The Culture and Women Advancement Foundation (CWAF) is a prominent Tanzanian NGO, established on April 24, 2017, with registration number 00NGO/0009166. It was founded by individuals who recognized the pivotal role of peace and security in societal progress and understood that poverty cannot be alleviated without constitutional rights, good governance, and democracy.

CWAF’s primary goal is to foster community development by promoting public engagement in economic growth and facilitating economic empowerment. The organization also facilitates conflict resolution between communities, advocates for cultural preservation and artistic expression to reduce poverty, and promotes collaboration and economic growth among Tanzanians. Its overarching mission is to create a poverty-free society with sustainable economic development, guided by transparency, accountability, trustworthiness, honesty, and equality.

Since its establishment, CWAF has been actively involved in addressing poverty and combating violence against women and girls in local Tanzanian communities.

While the creative industries, particularly the arts and fashion, have recently offered significant job opportunities and created safe spaces for creative expression, the available options are not uniformly dispersed and shared. Furthermore, religion is frequently perceived as a continuance of patriarchy, whereas feminism is seen as excluding males from the discussion. As a result, our project intends to bring together and focus attention on feminist and faith-based artists, curators, authors, art critics, faith leaders, teachers, and others from diverse creative backgrounds to promote and facilitate national dialogue aimed at promoting women’s entrepreneurship in the creative sector through a focus on fashion creativity. Support establishing an art and fashion studio, strengthening capacity, and organising art exhibitions and fashion events to promote women’s empowerment in the creative industry.

The established art and fashion studio or hub will provide a chance for female artists and fashion designers to use the space and resources available to produce their art and design for fashion for economic empowerment. The knowledge gained during the capacity strengthening program will assist them in expressing themselves to the community through art and fashion to close the economic equality gap between men and women in the creative business.