STOP RAPID UNBEARABLE EMERGING CULTURE OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN TANZANIA.

Photo by UN

 📌JASMINE SHAMWEPU

GENDER-based violence (GBV) and human trafficking are severe, bloodshed, humiliation, indignity, uncivilized and harmful practices hasty emergent in Tanzania and all other neighboring countries of East and Central Africa. In this feature Jasmine Shamwepu looks deep at how this culture of torturing is widespread and why human trafficking is on the increase in some of regions of Tanzania.  The special focus is a collection of the voice of people in Dodoma Region where both children and women are the most victims of the surfacing harmful culture of human trafficking.

This kind of series of anthology will look at recommendations made by stakeholders and the standardized steps that the Tanzanian government has taken to implement them through a short and long term strategic plans. The article further reflects on how the law still needs to be popularized and developed in order to better implement human rights. How the Tanzanian government can further this with regard to human trafficking and GBV.

This is a global pandemic, a widespread and pervasive infringement on human rights and well-being that has no social or economic boundaries. The statistics revealed by World Health Organization (WHO) are shocking when violence against women and girls are involved:  

One-third of women worldwide or nearly 1 billion women  have or will experience intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime.  This is equivalent to the population of Africa. 

As that is not enough, recent global estimates indicate that 60 million girls age 20-24 were married before age 18. Worse still, 125 million women have experienced female genital mutilation/cutting globally.

More shocking statistic is the amount of murders of women committed by an intimate estimated at 38% worldwide.

Researches reveal that human trafficking is involved in these phenomena as most women and girls are ensnared with intent for marriage and job opportunity only to end in violence. This is a form of harmful practices embedded with human trafficking.

The Tanzania National Peace Committee of Religious Leaders in collaboration with No distance that has no end Project implemented by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT)   has denounced the violence and all forms of harmful practices against women and children commending for gender equality and equity in the struggle for family growth and national sustainable development.

The Chairperson of the National Peace Committee Right Revered Fredrick Shoo (Bishop of ELCT, Arusha Diocese) said recently in Dodoma that the committee members met to discuss modalities of empowering women to participate in the action to end gender based violence and all forms of harmful practices against women which have tremendous impact on their economic and social rights.  He said that harmful practices oppressing child girl deny them their rights. “We see more being forced into child marriage and human trafficking deals, added Bishop Shoo.

The religious leader mentioned harmful traditional, human trafficking, forced and early marriage, intimate violence, early pregnancy and lack of faith in religion,   being among the most detrimental practices upsetting women and adolescent girls in particular.

The plight of the adolescent girls in Tanzania is very startling. We want to learn the extent of the problem and exchange views and experiences on how to create enabling environment to empower women and girls. There is still much need to sensitize communities to see the girl child as valuable and important. 

According to Bishop Shoo the girl child does not participate in family and community decision-making, even on issues related to their own lives. The schools in rural areas leave much to be desired in terms of hygiene and convenience for girls in puberty.

As charitable organizations, leaders of religious has a key and crucial role to play in the battle by providing humanitarian support such as relief services, rehabilitation and prevention efforts.  Before charities and donors embark on a project or campaign, its essential to gain a comprehensive understanding of gender based violence including the human trafficking landscape. “Through the Action by Churches Together (ACT) and by engaging the community and our counterparts, we need to be educated about the scale and root causes of the problems and the key organizations and initiatives involved in the fight against this despicable crime. Elaborates Bishop Shoo adding that, knowledge will help us identify the most impactful projects and strategically allocate funds to support in prevention efforts. 

The Live Sustainable Development Program Coordinator, under ELCT Patricia Mwaikenda reiterates the root causes of violence against women and children, saying that they are grounded in power imbalances. “Abuse of power occurs along the dimensions of both age and gender. The status of children as dependent on adults, along with their evolving capacities, render them highly vulnerable to all forms of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation while violence against women is underpinned by social norms that reinforce gender-based inequalities.

