Forward Step Organisation (FSO)

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Formerly known as Faudhia’s Sisters Organization, Forward Step Organization (FSO) was initiated in 2011 in Bagamoyo, Tanzania by Vincent Vinbro Ssekamatte and Faudhia Yusuf Zando, two artists with the initial shared ambition of challenging discrimination against women and girls through art and education.
FSO is a grass-roots level, not-for-profit, voluntary, non-governmental and activist organization. Today, FSO strengthens families in Tanzania by empowering women, girls, youth, the Indigenous peoples (such as Maasai and Mang’ati), and helping rural communities through emergencies. We currently focus our operations on the districts of Bagamoyo, Chalinze, Kilindi, Masasi, Ruangwa, Kinondoni & Kilosa in the regions of Pwani, Tanga, Mtwara, Lindi, Dar es Salaam & Morogoro.
We do our empowerment work through our learning centers, workshops, safe-houses, demonstration gardens and outreach projects, focusing on education, art, skill development, health and hygiene, legal aid and support, entrepreneurship, and sustainable gardening and agriculture.

What We Do
FSO Learning Centers:
• At a learning center, 72-76 schoolgirls aged 8 to 22 attend our classes and workshops each week.
• We run workshops on topics such as personal and menstrual health and hygiene, fine arts, drama, crafts, work ethics, and leadership as well as offering educational support and skill development in English, Mathematics, computer literacy and sustainable gardening.
• Through the crafts session, we teach girls that the jewelry and art they create can generate income, which we then use to buy their school supplies such as notebooks, school bags and shoes. The girls then have the chance to understand the impact of their own ability to earn an income as well as manage their finances.
• We pay school fees (tuition, boarding, books and miscellaneous expenses) for the most talented and motivated girls & young women to attend better local private boarding secondary schools and universities or colleges.
• Every week, 40-50 youths between the age of 15 and 35 go through our workshops and seminars on sustainable gardening and agriculture at our demonstration gardens, tailored job-skills training and networking opportunities, entrepreneurship et cetera.
• Both female and male youth are introduced to global learning mostly using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), and international educational and cultural youth exchange projects.
Outreach Projects:
• We also work in the wider communities through local schools and community leaders. For example, over the years, we have reached more than 20,000 girls in primary and secondary schools in remote areas with our sexual reproductive health rights (SRHR) education coupled with distribution of free re-usable menstrual pads. Girls now have the necessary knowledge and ability to safely and confidently manage their personal and menstrual health and hygiene.
• We innovatively use participatory theatre campaigns on awareness, sensitization, and advocacy about sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), gender equality, women’s and girls’ rights to education, women’s employment, youth employment, food security et cetera.
Art and drama:
• We see art as a platform to raise issues affecting young girls and women, and promoting empowerment, especially through drama workshops and theater productions.
• We for example use participatory theater to provide a safe space and champion a dialogue between men and women on the need to change aspects of Tanzanian culture to redefine gender roles for modern life
Safe-Houses:
• We safeguard and prevent sexual & gender-based violence (SGBV) and further violence against teenage girls and women by providing them with temporary safe haven and the necessary care until resolutions are found.
• We mediate between spouses and among family members in case of violence as well as facilitating taking women’s abusers to the police through Gender Desk.
• We facilitate legal aid and support, and counseling services for victims of violence through our volunteering legal professionals.
• Teenage girls who accidently got pregnant in school are helped through maternity, prepared and supported to return on the academic path to finish school as soon as it is healthily safe for them.
Emergency Aid:
• We help rural communities through emergencies such as draughts, cyclones, floods and diseases.
• For instance during COVID-19, we fundraised and bought food stuff, masks, detergent and other needs and distributed them to rural families in the districts of Bagamoyo, Chalinze and Kilindi to manage staying home and avoid contracting the virus.

Vincent Vinbro Ssekamatte is a Initiator of Forward Step Organisation (FSO).

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.