Will Tanzania's leaders keep their word and listen to Eva?

 "This is particularly challenging for girls like Eva, who, in the developing world, are often denied equal access to education and are hit hardest by the effects of extreme poverty,"

                                                        Eva Tolage

 

 On thursday this week a  young Tanzanian girl Eva Tolage (15) (pictured) from Mlowa school in Malinzanga village of Iringa district launched  a campaign and petition to ask her leaders to keep their word and help her community get clean water, and electricity among other things.

 

 The campaign is expected to go global with the support of Restless Development and ONE, the two organizations have jointly committed to support the launching of a global petition to #StandWithEva in solidarity, helping to spread her message and inspire other young people to turn promises made in Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals) into real action that changes lives.

 

 Last year  Eva wrote to US President Barack Obama and did hear back as Obama endorsed her calls for action in a speech made at the UN General Assembly in September 2015.

 

 Eva and her classmates at Mlowa school have big ambitions for their future, but without access to basic things like clean water, electricity and nutritious food, it’s hard for them to stay in school and achieve them.

 

 Speaking as the campaign launch, Eva said, “I would like to see safe and sustainable water for my community.  I would love to see Malinzanga free from preventable diseases. I want to see many positive things happening to me, my family and to all of Malinzanga. If we use our voices together, we will be heard.”

 

 According to ONE and Restless Development, organizations supporting Eva, last year young people from Eva’s school wrote to the Tanzanian government to ask for clean water and safe toilets at their school. They are still waiting to hear back.

 

 “This is particularly challenging for girls like Eva, who in the developing world are often denied equal access to education and are hit hardest by the effects of extreme poverty,” reads part of a media statement made available to The Guardian.

 

 Along with other young people at her school, Eva has started a petition calling for her leaders to provide clean water for her community in Malinzanga. She hopes that this will help her to secure meetings with her political representatives, eventually leading the way to the promises made at the UN becoming a reality for her and her friends.

 

 Margaret Miliwa, Restless Development Tanzania country director, said Eva and her classmates are proving that young people can and do create change in their communities. “World leaders have signed up to Global Goals that promise to end poverty, inequality, and climate change.

 These are promises to their citizens. We now have the chance in Tanzania to show the world how to turn these promises into reality, but we need the collective power of young people to make it happen.”

On her part Nachilala Nkombo, Acting Africa executive director for ONE, said Eva and this campaign show how strong girls and women like her are changing their worlds for the better. “They are not waiting for others before they begin, they are doing it themselves and we are amplifying their message.”

 

 “It will be girls like Eva across Africa and around the world who will make the Global Goals turn from dreams into bread and butter for their families. With citizens everywhere holding their leaders to account, the promises made with the Global Goals must be delivered,” she declared.

 

 “At the ONE Campaign we join Eva in urging her government to listen closely to her and her classmates,” she emphasized.

 

ONE is a campaigning and advocacy organisation of more than seven million people taking action to end extreme poverty and preventable diseases, particularly in Africa. Not politically partisan, it raises public awareness and press political leaders to combat AIDS and preventable diseases, increase investments in agriculture and nutrition, and demand greater transparency in poverty-fighting programmes. ONE operates from Berlin, Brussels, Johannesburg, London, Paris and Washington DC. Restless Development is a youth-led international development agency operating in ten countries across Africa, Asia and in the UK and US, with partners across the world. 

 

It focuses on healthy and safe sexual lives, decent livelihoods and young people being involved in the decisions that affect their lives.