Atuita’s promising future

Atuita is a 19-year-old girl, who despite facing many challenges as a lot of other young girls like herself, such as dropping out of school and peer pressure, managed to achieve her dream of becoming economically self-sufficient. By becoming a cook, she supplies food to her community and earns a stable income for herself.

Atuita is from Sange village of Songwe region, which is in the southern part of Tanzania, bordering Zambia and Malawi. She lives with her parents and two other siblings. Due to challenges associated with poverty which affected her performance in her studies, she dropped out of school after Form Two (equivalent to grade 9) in 2022.

A year later, Atuita joined the Integrated Programme for Out-of-School Adolescents (IPOSA), run by the government, and supported by UNICEF, where she was able to learn to become a cook with additional skills in tailoring, beauty salon, and basic computer skills. She has now become a supplier and cook for Sange Primary School as well as the surrounding community. Some of the items Atuita is good at making include cakes, chapati and other bites.

“Before joining the programme, I was just staying at home with nothing to do except some chores. The skills I learnt allow me to do what I like, and I am working to achieve my dream. I feel happy that through the programme, I am learning a lot, and it has opened opportunities for me,” says Atuita.

Under the adolescent girls’ empowerment programme for ending child marriage in Songwe, UNICEF is working together with partners, including the Government and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), to ensure that adolescent girls are empowered socially and economically so that they can become self-sufficient and productive members of their communities. Through the Integrated Programme for Out-of-School Adolescents (IPOSA), out-of-school adolescent girls aged 14 to 19 years, like Atuita, are provided literacy, pre-vocational, entrepreneurship, and life skills training.  

Based on a market assessment that identified sectors that can engage adolescent girls, the economic empowerment programme was rolled out at selected IPOSA centers to provide the girls with skills such as cookery, ICT, poultry, hairdressing, and agriculture based on their interest and provided additional support such as mentorship. Girls are also supported to become members of savings and loans groups so that they can borrow funds for their entrepreneurial efforts. 

For Atuita, pressure from the community to get married is always haunting her. She knows that her journey has just begun and worries that marriage could end her dream as she will be expected to become a housewife, just like many other young women in her community. “Our neighbors and some few other people in our village sometimes ask me why I am not married, but I do not listen to them. I keep working hard with the support of my parents,” she says. Despite facing lack of support from some community members, Atuita remains focused on her dream and is committed to continue with her efforts. “I will continue to fight for my dreams to be self-sufficient and open my own business despite the challenges coming my way, I won’t stop.”