Leadership Team



Leadership Team

Rachel Stephen

Executive Director

Anuciata Benasius

Director of Operations

Dr. Bwire Chirangi

Board Chair

Bruce Maj Pelz

Founder and US President

Rebeca Oyugi

Senior Program Manager

Paul Sanga

Program Manager

Pendo Messanga

Accountant

Consolata Ladis

Assistant Accountant

Anna Dominick

Assistant Accountant

George Kwilasa

Monitoring and Development Manager

Max Perel-Slater

Founder and Director of Behavior Change and Impact Evaluation

Erna Maj

US Fundraising and Outreach Coordinator

Rachel Stephen

Executive Director

Rachel Stephen joined MSG in 2020 as Director of Programs and advanced to Executive Director in 2023. She grew up in the Iringa Region in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Community Development from the University of Iringa (formerly, Tumaini University, Iringa). She has 10 years of experience implementing and coordinating behavioral changes, income-generating activities, legal aid, health education, and WASH programs in rural Tanzanian communities. She coordinated a WASH program (Usafi wa Mazingira Tanzania-UMATA) for Plan International Tanzania (INGO) from 2016-2020. The program focused on improving sanitation and hygiene through behavior change using the Community Led Total Sanitation approach (CLTS) to Equality and Non-Discrimination (EQND), MHM, and Gender Inclusion in communities and schools (SWASH). Rachel is a national facilitator for MHM, as well as a member of the MHM Coalition in Tanzania, and very passionate about empowering women and girls through education. Her special passion is to give Menstrual Health and Hygiene much greater importance and recognition, and it brings her great satisfaction to see the people she is serving adopt and benefit from the intended changes. 

Anuciata Benasius

Director of Operations

Anuciata Benasius joined Maji Safi Group as a Program Manager in March 2019 in support of our efforts to promote health and disease prevention in the Rorya District. Prior to joining MSG, Anuciata led market-based sanitation interventions with SNV in the Msalala, Kahama, and Geita Districts. She has over five years of experience with WASH project coordination and management, menstrual hygiene health promotion, women’s empowerment, HR management, facilitation, and trainings, and she is a certified lead coach in business management. Anuciata has a bachelor’s degree in public administration and a Master of Science in Human Resource Management from Mzumbe University in Morogoro. She is passionate about impacting the health, education, and future of rural girls. She is a shining example of a young Tanzanian woman on the rise!

Dr. Bwire Chirangi

Board Chair

Dr. Bwire Chirangi is the Chief Medical Officer at the Shirati KMT District Hospital and one of MSG’s very first mentors. Dr. Chirangi has been part of MSG since its founding and continues to support the organization with medical and administrative advice. From the middle of 2021 until 2023, Dr. Chirangi served as the Acting Executive Director. He remains on our Leadership Team and serves as Board Chair. He has taken particular interest in our WASH in Health Care Facilities focus area and in building close collaboration with government authorities. He is currently writing his dissertation on Capacity Development of Community Health Workers to Improve Maternal and Newborn Quality of Health Services in the Rorya District of Tanzania for his doctorate from Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Dr. Chirangi has a tireless work ethic and is the driving force behind numerous health improvements in the Rorya District and the Mara Region more widely.

Bruce Maj Pelz

Founder and US President

Bruce grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He attended the University of Colorado where he received honors for his B.A. in Environmental Studies. Bruce wrote his honors thesis on The Future Environmental Views of Children across Cultures and Socioeconomic Class. As part of his research, he surveyed students in five Tanzanian primary schools and two American elementary schools. While attending college, Bruce studied abroad in Tanzania with World Learning. In 2010, Bruce assisted in managing daily operations for The Paul Hewitt Care for Africa Foundation, an Australian NGO. He has also taught at an inner-city Denver public school about environmental science and sustainable living. Bruce lived full-time in Tanzania from 2012 to 2015. Since then, he has been splitting his time between Tanzania and Colorado and continues to grow MSG’s impact as the leading WASH organization in the Mara Region.  

