WOMEN CHANGING WORLDS

When a family in Kibaha, Tanzania needs dinner the mother has to walk for 3 hours to collect the water, hike for over an hour to collect firewood and then return to prepare the meal. She does this after labouring on a local farm all day. Women in some communities can spend as long as 6 hours a day carrying heavy loads of water and fuel. As a consequence, they are often physically exhausted and are more vulnerable to malnutrition, disease and poor health. Undoubtedly, women bear the greater burdens of poverty. Consequently, they must become a focus for any human development.

The reasons why women are more exposed to poverty than men are complex. They are a result of a variety of factors including their low status, limited access to family planning, illiteracy, changes in traditional and subsistence work, poor wages and natural disasters. The following diagram illustrates how different factors in many developing countries affects the workload of women and the health, income and nutrition of their whole family.

Diagram 1: Women and Work

CAUSE

EFFECT

Women are among the poorest in our world. At the same time, it is through women that many of the answers to improving the livelihoods of individuals and communities lie. Caritas Tanzania recognises this. Let's have a look at a small case study of Tanzania.

TANZANIA

Did you know?

   Tanzania is located in Africa.

   The population is 33.7 million.

   The life expectancy for men is 44 years and for women is 45 years.

   Adult male illiteracy is 16% and female's is 34%.

   The fertility rate is 5.1 births per woman.

   Malnutrition affects 29% of children under 5.

   The prevalence of HIV in men is 4% and women 8%.

Figures from World Bank database at genderstats.worldbank.org/ 

Maps courtesy of www.theodora.com/maps used with permission.

Caritas Tanzania

In 1998 Caritas Tanzania conducted a survey that found "women often are the poorest and most exploited group in Tanzanian society". Consequently, they designed a program to address gender inequalities and development. The program had two main aims. Firstly, to raise awareness about women's development issues and secondly, to assist in changing the social structures of society. Caritas Tanzania developed four specific projects to try and fulfil these two aims. The projects are:

1. Savings and Credit Scheme (SCS). This scheme aims at alleviating poverty in poor and low-income families that are locked into poverty because of their lack of access to money and poor business skills. The program assists women with loans as well as training in financial management and the running of a small business.

2. Gender Development Sensitization Program (GDS). This is an educational project. Seminars are conducted to encourage discussion on gender equality issues such as the unequal status of women in relation to access to resources and decision-making. Both men and women participate in these.

3. Adult Literacy program. This is a 12-month program for the poorest of the poor. 80% of participants are women. Basic literacy is taught in the first 6 months. During the next 6 months literacy is linked to everyday experiences such as health, childcare and other development areas.

4. Single Mother's Empowerment. This program focuses on young mothers living in a specific slum area, Manzese. It recruits women who participate in three workshops: assertiveness building, business management and awareness creation (with a particular focus on HIV).

As a consequence of these programs, women and men have been empowered to make decisions about their own and their family's future. Caritas Tanzania has been successful in linking gender issues with community development. Caritas Tanzania is a fantastic model for positive human development. It is continually helping people help themselves and their communities.

For more information about Caritas Tanzania visit www.tanzania-africa 

TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIVTIES

Geography/HSIE/Studies of Society and the Environment

1. Go to the following website genderstats.worldbank  and fill in the following table on Global Gender Statistics for the year 2000 (NB: For some cells you may have to leave a blank as there are no statistics available).

GLOBAL GENDER STATISTICS

Country	Populations (millions)	Male life expectancy	Female life expectancy	Male adult illiteracy	Female adult illiteracy	Fertility rate	Child Malnutrition (% under 5)
Tanzania	33.7	44 years	45 years	16%	34%	5.1 births	29%
Australia
Cambodia
PNG
Vietnam

Note: PNG is Papua New Guinea

2. Look at the table you have created. Write down 10 observations from the table.

Mathematics

1. Complete activity 1 in the HSIE section.

2 a. Choose 3 categories from the table and think about the most effective way to represent each in a graph.
   b. Create three graphs.
   c. Get into groups of three and compare the graphs you have created. Discuss which graphs were more effective than others.

English

1. Use the information from Diagram 1 - Women and Work in the discussion piece above to write three paragraphs on how different factors affect the poverty of women in majority countries. The titles for your paragraphs are:

   a. Little or no wood for fuel
   b. Lower sales of produce
   c. Drought

Make sure you include a topic sentence in each paragraph.

COMMUNITY AND PARISH GROUPS

1. In groups of 3, visit the International Women's Development Agency website at www.iwda.org.au/ and click on the link to 'The Stories of Women's Lives'.
   a. Allocate each member of the group a nationality from the following list: Cambodian, Vietnamese and Papua New Guinean.
   b. Each member is to read a story about a woman from that country then come back to the group and re-tell the story.
   c. Discuss the similarities and differences between the three stories.

2. Visit the following ozspirit site www. and read the section titled 'Why are so many of the people who do not have access to education women?'. Discuss the following:
   a. Give reasons why more women are illiterate then men?
   b. Explain why educating women is such a critical step in breaking the cycle of poverty.
   c. Caritas Tanzania is taking important steps to educating women. What specific educational areas is Caritas Tanzania focusing on?

3. Visit the Caritas Tanzania website at tanzania-africa and click on the link to Savings and Credit Schemes. Discuss the following:
   a. What is the program?
   b. Why is it successful?
   c. In what way is the program a good model for development?

Other Useful Links

www.undp.org/gender/   This is an excellent website that informs, advises and facilitates United Nations Development Program activities related to gender.
www.iwtc.org/   This website provides information to women's groups and organisations working to improve the lives of women.
www.wedo.org   WEDO is an international advocacy agency that aims to increase the power of women as decision makers and politicians.
http://fijiwomen.com/  provides useful information about Pacific women's organisations working on violence against women.
www.forceten.org.au   provides information on Caritas' development work in Cambodia. Many of the projects are specifically aimed at women.