Salha’s tireless fight for rights of adolescent girls

Dar es Salaam. Salha Aziz is the Founder and Executive Director of Binti Salha Foundation. She champions the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG-2030), and also advocates girls’ rights to quality education, economic freedom and good health.

When she was in Form-V at Makongo High School in Dar es Salaam in 2013 she started engaging in activities of the UN Club and the PCCB Club.

At that time she was the Health Minister in the School Government - and started aspiring to be a great leader and serve the general community.

“I found myself influenced into championing the UN Millennium Goals and later on the Sustainable Development Goals whereby I was recognised by the UN Resident Coordinator as one of the SDG’s Youth Champions, especially for Goals Numbers 3 (Good Health and Well-Being) Number 4 (Quality Education).”

Sharing her career journey with The Citizen, Salha says, that, when pursuing her Bachelor of Arts with Education (BAEd) degree programme at the University of Dar es Salaam (Udsm). She ensured that she participated in leadership processes. In due course, she became the Secretary General of Udsm’s Ministry of Sports and Recreation, leading more than 5,000 students.

“My leadership career kept growing. I became a youth champion for different issues nationally and internationally. This made me realise my potential, and I started Binti Salha Foundation while still at Udsm in 2019,” Salha recounts.

Through the Foundation, she currently heads a team of young women-led Organisation campaigning for “Mvalishe Akasome” conducted on social media platforms - and which collect a total of Sh1.8 million that aided 70 primary school girls. The money was used to buy school uniforms in Pwani, Dodoma and Iringa regions in supporting the government noble objective of providing quality education for all.

Commenting on the challenges in her career journey, Salha says it has never been easy to initiate and run an organisation - especially by a young girl student with no money to speak of.

Our Salha’s leadership style is democratic; she always listensto, and seeks opinions from, the people she leads before making important decisions.

This, she says, has helped her to overcome many challenges in her life’s journey.

Salha has been fully drawing upon her ‘volunteers spirit’ as a member of different youth-led organisations and platforms. These have included - but are not limited to - the Youth of United Nations Association; Tanzania Youth Vision Association,; Action Aid Global Platform Tanzania, and Youth Action Movement (YAM) under UMATI Tanzania.

Her career journey was inspired by former Ambassador Asha Rose Migiro, who has been Salha’s role model since she was in primary school. She was also able to get a mentor at the Udsm, Mr Reuben Ndimbo, who - for starters - advised her “to watch her steps.” She has been doing just that since then until now - and, hopefully, well into the future.

“It was partly his support that enabled me to also become an effective mentor to other girls. But, before I mentor anyone, I have to know if she is ready to be mentored! Does she make extra efforts in seeking to achieve her dreams especially in leadership and in her career? If I see these positive signs, then I sincerely commit myself to mentoring her,” says Salha.

She also says that women who want to be leaders must keep in mind that, although one can be born a leader, there must also formal training on leadership so as to strengthen one’s inborn leadership.

So, the right formal training, the better.

Commenting on what is causing a lack of diversity in top leadership that stops women from rising to the top, Salha says that, for years now, women have been lagging behind when it comes to leadership because of different challenges - including “patriarchy.”

She says, a lot of women were not yet well-motivated, and were thus afraid to engage in leadership processes.

She is happy that, as of now women are moving from behind to the front lines, citing examples of women holding top positions in the government, including the President, the House Speaker and many others in ministries.

“The current changes are a wake-up call for more women to pursue leadership positions - and we expect to see many women in leadership positions.

For that to happen, women must believe in themselves, boldly get involved and show their potential - as we have seen in the case of the Union Presidency, and Parliamentary Speaker,” she says.

The best strategy to sustain women empowerment initiatives well into posterity is inter-generational mentorship. This is one of the best strategies to sustain women empowerment, as new generations learn from the older generation.

According to Salha, “if Tanzania wants exemplary female leaders like President Samia Suluhu Hassan, then we need to make sure that young women leaders are well-mentored. It ispartly through this that they will build confidence from within - as was the case with me,” Salha counsels.

“I developed leadership confidence by believing in what was inside me as a leader, and put more efforts to ensuring that I enhanced what was inside me to a great leader. Also, I am a ‘positive results-oriented’ person. So, for me as a leader, seeing positive change satisfies me the most,” she says.

She also talked about “self-care” being the very important to everyone and in every challenging situation.

As a leader Salha Aziz faces some “head-cracking challenges.” But putting her mental and physical health first is what makes her stronger tossing out all toxic things that may lead to her destruction.