Up and above the clouds within the hills of the Usambara Mountains you’ll find the Votauvizu Dare Women’s Group. Made up of almost 40 women, this group has brought incredible growth to the area and to the families involved in this network of women since it was founded in 2016. Each week the group holds a meeting where everyone gets together to collect dues, share ideas, and make plans for the future of their collective businesses. Dare supports this group by offering leadership, access to capital, and organization. Additionally, each year Maggie’s Tour Company, our director Maggie Simbeye Duncan’s safari company, brings clients through this area for cultural tourism experiences. Such excursions bring economic growth to the area and gives the women the opportunity to interact with travelers and get to know people from around the world.

Every member of the Votauvizu 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.

KATIBU RIZIKI is the chairperson of the Dare Women’s Foundation Votauvizu Women’s Group. Like most of the women in this group, she was born and raised in the village where she’s now raising her family and still living. She describes her life as free, saying people in this area have a good life and that the community is extremely close to one another. Having been happily married for 25 years as her husband’s second wife, Katibu says the secret is that her relationship is one based on a promise of life and death.


When Maggie brings clients through the area, they are able to do homestays with women like Katibu and she says she really enjoys it because she gets to teach travelers how to cook, share some basic Swahili, and practice her English. As the chairperson for the group, she’s responsible for keeping and lending the money and managing the microloan system. Currently, she is making plans now for the group to begin a new business where they’ll buy and sell maize.

SALIMINA RAMADAN is a 62-year-old, happy member of the Votauvizu Women’s Group. She says life in this village is all about love and that she enjoys being a part of the group because if you ever have any problems you know the group will be there to support you and to help relieve any stresses you might have. At one point, she was able to take out a loan to help her with her with the up-front costs associated with her salt-selling business.

​ZAMANA says that the thing that brings her most joy is watching her family love one another. She’s the mother of four children, however, her husband recently passed and left her as a widow. It’s difficult for her to stay alone without a husband and it has left her with the responsibility of gardening and farming by herself. Despite this, she loves her life in the community because she and all of her neighbors love one another and are extremely close. She also operates as the local doctor in the villlage, facilitating medial care when necessary. When Maggie’s Tour Company brings clients, Zamana will host them in her home and she loves the opportunity to share her culture, her language, and her home with people from around the world.

​ZAKATI has been a member of this women’s group for seven years and has learned how to make and sell liquid soap from some of the other members. From time to time she’s thankful that she’s able to borrow money so that she can purchase fertilizer to make sure she’s able to have a successful crop yield from her farm each season. She describes life as an “examination:” there’s always problems to solve but, despite this, she’s very happy to be alive and enjoys her time in the village and in the women’s group.

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.