Rebeca Oyugi

Senior Program Manager

Rebeca Oyugi is originally from the Shirati area. She did her A-level studies at Ikizu Secondary School and her O-level studies at the very highly respected Kowak Girls’ Secondary School, both in the Mara Region. Rebeca received her Bachelor of Arts in Project Planning, Management and Community Development at the University of Dodoma. After graduation in 2011, Rebeca started working in the Rorya District at KMT North Mara Diocese as a monitoring and evaluation officer for “Pamoja Tuwalee”, a program for orphaned and vulnerable children for whom she visited program beneficiaries in the Shirati area.

After her contract ended in May 2017, Rebeca joined Maji Safi Group as program manager.

Paul-Sanga-Program-Manager

Paul Sanga

Program Manager

Paul Sanga grew up in the Songwe Region in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. He received his BA of Science in Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness at the Sokoine University of Agriculture.

In November 2016, he started his first job as Field Officer at Vijana Vision Tanzania (VVT), where he successfully helped five coed groups of youths engage in agripreneur activities in the Tabora Region.

Paul Sanga has over five years of experience in executing WASH programs with the Dutch development organization SNV. He successfully conducted WASH product marketing, specifically Safi latrines, in the Lake Zone. He took the program to scale by recruiting, training, and coaching local masons in business ownership and the production and sale of Safi latrines to rural households in four districts.

From January to June 2024, Paul worked as the Project Coordinator for the Urban Sanitation Project in Shinyanga Municipal (WASH SDG). He successfully acted as a liaison between project stakeholders and oversaw the sanitation status assessment in Shinyanga (endline household survey). He used the KoboCollect app to collect data and contributed significantly to data analysis and report writing.

Paul joined Maji Safi Group as a Program Manager on June 19, 2024. In this role, he supports disease prevention and health promotion in marginalized communities, focusing on integrating WASH interventions with agricultural improvements for enhanced farming and livestock practices in the Rorya District and beyond.

Pendo Messanga

Accountant

Pendo Messanga grew up in Tarime in the Mara Region. She received her Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance at Ardhi University. She studied for her A-Level at Morogoro Secondary School and her O-Level at Kowak Girls Secondary School in the Rorya District. 

Consolata Ladis

Assistant Accountant

Consolata Ladis was born in the Bukoba Region of Tanzania. In 2009, while in high school, she joined the Sisters of Little Servant of Mary in Lusaka, Zambia. Consolata started as a CHE with MSG back in 2012 and thrived in the position before joining the MSG management team in 2023 to help in the accounting department. She has remained an integral part of the organization for more than a decade and continues to tackle whatever tasks are sent her way.

Anna-Dominick-Assistant-Accountant

Anna Dominick

Assistant Accountant

Anna Dominick is originally from the Kilimanjaro Region in the Northern Highlands of Tanzania. She did her A-level studies at the St. Marie Eugenie Girls Secondary School and her O-level studies at Kisomachi Secondary School, both in the Kilimanjaro Region. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Accounting and Finance at Moshi Cooperative University (MoCU). During her academic journey, Anna completed her fieldwork at the Machame Lutheran Hospital in the Hai District, Kilimanjaro. In 2022, she worked as a Census Clerk with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), stationed in Kisesa-Magu, Mwanza. Before joining Maji Safi Group, she served as an Assistant Accountant at Fadhili Teens Tanzania (FTT) in Nyasaka, Mwanza. FTT is a nonprofit established in 2007 to address the socioeconomic problems of marginalized young men and women and play an important role in community development and promoting citizen participation by advocating for social and political change on a large scale.

George Kwilasa

Monitoring and Development Manager

George Kwilasa is from Mwanza, the second largest city in Tanzania. Between 2010 and 2013, he completed a Bachelor of Tourism Management at the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro, Tanzania. George is now the Monitoring and Development Manager at Maji Safi Group. He has over five years of experience with sustainable development, monitoring, and evaluation of humanitarian work. George oversees program and project data systems to produce, enter, and analyze reliable and accurate quality data to enable informed, data-driven decisions to guide Maji Safi Group’s work and development goals. He also participates in grant writing to ensure availability of financial resources for implementing Maji Safi Group’s WASH and disease prevention programs in rural areas in the Mara Region. Before joining Maji Safi Group, George worked in different positions with Governance Links Tanzania for over six years, with Research and Policy Analyst being his last position. He has also helped design monitoring and evaluation frameworks for programs and projects for other organizations and undertaken field assignments for generating field-referenced recommendations for strategic adjustments.

