In a country where AIDS/HIV rates are on the rise and most young women have no choice but to prostitute themselves, there is a mother trying to fight that trend. Pauline Samata, called the “Mother of Bamboo”, has made it her mission in life to raise awareness of the wonders of bamboo and empower women to make bamboo products as a means of escaping poverty.

INBAR, with the help of an IFAD grant, embarked on the Livelihoods and Economic Development Program in 2001 with the aim of creating sustainable rural livelihoods and enterprises through the use of bamboo and rattan products. INBAR aims to empower rural communities by showing them production techniques and focusing on bamboo harvesting and cultivation to ensure that local resources are used sustainably. The idea of ​​using bamboo to help lift countries out of poverty is gaining popularity.

And Samata has taken advantage of this program with enthusiasm. She was part of a South-South exchange in which he visited China and the Philippines to discover the enormous potential of bamboo. He learned to build bamboo houses, bamboo furniture, and bamboo scarves. And he learned that he could save time, energy and the surrounding forests by replacing his firewood with bamboo charcoal. More importantly, she realized that women in her country could be an integral part of the production of bamboo products and could lift themselves out of poverty.

“I didn’t know the wonders of this plant, until the day IFAD and INBAR sent me to China and the Philippines for training,” says Samata. “This is why I want everyone to understand the potential of bamboo and the many things they can do with this plant. Mothers need money to feed their children, but because their choice of employment is limited, they end up falling into the trap of prostitution. .”

Samata wasted no time on his return. She quickly formed the Mbeya Bamboo Women’s Group and organized training courses for the women of her community. Her goal is to prevent her partners from falling victim to prostitution and save them from the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa.

Samata training courses are free but there is a condition: women must stay with her in the community for at least six months. So far she has trained more than 60 women to work with bamboo. As the women, who have had little access to education, live in her community, she also teaches them basic skills like counting and how to write their names.

And Samata’s vision continues to grow. She is teaching women how to build their own bamboo houses to escape the trap of renting and having a house of their own. She has started building a large integrated workshop and store on her land in Mbeya. She is exploring new potential markets for her products and has identified Zambia, Malawi, Kenya and Uganda as potentially viable. One day, she wants to have more to plant more bamboo.

Pauline Samata, the mother of bamboo, is helping to reduce poverty in her beloved country. Thanks to her efforts and those of others, today almost every household in the United Republic of Tanzania uses a bamboo product and many girls and young women earn a respectable living creating objects made from bamboo.

Samata’s new slogan is: Yes, you can! And indeed, they can!