Women's Initiatives in Tanzania

Acorn Women's Group

The Acorn Women’s Group and Coöper­a­tive (AWGCO)

“To cre­ate a soci­ety that under­stands, recog­nises, respects and pro­motes women’s equal par­tic­i­pa­tion in eco­nomic empow­er­ment with a focus to alle­vi­ate poverty with­out dis­crim­i­na­tion”.
— Con­sti­tu­tion tenet of the Acorn Women’s Group
and Coöper­a­tive, Tan­za­nia NGO

When even the pos­si­bil­ity of clean avail­able water is intro­duced, women begin to dream of bet­ter lives for them­selves and their fam­i­lies. With less time spent in acquir­ing water, income-​​producing activ­i­ties are wel­comed and embraced. And with new income oppor­tu­ni­ties, the doors to eco­nomic empow­er­ment open, lead­ing women to many new lev­els of decision-​​making, com­mu­nity par­tic­i­pa­tion and social justice.

The Acorn Women’s Group and Coöper­a­tive (AWGCO) was offi­cially founded in 2011 as a Tan­zan­ian NGO and is a coöper­a­tive part­ner with It Can Be Done. Its essen­tial mis­sion is to pro­vide strate­gic capac­ity build­ing for Uru women. This includes sewing, quilt­ing, craft mak­ing and small busi­ness skills needed for Fair Trade prod­uct and mar­ket development.

It Can Be Done is serv­ing as an ini­tial advi­sor and a finan­cial sup­porter of the AWGCO, pro­vid­ing needed start-​​up assis­tance, as they strive for self-​​sufficient sus­tain­abil­ity. Essen­tial equip­ment, build­ing repair and skill set devel­op­ment is being sup­plied by ICBD vol­un­teers in the Jan­u­ary 2012 Mis­sion Trip to Uru.

$10.00 buys beads to cre­ate jew­elry
$20.00 buys kanga cloth to make bags & gar­ments
$150.00 buys a sewing machine

Your dona­tion pro­vides dig­nity and income earn­ing pos­si­bil­i­ties to the women of Uru.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE AND SUPPORT WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT!

picture of women quilting

Essen­tial Prin­ci­pals and Con­sti­tu­tional Tenets of the Acorn Women’s Group and Coöperative

  1. To pro­vide and develop quilt­ing, sewing, craft­ing and small busi­ness skills to Uru Women.
  2. To cre­ate women’s small busi­ness groups and pro­vide them with sewing machines, craft­ing mate­ri­als and other key items.
  3. To embark in train­ing and teach­ing of Uru women in mod­ern skills regard­ing quilt­ing, sewing, craft­ing and weav­ing industries.
  4. To pro­vide Uru women’s small busi­ness groups with basic com­puter equip­ment and fun­da­men­tal train­ing for mod­ern busi­ness and inter­net communications.
  5. To pro­vide the Uru women with tech­ni­cal knowl­edge of using avail­able local mate­ri­als in mak­ing goods which can be sold in local and inter­na­tional markets.
  6. To pro­mote and encour­age eco­nomic empow­er­ment for women to increase and sus­tain their busi­ness income.
  7. To encour­age Uru women to exhibit and sell their hand made prod­ucts in local and inter­na­tional trade fairs and in retail estab­lish­ments that pro­mote Fair Trade prac­tices, for improv­ing their income and that of their families.
  8. To pro­vide strate­gic capac­ity build­ing to all women in the Uru community.
  1. To cre­ate a soci­ety that under­stands, recog­nises, respects and pro­motes women’s equal par­tic­i­pa­tion in eco­nomic empow­er­ment with a focus to alle­vi­ate poverty with­out discrimination.
  2. To fight against women’s dis­crim­i­na­tion in deci­sion mak­ing from fam­ily, vil­lage to national and inter­na­tional level.
  3. To trans­form unequal gen­der dis­crim­i­na­tion which per­pet­u­ates mar­gin­al­iza­tion of women.
  4. To alle­vi­ate poverty and cre­ate steady eco­nom­ics through women’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in deci­sion mak­ing and through the ini­ti­a­tion of women’s infor­mal eco­nomic sup­port groups.
  5. To ensure that eco­nomic oppor­tu­ni­ties exist­ing in areas like micro­fi­nance insti­tu­tion are shared equally.
  6. To expand and open up more oppor­tu­ni­ties for women to actively par­tic­i­pate at all com­mu­nity lev­els of Eco­nom­ics, Human Rights, Democ­racy and Local Government.
  7. To raise funds for the pur­poses of the com­pany on such terms as are com­pat­i­ble with the auton­omy of the com­pany and within the spirit of its social and edu­ca­tional objec­tives and for fur­ther­ing the goals of this organisation.

It is also the aim of the organ­i­sa­tion to advo­cate for the rights of women and chil­dren by:

  1. Fight­ing against dis­crim­i­na­tion of women and chil­dren on the mat­ter of inher­i­tance par­tic­u­larly where there is no will.
  2. Ensur­ing that the rights of women and chil­dren are protected.
  3. Pro­mot­ing arbi­tra­tion as an effec­tive dis­pute res­o­lu­tion mechanism.
  4. Cam­paign­ing on the elim­i­na­tion of child labour so as to con­tribute to the world wide move­ment to com­bat the child labour prob­lems, pri­or­ity being accorded in chil­dren work­ing in worst forms of child labour con­di­tions includ­ing chil­dren in pros­ti­tu­tion, debt bondage, self­dom, forced labour, armed con­flict as well as in other dan­ger­ous and haz­ardous occupation.
  1. To coöper­ate with other organ­i­sa­tions hav­ing sim­i­lar goals and objectives.
  2. Estab­lish­ment of a net­work and branches of the com­pany in other parts of Tan­za­nia on soci­ety level.
  3. Facil­i­ta­tion of exchange of knowl­edge with other organ­i­sa­tions worldwide.
  4. Gen­er­ally to do all such other things as may appear to be inci­den­tal or con­ducive to the attain­ment of the above objec­tives or any of them on a char­i­ta­ble basis.