About Us
Vision
Urafiki Girls envisions a safe, just and equal Tanzania where everyone can reach their potential and contribute to collective wellbeing.
Mission
Urafiki empowers girls through education, skill building and support that allows them to succeed in achieving their goals, address social problems and contribute to social change.
GoalS
- Foster social support and solidarity among girls and young women.
- Enable them with skills and opportunities to make informed decisions and develop social innovations that respond to their own and collective community needs.
- Enlist young females and males – and their communities – in the transformation of social and gender norms.
Our History
Urafki Girls informally began in 2014 with a group of 16 girls who originally participated in an Amani Girls Home program called Maisha Mema (Swahili for “Good Life”). Maisha Mema focused on responding to the needs of pregnant girls and adolescent mothers, who at the time per Government of Tanzania policy, were required to drop out of formal schooling. The program provided girls with a safe space to meet regularly with their peers and opportunities to strengthen life skills and build their social, health and economic resources. Urafiki Girls operated under the mentorship of Amani Girls Home until 2017, when some of the group members decided to spin off our own youth and female-led organization to grow the vision and expand engagement. Urafiki Girls was registered at the national level as a Non-Governmental Organization in 2021 and given ordinance number 00NGO/R/2665.
Today Urafiki Girls works to create enriching opportunities that unite and support girls and young women to maximize their potential and reach their goals. Our aim is to build 21st century skills that strengthen the protective and productive resources of vulnerable girls and young women living in conditions of social and economic disadvantage. With a focus on fostering community development through the promotion of gender equality, we prioritize working with girls to gain knowledge, skills and support not often provided through traditional schooling. Through our programs, participants build their abilities for critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, digital literacy, collaboration and social responsibility. A core program focus includes equipping girls and young women with STEM education and opportunities to use their knowledge to address needs and issues they identify in their lives and communities.
STEM education is our entry point for working with girls to build their social, health and economic knowledge and skills. While our primary focus is on girls, we also work with boys and young men to create more equitable and favorable conditions for all. Our programming aims to shift and share power by creating space and opportunities for girls to engage in non-traditional activities and demonstrate their capabilities, leadership and potential by actively contributing to positive community development.
Girls are actively engaged in all aspects of program implementation, from design to delivery to evaluation. The current girls groups meet weekly at in-school clubs for exchange, skill building and social connection. They also engage in trainings, events and other leadership opportunities created through the program during the program cycle.
