Strong women of Tanzania

In the Iringa region, in the heart of Tanzania, lives a woman whose story exemplifies the quiet strength of countless women in the country. Legina Chaungu, now 62 years old, is not a prominent activist, politician or academic – she is what many women in Tanzania are: the mainstay of society. Her story begins on an ordinary morning on the way to her small field – and becomes an impressive testimony to humanity, courage and unwavering care.

That day, Legina saw a woman lying on the grass by the side of the road – a frail, mentally disturbed woman who was about to give birth to twins. Legina didn’t hesitate for a moment. She helped with the birth, organized a cab and took mother and children to the hospital. But what began as a spontaneous act of help turned into a lifelong responsibility: the children’s mother disappeared from the hospital that very evening. A few weeks later, she died in a psychiatric clinic. The twins – Getrude and Germina – were left behind. Without origins, without a name, without a future.

Legina could have turned a blind eye. She could have said that it wasn’t her responsibility. But she did the opposite. She stayed with the newborns in hospital, officially applied for their adoption, battled her way through the authorities and took the two girls in as her own children. In a society where patriarchal structures often set the tone, a widowed woman with no education took on the role of protector, mother and bearer of the future.

Legina has lived as a widow for 28 years. Her income is meagre. She runs a small-scale farm and trades in small quantities of meat to get by. She cannot read or write – but she has understood something much more valuable: that education is the only way out of poverty. Although she hardly knows how she will pay the school fees for the twins, she fights tirelessly to ensure that Getrude and Germina can go to school. When the SCHULBANK e.V. scholarship program offered help, she was overjoyed – not because it was a relief, but because she knew that this was the key to her daughters’ future.

Legina’s story is emblematic of the social attitude of many people in Tanzania. Solidarity is not an empty phrase, but a lived practice. When children are on the margins of society, outcast, forgotten – then there are women like Legina who take them in, love them and bring them up. Without state support, without security, without reassurance. It is this courage, this quiet sacrifice, that shows the true strength of Tanzania. Not the misery, not the poverty, but the will to stand up for each other – even if you hardly have anything yourself.

In Getrude and Germina, a new generation is growing up that will go its own way – thanks to the determination of a woman who never went to school but understood more about life than many others.