Twenty-one-year-old Winnie has been her siblings’ leader and mother figure for most of her life. Partly this is because she is the eldest, and partly because her mother was forced to shun Winnie and her three siblings after remarrying another man, a cultural tradition in Tanzania.
At a young age, Winnie and her siblings, Gabriel, Josephine, and Ella, moved in with their maternal grandmother. Their grandmother was poor, and her house was dilapidated from years of neglect. Sections of the roof were missing; its brick-and-mortar walls crumbled after heavy rainstorms. The front door was missing. But still, it was a home.
Occasionally, the children’s mother would sneak away from her husband to check on the children and bring them food, but these visits couldn’t be relied upon for survival. Winnie labored in the fields to provide food for her family. It wasn’t uncommon for her to spend an entire day harvesting ten crop bags only to be given one bag as payment.
As she worked, Winnie dreamed about becoming a safari tour guide. How fun it would be to meet people from around the world and shepherd them around her native land. But the job required proficient English, which she struggled to learn.
Farming earned Winnie enough income to feed her family about one small meal a day. However, accessing a bathroom and sanitation products, such as soap and lotion, clean clothes and properly fitting shoes, were outside their means.
When their grandmother passed away, the frail house was left to Winnie, but she couldn’t afford to make any improvements. Their mother had remarried for a third time, and her visits grew even more infrequent. Years passed, and Winnie became increasingly hopeless that her life would ever change.
But then, in 2022, Winnie heard about Zoe Empowers Tanzania. She joined the Imani Empowerment Group. By then, knowing her limitations with English, she’d shifted her dreams toward mechanics.
Winnie had always enjoyed analyzing problems and finding solutions, and the job of a mechanic seemed like a steady and in-demand career choice. Zoe Empowers arranged for Winnie to receive training at an auto shop in her community. It didn’t bother her that the trade was largely dominated by men. It actually motivated her to be the first female in her community to enter the field.
After months of training, Winnie obtained a full-time job at Sunshine Mechanics. Her employer is too far from her village to commute daily, so she rents a room in the city during the week and returns to her siblings on the weekend.
Thanks to the skills learned through Zoe Empowers, Winnie’s siblings, now 19, 17, and 15, are able to manage themselves while Winnie is away. They attend school and oversee the farmland that Winnie both rents and grows maize and beans.
Since becoming a mechanic, Winnie has replaced the roof of their house, repaired the brick walls, and installed a new front door. More recently, she constructed a new latrine with a handwashing station. She and her siblings now have healthcare and wear clean clothing.
The most noticeable change is Winnie’s confidence. Although she still has a few months remaining in the Zoe Empowers program, she is already proud of her self-reliance and accomplishments in just a few years.
“I now have my own house, bed, clothing, and toiletries, and I even rent my own place close to my work,” Winnie said with a smile. “I’m proud that I can now open my own door.”