The Dreams of Mothers and Grandmothers

I remember asking a young girl in Tanzania once who in her life had been an inspiration to her. Who was her model or her ‘hero?’ She told me it was her mother. It’s not that she didn’t know about Rock Stars or Movie Stars. Her role model truly was her mother and her response really is not that uncommon.

The celebration of Mother’s Day in North America is only a few weeks away. I can’t help thinking about the mothers and grandmothers I know in Longido and Kimokouwa. They’re very remarkable women. I could show you hundreds of photos and tell you so many stories. They’d be about women of great courage, with stamina and strength and resilience, who will do anything for their children and grandchildren. Their lives will not be celebrated on the second Sunday of May. But you should know they share this earth with you and I and they are very important – to their families, and in their villages and bomas.  Few have positions of prominence or power yet without them advocating on behalf of their daughters for education, the change that is happening in Tanzania today would not be taking place. 

Some of the mothers and grandmothers in Longido and Kimokouwa.

Because I have the good fortune to travel back and forth to Tanzania I see the change. It's seldom reported in the news - all the hopeful things that are happening in Africa. The changes are small and incremental, too, and can be so easily missed. And the women are at the heart of it all. They want their daughters to have lives better than the ones they have, "with education and without FGM", as one grandmother said to me.

There is a very old coco or grandmother in Longido who is raising her grandchildren, as so many women do. She has worn a path to the TEMBO Office, having come so many times to request sponsorship for the girls in her care. Somehow she knows that going to Secondary School, or receiving Vocational Training or Teacher Training holds the possibility of a different and better future. She's right. It does.

I hope you will remember all these women in Tanzania this year as you and your families prepare to acknowledge with appreciation your mothers and grandmothers. TEMBO will meet as many sponsorship requests as it can this year - to provide education opportunities for daughters and granddaughters. The women tell us it is such a great gift. It is the realization of their dreams.