Max-Perel-Slater

Max Perel-Slater

Founder and Director of Behavior Change and Impact Evaluation

Max Perel-Slater is the Co-Founder and Director of Behavior Change and Impact Evaluation of the Maji Safi Group (MSG). From 2011 to 2021, he led the growth of MSG (as the Executive Director) into a flourishing organization that serves hundreds of thousands of East Africans each year. Max also serves as a technical advisor for UNICEF-Tanzanian, the University of Cambridge, Emory University, and the COVID-19 Hygiene Hub. Additionally, he works for Frontier Design consulting firm as a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Advisor for Habitat for Humanity and the Truist Bank Foundation. Max graduated with honors from Emory University with a Master’s in Public Health and is currently undertaking an accelerated Master’s in Development Practice. 

Erna Maj

US Fundraising and Outreach Coordinator

Erna was born and raised in Denmark and immigrated to the US in 1978. She received her undergraduate degree from City University of New York in American Studies and her master’s degree from the University of Colorado in Linguistics and Teaching English to Students of Other Languages (TESOL). After raising three sons and working as a language teacher and translator for 20 years, Erna now devotes her time to philanthropy in general and Maji Safi Group in particular. She has volunteered for aid organizations in the US, Tanzania, Guatemala, and Argentina. She visits Shirati regularly to meet with staff and visit programmatic projects. In the US, Erna assists with grant writing and other linguistic work and plays a key role in organizing fundraising, events, and projects with schools in the Boulder area.  

HEALTH SCREENINGS

A great public service and a metric to measure disease prevalence amongst current and potential program participants.

Health-Screenings-Maji-Safi

During the years 2015-2019, MSG conducted an annual Health Screening Campaign as a public service and a way to monitor the impact of MSG’s WASH education. Approximately 25,000 participants were tested for amoebas, intestinal worms, schistosomiasis (bilharzia), and malaria – all common water-related diseases. In cooperation with the Rorya District Medical Office and practicum students from the US, MSG screened participants and provided them with appropriate medications and educational flyers. The health screenings helped patients keep track of their well-being and provided an incentive for community members to get involved in MSG’s programs. In addition, the health screening results enabled MSG to compare the disease rates of our program participants to those of community members who had not received our education.

Ree Pads

Ree Pads is a supplier of reusable pads to support MSG's Menstrual Hygiene Health programs.

afya plus pad logo

Afya Plus

Afya Plus is a supplier of reusable pads to support MSG's Menstrual Hygiene Health programs.

ReliefPad

ReliefPad supplies reusable pads to support MSG's Menstrual Hygiene Health programs.

Saalt

Saalt is a global company that provides reusable solutions for menstruation. Their products are donated to MSG to support our Menstrual Hygiene Health programs.

Anuflo logo

AnuFlo

AnuFlo is a Tanzania-based social enterprise that manufactures reusable menstrual products. MSG utilizes AnuFlo products in our Menstrual Hygiene Health programs.

Women's Choice Tanzania

Women’s Choice is a social enterprise that manufactures and distributes low cost, affordable menstrual hygiene products – especially, reusable Salama pads.

Street Business School

Street Business School (SBS) empowers women to become thriving entreprenuers, lifting themselves and their families to a more vibrant future by teaching them tools they need to successfully start and grow microbusinesses. Several of MSG's employees are certifies SBS trainers who work with cohorts of women in the Mara region.

Swiss Midwife Project

MSG has been hosting midwifery students from the Bern University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland since 2021. The nurses come to learn and help at the Shirati KMT District Hospital’s maternity ward, while also supporting MSG’s Menstrual Hygiene Health program.

Touro University Logo

Touro University, Program of Public Health

Touro University California is a non-profit institution of higher learning and professional education with programs in Public Health. In partnership with MSG, Touro is conducting research and mapping in the Rorya District to determine the prevalence of and need for increased services in non-communicable disease treatment and education.