Mwaikenda articulates that girls and women face specific types of violence that are both a consequence of this inequality and that act as a mechanism through which their subordinate status in society is perpetuated. Violence against boys and girls and violence against women often occur together and have shared multiple risk factors, she adds in an exclusive interview.

Additional drivers of violence against children and women according to Mwaikenda include structural and systemic factors such as poverty, unemployment, weak legal frameworks, armed conflict and humanitarian crises which should be controlled. 

In the context of weak legal frameworks, laws, policies, and justice and social welfare systems, children and women often fall through the cracks and are not able to access or receive the care  and support required to prevent and respond to violence. These factors, coupled with an absence of implemented policies, adequate services and social action in the country, have contributed to a situation in which violence against women and children is often normalized, and thus risks intergenerational transmission.

In Tanzania, and Dodoma Regional in particular violence against women and girls (VAWG)  also referred to as violence against women, gender-based violence, or sexual and gender-based violence  is worse in the records of human rights activists.

Dr. Benta Matunga, Senior Lecturer at the University of Dodoma, articulates the Dodomas main types of GBVs including human trafficking as an established, recognized and imposed to the victims including the most vulnerable children and women.  Why these groups are the most affected and where in Tanzania the quandary is most prominent?   She rings a bell to activists to inquire the reasons for engrossing women and girls? 

According to Dr. Matunga there are many factors but the effects of the Tanzanian economy and the culture in the country is considered with respect to these issues. For example, Tanzanias economy is largely oriented around agricultural production but variations in rainfall are not without effect. More investment in agriculture and agribusiness should be indispensable to rural women she recommends.

Nevertheless, according to the World Bank, the country regularly posts impressive growth and has, in effect, outperformed other developed countries and fast-emerging economies on occasion. Yet the World Bank has also cautioned that the benefits of Tanzanias economic growth mostly elude rural populations, who comprise the majority of the countrys poor.

As a financier of development projects, the Bank now supports millions of dollars in development projects aimed at addressing VAWG across many different sectors, from health and education to infrastructure to promotion of anti-human trafficking.  Last year, the World Bank joined the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence Campaign starting November 25 through December 10 from the International Day for the Elimination of all forms of Violence against Women to International Human Rights Day.

Estimates published by WHO indicate that globally about 1 in 3 (30%) of women worldwide have been subjected to either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime.

As that is not enough, the investigative under this study states that almost all human trafficking victims rescued from human trafficking in Tanzania were enticed in the illegal trade by false promises, extra force and poor awareness. The most vulnerable groups are girls and children being trapped with such promises due to poor economic and low educational standards.

Nasma Nassoro at 15 year old, narrates her stories to justify the way she was enticed in the illegal trade by false promises. The family friend convinced my parents, residents and farmers at Kondoa in Dodoma region, Nasma said in an exclusive interview adding that after completion of her primary education, she joined her parents in the farm when a lady from Dar es Salaam came to negotiate with them. She promised to find me a decent job in the city. My parents agreed, Nasma laments.

It took her just a month before realizing she was trapped in wrong destination. One day three men knocked the door at midnight. Previously, my employer had told me little about the three visitors to night. She didnt tell me the right time they would arrive and what to do when they arrive. Worse still, she gave them an extra key of my room. When they arrived, I was naked and sound asleep on my odd bed. It was too hot. I thought I was dreaming when I saw them in my room.

Tall men with masquerade. Who are you in my bedroom at this hour? Nasma screamed. No one answered. She trembled with shock. Nobody was there to rescue her from this menace.

Nasma Nassoro further narrates; they commanded me to wake up and pack my outfits and follow them immediately. I resisted. One of them pointed a weapon on my face. When they tried to force me, I put on my skirt and cheated them to allow me go in toilet, there I jumped out through the window and hide from view under the large water tank. The dogs barked angrily, scaring them when I heard them promising furiously to come back next day and kill me.

Early in the morning I walked out and escaped. I met a neighbor woman who told me the full story about the wicked trade of my employer. She has been collecting young girls for human trafficking and shipping them to Arabs and other foreign countries.