CHIDA young women Paralegals

CHIDA young women Paralegals was founded in September 2017 and came in to operations early 2018 envisioning a world in which Tanzanian women and girls are informed, empowered and unconditionally taking part in leadership and decision making at all levels. CHIDA young women paralegals group endeavors to empower women and girls with knowledge, skills and Information on and how to access their fundamental rights. Customary norms are strongly against women owning land and controlling property thereon. Most Tanzanian rural women are not aware of their fundamental rights including the right to acquire, use and own land as enshrined in the 1977 constitution. CHIDA young women paralegal group is fully engaged in educating and raising women’s awareness on their fundamental rights including the land ownership, matrimonial property-inheritance rights etc.

Since the group’s inception, two significant cases of land disputes were handled and verdicts under the assistance of CHIDA young women paralegals at ward level were delivered. Out of these two cases, the verdict of one of them was challenged and referred to the District land tribunal in Mufindi district where again the plaintiff lost, but re-appealed to the Regional land tribunal in Iringa region where the case victoriously ended in favor of the village land committee’s ruling which was assisted by the young women paralegals who played a big role.