The Dare Women’s Foundation Amsha Amsha Women’s Group was founded in 2018 to help women in the Arusha area access micro-loans, share ideas and find community with one another. Each Saturday, the women join together over lunch to teach one another about business, to share stories, and to create goods like jewelry and clothing that they then sell. By pooling their money together and collecting profits from their group businesses, they’re able to access micro-loans that are used for things like starting small shops, covering emergency hospital trips, and paying for school fees. Say hello to the women of Amsha Amsha!
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​Through this type of programming, the Amsha Amsha Women’s Group is able to achieve financial independence so that Dare can offer more specific help when it’s needed.  Through their work in this entrepreneurship program, the women come to understand how to operate a business and are able to apply this knowledge to their other opportunities.
Every member of the Amsha Amsha Women’s Group has their own unique story. Get to know a few of our members below and see how they DARE to be great.
ZUHURA HUSEIN is one of the newer members to the Amsha Amsha Women’s Group and joined the rest of the women in March of 2021 after meeting Tatu Bakadi. Zuhura says that after some bad experiences in other women’s groups in the area, she was hesitant to bring her money and time to a new group, however, upon joining she was quickly happy to see the ways in which Amsha Amsha is so different from the rest of the groups. Beyond the success of the micro-loan program, she also says that she enjoys the group so much because it’s a place she can go to share ideas and destress, two things which help her to relax and prevent her from keeping her problems all bottled up. Though she doesn’t currently have the capital to buy at scale and make large profits, she brings in income to her household by buying and selling propane gas canisters on credit, raising chickens, and selling small fish. She lives now with her husband and three grandchildren and looks forward the weekly Saturday meetings where she gets to spend time with the other women in the group.
REBEKA KITIOMANI was one of the first members of this women’s group and has enjoyed seeing it become more successful as the years have passed and as more women have joined its ranks. At one point, she used a microloan to open a small shop that she now operates near her house in Arusha. Her other income stream comes from a daycare operation she runs in which she takes care of local children while their parents work. 
PILI MAMEDI is a 53-year-old member of the Amsha Amsha Women’s Group. During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, her husband, a former employee at a successful tourist shop in Arusha, was fired from his job during some company downsizing, a situation that has made things quite difficult in their household. Despite this challenge, Pili says life is good because of God and that without her religion, life would be very difficult. She credits her time in the Amsha Amsha group with teaching her how to create baskets, pull-over sweaters and beaded jewelry; skills she hopes to eventually turn into a source of income for herself and her husband.
MARY JOSEPH felt early on that she had no future with the education she was receiving in school. As an independent and hardworking young girl, she decided to head over to a nearby salon to learn the business, a trade she practiced for a while before transitioning to selling clothing and gas canisters. Around the same time, she would spend her Sunday mornings singing in the choir at her church where she so impressed one of the men in the congregation that it led to an eventual marriage proposal. 11  years and two children later and you can find her owning and operating her own successful business where she rents video game equipment as an entertainment space where children can come spend a few hours after school. She’s happy because her business is in her control and she takes pride in knowing she’s able to put food on the table for her children without having to depend on any uncertainties. It’s her long-term goal to eventually make enough money to support an orphanage, a promise she made to herself as a child. She enjoys Amsha Amsha Women’s Group because it provides a place where she can share stories and advice with other women in the area.
AMINA OMARE got married soon after leaving primary school and currently has four kids. After being introduced to the women’s group by a friend, she quickly saw how great it was as a place to destress in the good company of other women from her community. Of all the activities that the group engages in, she most enjoys making chairs from the water bottles they find polluting nearby environments.
​ZUHURA JOEL joined the Amsha Amsha Women’s Group after meeting Maggie Duncan Simbeye, our director here at Dare Women’s Foundation. After facing disloyalty from her husband, she was granted a divorce and lives currently with her two grandchildren whom she supports financially. One of her young grandsons struggles with undiagnosed health problems that prevents him from eating proper meals and, at times, from speaking. She hopes to raise enough capital through her work in the women’s group to eventually bring him to the hospital and get him the medical care he requires.
You can support these women by donating to Dare Women’s Foundation through the appropriate page on our website. The money you give will go towards increasing their ability to access micro-loans from the group, increasing access to upfront capital for their projects, and will go towards their general day-to-day living costs.