LPGM works with local partners to improve the safety, well-being and self-sufficiency of adolescent girls in Tanzania who are in imminent danger of early marriage, or domestic abuse.
Safe Schools
Since 1996, Mwangaza, a grassroots, faith-based organization with Lutheran roots, has provided learning opportunities for secondary school teachers and students, women leaders, and community members.
In partnership with LPGM, Mwangaza started the Safe Initiative program in 2018. The goal is to create a safe and peaceful learning and teaching environment. Topics covered during Safe School training include:
- MINDSET to help girls and young women unlock their potential
- SCHOOL CULTURE to review cultural practices and policies to ensure they are supportive to girls
- CHILD PROTECTION to help adults to be conscious of how their daily practices affect the safety of girls
- DISCIPLINE AND ALTERNATIVE PUNISHMENT to sensitize adults on positive ways of disciplining students
- CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION to empower girls and young women to address conflict non-violently
The Mwangaza staff works with parents, teachers, and administrators to encourage positive classroom management, teaching, and learning attitudes and supportive decisions that positively impact student learning.
Donate to Support Safe Schools
$85
provides training for one teacher who can make school a safer, more welcoming place for at-risk girls$550
provides one year of technical training for an at-risk girl in subjects such as home economics, early childhood development, or community health.$220
Helps a girl and her mother participate in training that leads to meaningful dialogue and community-based solutions to gender-based violence.The Impact of Your Support
Safe Housing for At-Risk Girls
Returning to their home villages during school breaks can be dangerous for girls, as they are vulnerable to forced early marriage and pregnancy. In the Maasai culture, it is still common for girls of childbearing age to be exchanged for a bride price, usually food sources. This practice increases in times of food scarcity.
Established in 2022 by Esuvat Lukumay - who herself escaped from a forced child marriage, Eripoto provides safe housing, healthy meals, academic and spiritual support, vocational training, and emotional care for girls escaping from bad home situations. For pregnant girls and girls with young children, Eripoto houses and cares for the children so their young mothers can return to school.
Additionally, Eripoto works with government schools, sensitizing girls on the importance of education and sharing strategies they can use to reduce their vulnerability to forced early marriage and pregnancy. Realizing the importance of parents accepting and supporting a girl's right to education, Eripoto provides seminars to parents in hopes of changing their attitudes.
LPGM is a proud partner of Eripoto. Our travel groups to Tanzania visit the girls and staff so travelers can encourage them and also hear - and share - their stories.
A Past Partnership
In 2004, LPGM completed the Orkesumet Clinic building project in Tanzania with several global partners.
