Ms. Joyce Ashery Mdachi
“Working with the GNRC has opened opportunities for me to meet and interact with many children from diverse backgrounds. Listening to them and getting to learn of their thoughts, dreams, and challenges, while commending and guiding them has added value in my life. I feel happy.” – Mama Mdachi
Ms. Joyce Ashery Mdachi also known as Mama Mdachi is a certified teacher with over 20 years of experience working with children and youth, and currently works as the Coordinator, GNRC Tanzania. She has worked with the GNRC for 15 years empowering children on their rights and protection, promoting ethics education for co-existence, and creating safe spaces for children and youth to live in, thrive and realize their potential.
She is inspired to work for children by her belief that children are God’s gift to humanity and a treasure that needs to be taken care of. She believes that if children’s dignity is respected and if they are guided and nurtured well, they will grow up to be responsible adults who benefit society.
From a young age, Mama Mdachi had the desire to serve others, especially children. This led her to become a teacher in a public school where she left after two years to work as Head of Education Department at Dogodogo Centre in Dar es Salaam, a home for vulnerable children. In her almost 10 years of working there, helping children to get access to formal and non-formal education, she was introduced to the GNRC by the late Sr. Jean Pruitt, Founder of DogodogoCentre and GNRC Tanzania. She was delighted to join the GNRC as she wanted to work with children from diverse backgrounds and learn more ways to interact and engage with them towards achieving positive outcomes. The GNRC’s focus on children’s rights and wellbeing made her feel at home, as well as engagements with other sister initiatives of the GNRC.
In her work with children, Mama Mdachi shares that the biggest challenge facing children in Tanzania is violence against them. She acknowledges that instead of being taken care of and mentored, many children are subjected to intimidation and abuse, causing them to lose trust in adults, some of whom are close family members.
She believes that more awareness targeting families, the primary institution in society, needs to be done, for them to change their attitudes towards children. She emphasizes the need to capacitate faith leaders on the right approach to raise awareness among their followers on violence against children, child rights, and peace. In doing so, Mama Mdachi believes that children in Tanzania will grow up in an environment where they are nurtured and loved, their rights are upheld, and their wellbeing taken care of.
She is proud to see many young people (over 50,000) whom she has mentored grow into self-aware, independent, and reliable individuals in society.
Mama Mdachi envisions a Tanzania where all children are protected from any form of violence (especially sexual violence), and that is safe for children to live, grow and thrive to fulfill their potential. A Tanzania where children are not victims but stakeholders of society.
