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Tourism – It is a man’s world – no it is not! Only in Zanzibar it seems to be the general idea that tourism is for men. Worldwide most jobs in tourism and hospitality are occupied by women.

Women are not taking the opportunities that are available for them in Tourism. Why? Maybe it is the lack of education and families holding their daughters back and stigma that associates tourism with drugs, alcohol and prostitution.

There is a need to go into the communities where there are tourism attractions and convince parents and husbands to give girls a chance. There is much work to be done here. We started with community outreach projects for girls in 2019, as a pilot, it was a success and from that moment onwards 50% of our students have been girls and we are working hard to keep it that way and increase and improve the position of women in tourism job market. It requires much more than just providing education. It requires making sure that the girls can work in an area where they are respected and save and feel comfortable.

Achievements 2021

Women’s day event with 150 participants
50% of our students are girls
Two Community Outreach program in 4 locations
Growth of social media reach to 900 likes
5% of Kawa staff is a woman
Weekly girls meetings
Established a Kanga Fashion show and group of Kanga fashion models
20 girls participated in a bicycle race (the first price was won by one of our students)
15 girls joined the “Kimbia bila shaka” marathon
15 girls learned how to swim
3 girls became swimming instructors
Developed sexual harassment protocol for Kawa and hotels
5 girls completed a video production course
8 girls joined the teacher training Course and organized the outreach
Maintained strong partnerships with Daraja Foundation and Kimbia Bila Shaka

Activities and objectives 2021

Outreach

We start ourcommunity outreach program of 2 weeks prior to the start of the course, we do the outreach in 4 different places. It is a two-week course, and it includes English, career development, entrepreneurial skills and wellness and health activities for girls.

At the end of the week girls are selected and are offered a part -scholarship for a 15 month training program in Entrepreneurial skills, Hospitality and Tourism.

Part of the scholarship isprovided by our donors but we find it very important that the students also contribute something towards their school fees. It can be inthe form of a Pay it Forward loan. That means they can study now and pay it back later once they have found a job; part of the school fees can be paid back by doing jobs for Kawa or one of Kawa’s social enterprises, and during the course there will be a focus on entrepreneurial skills, starting with very simple ways of making money such as chapati making business, soap making etc. that they can even do from their homes and with their families support.

Scholarships for girls

We have made a promise to the world that 50% of our students must be girls. Most girls have no financial means to pay for the course and even the transport to school, therefor we need to raise funds so that they can join our courses. In June 2022 we will start with a 15 month course. The main aim of the course is to make sue that students find employment in the Tourism and hospitality industry or as an entrepreneur. The course focusses much on the student herself and on competence building, Including healthy living, financial literacy, job readiness training etc. Graduates will be supported in finding employment after the course.

Building relationship with rural communities

We need to put a lot of effort into this program as we are reaching out into the communities where lack of education is eminent as well as the fact that parents do not see the need of letting their daughtersstudy. For this we need to continue to build on the relationship that we already have in the villages to reach the elders and parents so that at least girls will be allowed to study.

We think would be good to have 4 meetings at each community with the parents and village leaders.

Round table meetings

Quarterly round table meetings with successful women in Tourism who function as patrons for the female students with discussions with different topics such as the progress of the Promoting Women in Tourism Committee, how they can support the girls, what issues are they facing and how we can make changes.

Girls Club

We have weekly Girls club meetings, here we discuss typical girl issues, and we prepare them for the reality of working in a hotel and what to do if they get harassed sexually. Graduated students come and explain about the job that they are doing and share successes and challenges that they are facing.

Girls sport activities

We train weekly for running, swimming and walking and students are encouraged to cycle and we offer yoga for free to our students. We have 3 of our graduates who have become swimming instructors. We join Marathons together. Most girls have no shoes or sports clothes.

Sexual harassment protocol

We to empower our students to stand up to sexual harassment and to know that they are not alone and they can always come to us for help and advice. Many hotels do not have a sexual harassment protocol in place. And we will not send trainees to hotels that don’t have a sexual harassment protocol implemented.

We want to work together with hotels who want to implement a sexual harassment protocol, we need to involve more people, businesses, organisations and the government and also present it to the ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Youth and Women.

Re-usable sanitation pads

During menstruation many girls and women use old cloths that often leak and are uncomfortable and unsanitary. Many girls and women miss some days per month of school and work. Commercial sanitary pads are expensive and bad for the environment.

We have supplied our female students with reusable, environmentally friendly sanitary pads packages produced by Africraft and sponsored by Panda Juu Foundation

The sanitary pads are easy to use, inexpensive, recyclable and made from environmentally friendly materials.

The package includes: 5 pads, A bag, A waterproof bag , Sanitary soap, A pencil and a schedule to keep track of the menstruation cycle, Instructions, 2 underwear

We have supplied our current students with a re-usable sanitation pad package, this is pilot project and we will feedback from the students to see how they experienced the package.

Kanga Fashion Show

To build confidence and to promote culture we have started with the Kanga Fashion Show project. Kanga is a local fabric which consist of two pieces and has a proverb on it. Every women in Zanzibar uses a Kanga and there are many expressions of the Kanga, how you wear it has a message, the message itself etc. There are many ways of wearing them and our girls have excelled in the wearing the kanga’s in a “Haute Couture” style. It is fun to do, fun to watch and has potential for income.

World Woman’s day

Every year we celebrate Women’s day –We invite girls and their teachers from the highest classes of the high schools in and around Stone town. We have different events and activities. We prepare a morning with information about Tourism, and jobs in tourism and we find issues to debate, every year a different theme, in the afternoon, the girls will go on a tour guided by one of our graduate tour guides. The tour will have special stops and will be designed to celebrate and show cast the possibilities for women in general and with a focus on Tourism.

Video production

To produce 3 promotion videos per year either for promoting tourism, sports, highlighting a successful Zanzibar women , fundraising etc.

Capacity building for the Promoting Women in Tourism group

The focus will be on making this group official, with proper meeting set ups and reporting, goal setting and recording achievements. With the aim of creating career opportunities for them in women empowerment.