by Felista Wiston
Beatrice Andrea Mgaya (32yrs) is a woman from Kisasatu village at Mbalatsee ward in Makete District. She is a widow and divorced woman with four (4) children and living with her mother. After some months when her mother died, Beatrice got a challenge because she had no land to farm for her family. According to the culture of that society the land that was left by her mother belongs to the brothers. Hence she was supposed to make consultations with her brothers and sisters on whether she should farm on the mother’s land. The brothers and sisters did not allow her to do any activity in that land and refused to stay in that land, due to that situation life became very difficult because she had no land to farm and live.
Beatrice is one of the members of the Rural Women Assembly coming in Makete district – Njombe region, where she got an opportunity to attend the duologue meetings on land access to women and got the chance to be able to fight for her rights. Finally, brothers and sisters agreed to provide the piece of land from that land left to her mother where she decided to plant maize. She is in the process of building her own house.
Lesson learnt from the story; Beatrice was quoted saying “there are a lot of people in the community who are suffering and being hurt by either their family members, or the community for the ignorance of not knowing their rights”.
