Presentation to LSE Feb21 for Zero Tolerance Day

1. Tanzania Development Trust
Janet Chapman
j.chapman@tanzdevtrust.org

3. Rhobi Samwelly – local rep, FGM Survivor and
Activist, Mara
https://hopeforgirlsandwomen.com

4. Girls are rounded up during the
‘Cutting Season’
when they are on school holidays
70% +
50% +
Less than 50%
FGM Prevalence in Tanzanian Women and Girls 2016

5. What Hope does:
• Community Outreach
• Set up anti-FGM school clubs
• Film Screenings
• Run 2 Safe Houses
• Map the villages where girls are at risk
• Set up Digital Champions there to monitor and protect girls
• Re-educate cutters
• Help in prosecutions for FGM, rape and GBV.

6. Community Outreach:
Many years experience of
delivering village events in our
community.
These include dramas,
traditional dance and music,
debates and community
forums.
We deliver a compelling
message on the dangers of
FGM and girls’ rights.
Local FGM survivor and Hope
Director Rhobi Samwelly

7. Safe Houses:
Hope runs Safe Houses
at Mugumu and
Butiama.
These offer a sanctuary
to girls refusing FGM
during the cutting
season.
We have rescued over
1000 girls from FGM to
our safe houses, and
stopped many more
from being cut in the
villages.
Afterwards we start a process of reconciliation
with their families and most return home,
where we continue to monitor them.
Those who can’t continue their schooling if they
can, or learn a trade such as tailoring.

8. School anti FGM clubs:
We have set up 29 anti-FGM school
clubs focused on human rights and
the health implications of FGM
involving 720 pupils.
Girls are not to be sold for cows!

9. Film Screenings:
Rhobi’s work was featured in
the award winning film, In the
Name of Your Daughter.
A grant from CFLI allowed us to
organise film screenings in
Butiama villages to take the
powerful message of hope and
resilience shown in the film.

10. Mapping:
Typically we would get a phone call
in the middle of the night saying girls
were about to be cut in x village. We
had no maps, it is dark and there are
no road signs, so it was very difficult
to find them quickly.
Therefore since 2015 we have been
working with Crowd2Map to map
these villages to help protect
vulnerable girls.

11. This is rural Tanzania:
This is Dar es Salaam:

12. International
volunteers create a
base map of roads
and buildings from
satellite images.

13. MAPPING ON MAPS.ME
We train field
mappers in rural
Tanzania to add
their local
knowledge to the
map using
Maps.Me, a free
smartphone app
that works offline.

14. And train the police
and activists to use
the maps to quickly
find and protect girls
at risk.
They also add
missing places to the
map.

16. Digital Champions:
We have set up digital champions in
all 87 villages in Serengeti, with a
smartphone for the 1st time, linked
in a WhatsApp group.
They help us monitor and protect
the girls in their village, and report
any issues.

17. Digital Champions
show the first map of
their village to their
neighbours.

19. Re-educating Cutters:
We have managed to persuade 6 cutters to
ceremonially destroy their tools and stop
cutting girls. These cutters are now
helping girls not to be cut in their
communities by helping them reach the
safe house and providing anti-FGM
education to the community.
This is a brave step for these women, and
not always supported by their family or
husband, who miss the income and status
their role brought. Hope has worked with
them, educating them on how to start
alternative small businesses selling cereals
in the market, and provided them with
small seed capital to do this.

20. Rhobi was invited to speak at
the UN General Assembly in
New York in September 2018,
and also organise a mapathon
at UNFPA.

21. To coincide with this
we held a global
mapathon events in 60
countries.
Including at the
Ministry for Women in
Somalia, in Mali,
Guinea, Kenya, Niger,
Uganda and many
others.

22. Challenges:
We are running 2 safe houses in rented buildings with inadequate
water and sanitation. We need funding to build a purpose built centre
on land we have been given.
We receive no government funding so running costs are a challenge.
With additional funding we could expand our successful vocational
training and digital champion programmes.
Further details on our website.

23. Particular challenges during COVID - now
• Increased number of girls due to
school closures
• Difficulty in quarantining girls who
may have been infected in very
crowded conditions
• Big drop in funding due to no tourism
sales and major challenges of getting
food from our farm
• Plans for Alternative Rites of Passage
on hold due to ban on large meetings

24. Challenges to come?
• Will court cases and police activity
continue if COVID increases?
• Without community outreach will
FGM resurface?
• If economic conditions deteriorate will
girls be married off?
• Will we be able to feed the girls we
are protecting?
• ????

25. Please help us protect girls from
FGM!
Janet Chapman Rhobi Samwelly
j.chapman@tanzdevtrust.org mndlutume@gmail.com
@tanzdevtrust @HopeForGirlsTZ
@crowd2map