Women Projects Get Over 740m/-

The government has disbursed over 740m/- in 80 district councils to help women development projects. Speaking in Dar es Salaam yesterday, the Minister for Community Development, Gender and Children, Mrs Margaret Sitta, said the amount had helped women running micro projects.

She said that her ministry was working hard to ensure that women are given loans with minimal interest rates to enable them boost their living standards and encourage them to join various organizations, such as SACCOS to boost their incomes.

Mrs Sitta said that in a bid to bring community development, the number of community development colleges was expanded from four in 2005 to nine in 2008. “Following great demand for the community officers in rural areas, the ministry saw the need to increase the number of colleges to enable more people join such colleges,” she said.

She added that during the period under review, the ministry also recruited 138 employees and 374 workers were promoted to higher ranks, to boost efficiency and improve quality of public services. A total of 10 motorbikes were bought and distributed to different councils in the country, she said, to enable the community officers supervise various development projects in their respective areas.

On the other hand, the minister said that the ministry worked hard to set up an NGO for community development stakeholders’ in the country, which is focused at monitoring the development aspect legally. “Many people think that good life is brought up by the government’s efforts alone. This idea is wrong, because we are building attractive environment for the people to collaborate with us in development issues,” she said.