Women Action Towards Economic Development (WATED) was registered in September 2013 under the Ministry of Health Community Development Gender Elderly and Children. All founding members identified were required to attend a Leadership Training in the United States for the studies of:

• Legal – access to justice and legal information to rural communities;
• Health issues to rural communities; participation in ongoing projects to members of the public.

By believing in giving back to the community founding members came up with the idea of having an organisation that will empower the community specifically women and girls at the aspect of leadership, life skills and human right. From the needs identified holistically, we agreed to approach our programs and activities based on our expertise and to bank on partnership with existing local, regional and international organisations.

The project’s main goal is to provide long-term economic solutions by helping people improve their skills. This will help girls and young women between the ages of 12 and 35 who work in the informal sector have a voice, be represented in decision-making and have power in their communities and at work. Also, it wants to add to what the government is doing to help the targeted population get out of poverty. Facilitation, coaching and other skills learned during project implementation will help people get into the formal market with skills, confidence, resources and references.

The project will be carried out in the rural and near cities of Kigamboni, Dares Salaam and Kisarawe, Pwani (Coastal region). In these areas, it’s common for people to get married young, drop out of school because of their lives, which can be hard or involve single parenting, have low self-esteem, lack or low exposure to legal, mental health, coaching, and mentoring services, and have limited access to information.

WATED intends to train 440 identified teenage girls and young women champions in life skills, STEM, starting and growing a business, using technology to find and grow their business, online safety, registering a business and securing its name, securing and business branding, scaling up, and obtaining seed funding for 22 groups of ten selected individuals. 100 participants will serve as trainers and champions. Teenage girls will learn about their body autonomy, birth control and how to report GBV through this project. Young mothers and women who get training will continue to get coaching, mentoring, legal advice, support in making connections and help growing their businesses. Every three months, there will be two weeks of training, including hands-on work, mental health training and counselling.