Shirati College of Health Sciences

The Shirati College of Health Science partners with MSG to provide field work and practicum experience to local nurses. Nurses work alongside MSG's Community Health Educators to provide community health education.

Shirati KMT District Hospital

MSG was founded as a pilot program under the Shirati KMT District Hospital in 2012. Since then, the KMT has been a seminal partner with whom MSG continues to grow and share support. Today, the two organizations especially partner on running Disease Prevention Centers and providing nutrition education as well as schistosomiasis prevention and treatment.

Project Cure Logo

Project C.U.R.E.

Project C.U.R.E. is a US- based nonprofit dedicated to addressing the shortage of medical resources around the world. MSG and Project C.U.R.E. partner to provide critical medical supplies for clinics and hospitals in the Rorya District.

AllPeopleBeHappy logo

AllPeopleBeHappy

AllPeopleBeHappy is a US-based foundation which supports projects that address the root causes of poverty and increase prospects for happiness and better livelihoods. MSG partnered with AllPeopleBeHappy to extend female hygiene health education to the Butiama District in 2022.

mwater logo

mWater

mWater is a women-owned small business provider of data-driven project management. The MSG team uses the mWater platform to track project data collection, monitoring, and evaluation.

cawst_logo--full

The Center for Affordable Water and Science Technology (CAWST)

The Center for Affordable Water and Science Technology (CAWST) is a Canadian charity and professional engineering consultancy dedicated to teaching people how to bring safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene to their homes, schools, and clinics via simple, affordable technologies. CAWST supports MSG with capacity building in a training-of-trainers model. Together, we are increasing the capacity of MSG’s staff to provide critical WASH education and training across East Africa, including in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia.

Roddenberry Logo

The Roddenberry Foundation

Roddenberry is a global foundation that supports bold ideas. MSG is a proud recipient of the Roddenberry Catalyst grant.

Rotary Logo

Rotary Club of Southeast Denver & Rotary Club of Northwest Spirit

Rotary International is a member-driven organization and network made up of over 1.4 million neighbors, friends, leaders, and problem solvers who see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change. MSG is fortunate to partner with two Rotary chapters: the Rotary Club of Denver Southeast (US-based) and the Rotary Club of Northwest Spirit (Canada-based). These two chapters have supported MSG's focus in Menstrual Hygiene Health and WASH in Health Care Facilities with multiple grants.

Grow and Know

In 2009, Grow and Know launched the very successful Vipindi vya Maisha, a book about female puberty. The book received positive responses from girls, women, mothers, teachers – even fathers and male peers. MSG’s Community Health Educators use this book as a resource in our Female Hygiene Program.

University of Colorado at Boulder

The University of Colorado is the alma mater of co-founder Bruce Pelz and home to the Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities. MSG has participated in the Center’s annual WASH Symposium since 2015 and has hosted several CU students in Tanzania. In 2016, MSG hosted professor Beth Osnes; together, we conducted research on the vocal empowerment of women.

Washington University in St. Louis

Since 2013, MSG has partnered with the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis by providing practicum opportunities for graduate students studying Social Work and/or Public Health. In 2017, MSG hosted Professor Carolyn Lesorogol and twelve graduate students focusing on participatory development tools.

Heatherwood Elementary School

MSG started collaborating with Heatherwood Elementary on read-a-thons in 2018. Participants spread awareness and raise contributions for MSG by recruiting sponsors for each book they read. This win-win grassroots partnership with Heatherwood promotes reading and teaches social responsibility and helping others through personal effort. The money raised has benefitted our Tanzanian youth projects and most recently the construction of a school latrine.

Posner Center For International Development

MSG is a member at the Posner Center in Denver, Colorado. The Posner Center convenes, connects and catalyzes the international development community to collaborate for greater impact. In 2018, MSG and the African School Assistance Project (ASAP) received an International Collaboration Grant from the Posner Center.

The Generous View Studio

The Generous View Studio is a privately owned meeting space in Boulder, Colorado, dedicated to spreading awareness of global issues in general and MSG’s work in Tanzania in particular. Through professionally taught art classes and informal gatherings, the studio supports the creative community in Boulder and generates revenue for non-profits.

