A Lenten Call: Ministering to Those who are Most At-Risk

(TANZANIA) In early 2014, World Renew Tanzania presented a thought provoking and spiritually challenging concept note about working with the most at-risk populations through the projects of our partner, ACHAMA. The concept note would redefine the way we do our HIV programming in East Africa.

The out-of-the-box idea was the beginning of a paradigm shift in targeting the most vulnerable people who live on the outskirts of the capital, Dar Es Salaam. When the paper landed on my desk, it was an “a-ha moment.”

The first thought that came to my mind was how the idea would be received by other reviewers, ministry teams, and our North American constituents. ACHAMA proposed that "sex workers, ages 15 to 25 years, who live in Yombo, Mbagala and Chanika in Dar Es Salaam city, leave sex work and exclusively engage in other legitimate income-generating activities".

This work would call for innovative strategies to help participants get past the barriers they would run into in trying to change their behaviors. To help them, ACHAMA came up with key activities that improve the girls’ knowledge, increase their skills, change their perceived social norms and address the consequences of the changes. Once the strategies were de-fined, ACHAMA began to work on identifying sex workers in three locations.

This pilot project is now showing signs of becoming a promising practice in HIV and health programming.

When I recently visited Dar Es Salaam, I had an opportunity to interact with some of the girls involved in the program. The joy and hope in their eyes and faces as they shared their personal stories of transformation with me was evidence that this is a timely and worthwhile intervention.

In the last six months, ACHAMA identified and taught 30 girls to train others in tailoring, cooking, and cake decorating. These girls are each working with ten more girls using “kivuko,” (the Stepping Stones methodology) and “Chagua Maisha” (the Choose Life curriculum). In groups, the girls discuss the deeply seated issues that make them vulnerable to HIV and AIDS, gender-based violence, early pregnancy, and poor health. It has not been an easy project to implement, but we give thanks for ACHAMA and its staff who are zealous for community transformation and responding to those who are most vulnerable to injustice, crime, and abuse in their communities. Where others see deviant and immoral girls, they see hope and a future!

As I talked with the ACHAMA staff, I could not help but marvel at the untapped talent among them. Using key messages that were developed in creating the project, they wrote a song titled, "Sema Sasa Basi," a phrase which means, “Say ‘It stops now’.” After listening to the song, I thought, “let's get more girls off the street by helping ACHAMA produce an album!” By making the songs public, the key messages will be relayed on the radio in taxis, on minibuses and in other venues.

ACHAMA staff also said that they have noted an opportunity to reach out to more girls through the tailoring, cookery, and cake decorating vocational training: they dream of opening a vocational training center that will be managed by girls who have graduated from the program. They want to build a business enterprise from which the girls will have a regular source of income by selling their products in local and international markets.

World Renew Tanzania, in partnership with ACHAMA, is ready to host volunteers who can offer tailoring, cooking, and cake decorating training to the girls. This is an opportunity for our North American constituents to have first-hand experience with ministering to “the least of these"—and be ministered to in return. It is an opportunity for a church-to-community partnership that can, in the long run, impact the lives of many girls who are yet to get off the streets.

Prayers for Tanzania:

Pray that God will continue to grant wisdom to World Renew Tanzania leadership as they interact with ACHAMA in the intervention Nema wrote of.
Pray that more girls will be reached
Pray that volunteers and supporters will come forward to help ACHAMA realize their goal of ministering to sex workers.
Pray that more innovative interventions targeting at-risk populations will emerge.
Pray that through the intervention more girls will give their lives to Christ.
Praise for fruitful strategic planning exercise in January.

In Him,