On Saturday 15th 2019 UZIKWASA, in collaboration with Pangani District Authorities,    awarded the top ten best performing villages in Pangani for their efforts to fight violence against women and children. Almost thousand community members and their leaders attended the colorful event to learn from the winning villages who shared their stories about what they did to fight gender violence and child abuse during the past year.  On the same day UZIKWASA launched its new communication campaign with the slogan KUMBE! This concerns me, it concerns all of us!”  alongside its KUMBE TV and Radio spots. A highlight of the day was a speech delivered by Aisha Ally on behalf of Pangani’s children.  In anticipation of the International Day of the African Child on June 16thAisha appealed to the authorities to take firm action against perpetrators of sexual abuse of children which destroys the dreams of so many girls.

“We children have a lot of dreams and the government is our last hope after our parents, guardians and the community have let us down. We want the community to know that children are being raped and sodomized by grown ups and this is a huge problem. We urge you to protect us and support us so we can realize our goals in life”.

Pangani District authorities in collaboration with UZIKWASA took the opportunity to officially launch the implementation of the National Plan of Action (NPA) to end Violence against Women and Children in Pangani District.  For the past two months, local communities have already been engaged in a dialogue about NPA by the UZIKWASA owned radio station 107.7 Pangani FM and through its live radio streaming, Pangani FM Facebook, and its Blog.