Paul-Horton Logo

Paul Horton Visuals

Paul Horton Visuals is a creative company focused on providing digital and print media solutions. They support MSG with video and media content.

Reach shirati logo

REACH Shirati

REACH Shirati runs Tina’s Education Center (TEC) for primary school students in Shirati. When MSG started, REACH Shirati was our parent organization. Together, we have made TEC a stronghold for students to learn and grow through our programs. Today, MSG and REACH Shirati collaborate on the Binti na Shule (Girls in School) program, a mentorship program to improve girls’ performance in schools.

FOT Logo

Friends of Tanzania

Friends of Tanzania (FOT) is a non-profit charitable organization that has provided funding to grassroots organizations in Tanzania since 1991. FOT was started by former Peace Corps workers in Tanzania (or Tanganyika at the time). FOT has supported MSG since 2018 and has provided funds for multiple projects, including an Arborloo Toilet pilot project, SAFI toilet construction, and Menstrual Hygiene Health Labs.

BoB Logo

Beyond Our Borders

Beyond Our Borders is a group-advised fund under The Women's Foundation of Colorado. Its mission is to strengthen families and communities, while advancing and amplifying opportunities for women to reach economic self-sufficiency. BOB has supported MSG’s Female Hygiene Program.

LUSH Charity Pot

The LUSH Charity Pot offers grants to grassroots organizations that are in an optimal position to make a difference with limited resources. LUSH has been a committed partner of MSG since 2018, supporting a diversity of programs, including cholera prevention, home health visits, and WASH in health care facilities.

Tanzania Menstrual Hygiene Health Coalition

The Tanzanian Menstrual Hygiene Health Coalition is a network of Tanzanian governmental, non-governmental, and civil society organizations working to improve MHH in Tanzania. MSG was a seminal organizer of the original coalition in 2018. The mission is to increase knowledge sharing between MHH stakeholders and combine efforts to increase policies and services at the national level. Current collaborations include organizing the annual National Menstrual Hygiene Day celebration and increasing awareness of MHH issues.

Tanzania Water and Sanitation Network

TAWASANET is a network of Tanzanian civil society organizations in the water and sanitation sector. MSG has been a member of TAWASANET since 2014 and is the Zonal Coordinator for the Lake Zone. MSG participates in annual general meetings and provides advocacy and leadership in the network.

Tanzania Government Logo

School Health Clubs

MSG started its School Health Club programming in 2013 with the mission to improve community health outcomes through hygiene and health education at the student level. To date, MSG partners with 39 schools in the Rorya, Butiama, and Bunda Districts.

Tanzania Government Logo

WASH Health Care Facilities

MSG started its WASH in Health Care Facilities focus area in 2021 with the mission to improve community health outcomes through partnership with local health institutions (hospitals, clinics, and dispensaries). To date, MSG partners with 14 HCFs in the Rorya District.

RUWASA

MSG’s partnership with the Tanzania Rural Water and Sanitation Agency (RUWASA) is critical for implementing and growing rural water supply and access across the Rorya District. In 2024, MSG specifically launched a partnership with RUWASA, whereby the MSG WASH Hub supplies water to surrounding communities managed and operated by RUWASA.

Tanzania Government Logo

Local Government Authorities (LGAs)

MSG works closely with LGAs to provide services at the village and community level. LGAs are paramount to gaining community access, understanding community priorities, and providing valuable services. All programs are implemented hand-in-hand with community leadership and authorities.

Tanzania Government Logo

WASH Pillar

MSG participates in nationwide update meetings with the Ministry of Health and other WASH stakeholders on a regular basis. These meetings focus on providing updates on progress related to various disease outbreaks and allow stakeholders to share their initiatives.

HEALTH SCREENINGS

A great public service and a metric to measure disease prevalence amongst current and potential program participants.

Health-Screenings-Maji-Safi

During the years 2015-2019, MSG conducted an annual Health Screening Campaign as a public service and a way to monitor the impact of MSG’s WASH education. Approximately 25,000 participants were tested for amoebas, intestinal worms, schistosomiasis (bilharzia), and malaria – all common water-related diseases. In cooperation with the Rorya District Medical Office and practicum students from the US, MSG screened participants and provided them with appropriate medications and educational flyers. The health screenings helped patients keep track of their well-being and provided an incentive for community members to get involved in MSG’s programs. In addition, the health screening results enabled MSG to compare the disease rates of our program participants to those of community members who had not received our education.

