The ruling party’s women wing, UWT, has pledged to support all women in the country regardless of their ethnicity and political affiliations in a bid to improve their economic status.
The wing said that considering the role played by women in various sectors, it was devising strategies to ensure that all women were economically liberated by 2020.
Speaking with reporters yesterday, the UWT secretary general, Ms Queen Mlozi, said while implementing the party’s manifesto for 2015/20, their focus was to reach all women by mobilising them to focus on economic liberation.
“The government has allocated more than Sh54 billion for women. As UWT, we want to mobilise and support women to seek loans that will enable them to improve their economic statuses,” she said.
The secretary said the wing will continue monitoring the implementation of the four per cent funds meant for women, four per cent for youth and two per cent for persons with disabilities in all municipal councils.
Ms Mlozi further said that the community had an obligation to ensure that girls achieved their goals.
“We call upon parents and the entire society to collaborate in order to help the girl-child achieve her goals especially in education,” she said, adding that all girls were urged to be careful and avoid early pregnancies that always end their education dreams.
The secretary general said that they were happy with the efforts made by President John Magufuli for appointing a lot of women in various positions of his government.
“We will work to support the President. We have reached at least 36 per cent out of the 50 per cent required. We hope that Dr Magufuli will continue appointing more women in order to strike the balance,” she said.
For her part, Fatuma Fortunatus from the party’s women union in Dar es Salaam told The Citizen in an interview that they were planning to mobilise women to come out and make their abilities known.
“Many women have abilities which have not yet been realised. We aim to mobilize our fellow women to demonstrate their talents and help end poverty,” she said.