Amani

Since first joining the Wanawake Tunaweza Tanzania programme in 2024, the close-knit Amani group has made a big impact.

Consisting of seven women from the Sombetini neighbourhood of Arusha, the group first came together in 2014 to launch a business based on the Sub-Saharan African concept of ‘playing kibati’*: women contribute to a communal fund and then take turns to draw from the fund as needed, for example to build a house or send their children to school.

With coaching from WTT, the group launched an event-planning business called Amani Tukio Kubwa (‘Big Events’). What began with renting equipment for small private events soon evolved into a fully-fledged events agency. This included organising a special event for all the WTT groups to celebrate International Women’s Day in 2025. 

The group’s operations are mostly self-funded through profits from their activities and group savings. Having successfully completed the WTT programme, the women continue to run Amani Tukio Kubwa independently, alongside their own individual businesses. We remain in close contact with them and look forward to following their future progress as they continue to thrive!

*Kibati is a form of trust fund, which is common across sub-Saharan Africa. Groups of women come together, and they all contribute a specific amount of money to a fund over time. Typically, they start to contribute money at the beginning of the year and their money is paid back at the end of the year. Usually every week, the fund is passed on from one member to another member, and each woman gets a chance to use the collected funds when it is her turn, by taking a loan at a small interest rate. The maximum amount for a loan is decided by the group. The loan can be used for anything the women need, e.g., to build a house, to start a business, to send their kids to school, or simply to save the money for later use.