SINGING AND DANCE GROUPS

Using cultural customs to teach WASH and empower rural youths
to be change makers in their communities.

Singing-and-Dancing

Over the years, MSG has used these dances, songs, and skits extensively to teach students and spectators how to:

  • avoid water-related diseases,
  • practice proper handwashing,
  • prevent fecal-oral disease transmission, and
  • practice proper menstrual hygiene management.

MSG no longer runs a specific Singing and Dance Program, but this effective way of disseminating knowledge about WASH, behavioral change, Menstrual Hygiene Health, etc. is still widely used in our programming.

RoryasGotTalent

Song and dance are of great cultural importance in Tanzania. They are perhaps the most effective medium for communicating disease prevention to a community. In MSG’s Singing and Dance Group, students learned life-saving lessons in a fun and memorable manner, developed their talents, and became community leaders. Following WASH lessons, students worked together to create songs, dances, and skits to perform for their families, friends, and community members at MSG events.

Sing and Dance

Rorya’s Got Talent

For many years, the Singing and Dance Group held annual auditions for the Roya’s Got Talent competition.

Participants wrote songs and skits and performed choreographed dances to communicate their WASH knowledge to peers and members of the community.

Once the best 10 participants had been chosen, MSG hosted a semifinal event and then a final event, each attracting over 1,500 community members.

AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM

After School Program

CHEs taught WASH and disease prevention lessons in a fun, nurturing environment. Art, games, puzzles, and other activities encouraged students to develop their creative and cognitive skills. This way, the things they needed to learn became things they wanted to learn! In addition, their knowledge trickled down to their families. Over the academic year, students learned about:

  • sanitation,
  • personal hygiene practices,
  • waterborne and water-related diseases,
  • water treatment,
  • the fecal-oral disease cycle,
  • bilharzia, and
  • the benefits of preventing diseases.

To enable proper WASH techniques, MSG provided schools with demonstration ceramic drinking water filters and handwashing stations. At the end of the program, our staff artist painted a large WASH-related mural to serve as a reminder of lessons learned and as an inspiration to future students.

The After School Program was one of MSG’s very first programs, started in 2013. Its purpose was to teach students about water-related disease prevention and proper WASH behaviors, so they could stay healthy and succeed in school. In 2015, the District Education Office approved MSG to teach in all 125 primary schools in the Rorya District.

Over time 6,000+ students attended this program.

After School Program 2
After School Program 3

MAJI SAFI CUPS

Maji Safi Cup 1

Combining disease prevention education and team sports to promote a healthy and cohesive community.

Football (soccer) is a popular pastime in Tanzania. Organized tournaments are a common occurrence, and each game attracts hundreds of spectators. This community tradition affords a unique educational opportunity.

For several years, our CHEs would organize a month-long Maji Safi Cup on a biannual basis. These tournaments also included netball matches for women and girls. Before each football or netball game, teams must attend a one-hour lesson about WASH and disease prevention. Combining athletics and education promotes overall wellness and makes lessons more memorable and thus more effective.

The winners of a Maji Safi Cup were awarded school supplies and WASH products. Although only one team was crowned as champions, all tournament participants benefited from team-building and pre-game lessons!

LEARNING TOOLS

MSG is proud of its creative and original curricula, songs, art, games, outdoor murals, and train-the-trainer programs.

Learning Tools_Mural 3

Maji Safi Group’s unique learning tools have become the catalyst for healthy WASH lifestyles and disease prevention. From education on common water-related diseases and treatments to menstruation and proper handwashing, our learning tools are fun, engaging and specifically designed to accommodate the varying literacy levels among our participants. 

MALE HYGIENE PROGRAM

Teaching young men and boys about male and female anatomy, puberty, adolescent body changes, and personal hygiene.

MaleHygieneProgram
Male-Hygiene_-3

Male Hygiene Groups

The Male Hygiene Program began in 2016. It empowers boys and young men to respect themselves, girls, and women and lead a culture of change. The program also helps young men be part of the movement to break the stigma and silence around menstruation, help girls stay in school, and close the gender inequality gap.

