UN Women helps women-led businesses to recover from effects of COVID-19 in Arusha
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Saiton Musa from Arusha, could not hide her excitement as she worked on her new sewing machine, she had just received from UN Women to see if it was working properly. This sewing machine was part of UN Women’s support to help young women in tailoring business in the Ngorongoro district to revive their businesses affected by the Coronavirus disease.
"This is unbelievable, I was not expecting this kind of support, and I am happy that it came at a time when I needed it most,” 21-year-old Musa said. She was one of the 92 young women and out of school adolescent girls who received some sewing machines and smart phones from UN Women in partnership with the Pastoral Women’s Council. Under the Energize Project funded by the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), a total of 17 sewing machines and 75 smart phones were handed over to support women owned businesses in the pastoral community of Ngorongoro district. Interventions will support the beneficiaries to build economic resilience among women in the tailoring business, where micro and small enterprises in the region were significantly affected due to limited cash reserves and fewer assets. On the other hand, the smart phones will promote the use of digital platforms to improve adaptation of business practices through re-tooling and digitalizing businesses for better marketing strategies and for faster delivery of services online.
The UN Women Representative, Ms Hodan Addou said the support to the pastoral young women and girls was contributing to the National COVID-19 Response Plans for Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar and help affected communities to build back better. “In the Ngorongoro intervention in particular, we are grateful to KOICA for their support which enabled us to respond to the needs of women and girls in time and to contribute in revitalizing the livelihoods for women and girls in Arusha,” Ms. Addou said.
She said UN Women has realigned all its programs to meet the new gender equality needs and priorities in order to support the government to build back better. “In our activities, gender-specific interventions are fully embedded in the short-term responses and longer-term recovery phases, and we are doing this to build more equal communities that can be more resilient to future shocks,” said Ms Addou.