Malezi Chanya Groups: Community Ambassadors Against Gender-Based Violence

Ending gender-based violence (GBV) starts at home and in the community, where children learn how to treat others and where families first notice when something is wrong. In the communities where BAKAID Tanzania works, Malezi Chanya groups have become trusted ambassadors for GBV prevention, bringing education on safe, caring and violence-free families to their neighbours.

Who are the Malezi Chanya groups?

Malezi Chanya (“Positive Parenting”) groups are community volunteer groups formed according to the guidelines of the Government ministry responsible for social welfare. Their main purpose is to provide education on positive parenting to parents and caregivers, helping families to:

• raise children with love, guidance and respect instead of violence and harsh punishment;
• talk openly with their children and listen to them;
• recognise the signs of abuse, neglect and gender-based violence in the home and community;
• know where and how to report cases and seek help.

Because the volunteers live in the same villages as the families they reach, they are known and trusted. This makes them well placed to start honest conversations about difficult issues and to encourage change from within the community.

Bringing all GBV actors to one table

Pictured above is a multi-stakeholder meeting held in Kiromba Ward, which brought together the key actors in the fight against gender-based violence:

• The Police;
• Primary and secondary school teachers;
• the Ward Executive Officer (WEO);
• the Community Development Officer (CDO);
• the Social Welfare Officer (SWO); and
• members of the Malezi Chanya groups.

The meeting gave participants the chance to share what they are seeing in the community, discuss the challenges of preventing and responding to GBV, and agree on how to work together. When volunteers, schools, the Police and ward and government officers know one another and understand each other’s roles, survivors can be referred quickly to the right services and cases are followed up rather than forgotten.

Stronger together

Gender-based violence cannot be ended by one institution alone. By connecting community volunteers with the Police, schools and government officers at ward level, BAKAID Tanzania is helping to build a coordinated community response, one in which prevention messages reach every household and every case of violence is met with action.

BAKAID Tanzania thanks the Malezi Chanya volunteers for their dedication, and the Police, teachers and ward and government officers of Kiromba for their partnership in protecting women, girls and children.