Male-Hygiene_-4

FEMALE HYGIENE PROGRAM

Menstrual Hygiene Management in Tanzania

Though all residents face WASH issues, it is necessary to look at the situation through the lens of gender in particular. In Tanzania, female hygiene has traditionally been a taboo subject, and most schools lack adequate facilities for young women. Without access to proper sanitary materials and fearing ridicule for bloodstains on their skirts, many girls miss school during menstruation. Lower attendance rates severely limit academic potential and contribute to a cycle of disempowerment. Maji Safi Group, through our work to promote public health, seeks to establish a more comprehensive approach to menstrual hygiene management in Tanzania. We lift the stigma around female hygiene to empower girls and help them reach their full academic potential and become strong leaders.

Menstrual Hygiene Health

Together Women Rise

Influencing Menstrual Hygiene Management in Tanzania (MHM)

Female Hygiene Groups

Young women, ages 11-18, meet with CHEs in after-school groups to learn about female hygiene, health, and puberty. All groups, as well as girls from surrounding communities, are also invited to attend Saturday meetings at MSG’s office. The girls:

  • learn about female health,
  • share stories,
  • seek advice, and
  • engage in peer-to-peer education.

Participants also receive reusable sanitary products to promote proper hygiene and prevent absences from school. MSG strives to offer several different options, such as reusable pads, period panties, and menstrual cups.

Together-Women-Rise

The Decent Girl Competition

Female-Hygiene-Menstrual-Hygiene-Management-in-Tanzania-Maji-Safi--1

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Interacting with the community and spreading WASH awareness to every age group.

Participating in one’s community is crucial to bringing about positive change. To be heard, one must first be seen.

CHEs organize and host activity days to establish a presence and promote change in their community.

Local-Market-Days

Youth Field Days

Community Outreach_Salon

Food Safety

Schistomiasis Education

Government Collaboration

Community Outreach

Local Market Days

People of the Mara Region gather on market days to trade goods. CHEs take advantage of the large crowds by setting up Disease Prevention Awareness booths and selling crucial WASH materials, such as WaterGuard chlorine tablets for water treatment.

Youth-Field-Days

Shops and Salons

Community Outreach_Food Safety

Schistosomiasis Campaigns

Government Collaboration
Tanzania Government Logo

Tanzanian Government

MSG works closely with the Tanzanian government at all levels: district, regional, and national. Relevant offices include Community Development Offices (district and regional), Medical Office (district and regional), Education Office (district and regional), Health Office (district and regional), Ministry of Health (national), Ministry of Education (national), and Ministry of Community Development Gender, Women, and Special Groups (national).

HOME VISITS

Homevisit-Program-Page

Community Health Educators

For these reasons, CHEs meet with primarily female heads of households to assess their family’s WASH situation. Lessons are tailored to the specific needs of each family, but general topics include: 

  • the economic benefits of preventing diseases,

  • water treatment and storage,

  • toilet use,

  • handwashing,

  • fecal-oral disease cycle,

  • food preparation and storage,

  • personal hygiene,

  • bilharzia, and

  • other neglected tropical diseases.

Delivering WASH knowledge to doorsteps.

In Tanzania, women are typically in charge of WASH-related activities such as, water fetching, cooking, cleaning, and bathing. This makes them the most crucial stakeholders in disease prevention. Educating women empowers them to become change makers in their homes and leaders in their communities. Our CHEs visit individual families to inspire action and transform communities—one home at a time.

Visits to a home are prioritized based on:

  • interest,
  • family size,
  • number of young children,
  • neighborhood disease rates, and
  • local government input.

Family Meetings

Based on initial assessments and rates of progress, CHEs meet with families three to five times over six to 10 weeks. Within the following year, CHEs will revisit families to ensure that good habits are sustained. Home Visits provide each household with equal attention and access to life-saving information. They also foster personal relationships between CHEs and participants. If residents have any questions following the visits, they know there is a friendly face or hotline ready to help. Building trust, confidence, and community is the way to stop disease from continuing.