number of 29,792(13,212 women and 16,580 men) people and indirectly the project reached 52,678 (25,922 Female and 26,756 Males) people that existence in project areas.  The beneficiaries were imparted with knowledge and awareness on the harmful effects of FGM/GBV practices, and were asked to ensure the practice is abolished. Moreover, the project managed to reach different community groups and institutions such as religious leaders, Youth, Women, Traditional circumcisers /Ngaribas, Teachers, Schools (Primary and Secondary), NPA-VAWC Protection Committees, Males, Children, Clinics, Traditional healers, Traditional and Influential leaders, Community Health Workers, and Traditional Birth Attendants in those wards.

Despite of the project interventions interrupted with Covid- 19, the project managed to make sure that community members are informed of the potential risks and solutions regarding the pandemic through use of community radios and ESTL Mobile Tracking System. During that time the project managed to reach 125,696 people (68,838 females;56,858 males) from Singida DC and Singida Municipal Councils. Through the mobile Data Tracking and Digital Platforms, ESTL is continuing its work to track domestic violence which can happen during this time of crisis. So as to make sure that the primary beneficiaries of their programming-women, children and youth-have information that enables them to stay safe from Corona virus and not fall back to the threat of Gender -Based Violence (GBV).