DOT Tanzania

Creating a sustainable livelihood for Hanang Women

Glory believes in the power of going all the way, that when you set your focus on one goal you need to give your all to see it to the end.

Before she became a social entrepreneur Glory was working on her other enterprise, a maize mill which she started in 2017. She was inspired by her father who encouraged her to become a businesswoman rather than seek employment.  She piqued interest in agri-processing after moving back home to Hanang, Manyara, and saw the abundance of agricultural opportunities. 

Glory noticed that the pastoralist community in Hanang suffered heavy losses due to poor market accessibility for the milk produced by its cattle. During the rainy season, roads are often destroyed by rain, and bodaboda (motorcycle taxis) can’t carry the milk to town, this leaves a lot of milk unsold and thrown out in many households. 

Unfortunately, women are disproportionately affected by a lack of market accessibility. Most women do not own land and rely on milk as a source of income.  

In 2020 Glory was one of 20 social entrepreneurs selected to join the Dare to Change Tanzania Program, her Social enterprise Moow! Life Dairy Products. 

“I heard about the program through the Obuntu hub Instagram page. I choose to be part of it because I saw it was a great opportunity to receive free training and a possibility of getting funds for my idea”

Moow! Life Dairy is a milk value addition enterprise in Hanang Manyara that provides women with an assured and lucrative market for milk produced by buying milk from them, processing, branding, and packing affordable dairy products such as fresh milk, yogurt, and ghee.

The program has been a life-changing experience for Glory. She received weeks of online and face-to-face training from DOT Tanzania alongside our partners Obuntu Hub,  Ndoto Hub, and Startup Reseau gaining more confidence in her idea. Glory admits that her one major challenge was identifying the problem that she is trying to solve, and targeting customers.

“The gender and women empowerment topics were really eye-opening. I made amazing new friends. Also, the DOT team was really amazing and inspiring. Ooh and the surrounding for the boot camp was beautiful and comfortable. ”

Taking part in a program that had 70% young women, Glory and her peers got to share experiences and challenges that women entrepreneurs face and uplift each other. She believes it is a great approach because women are already behind. 

As one of the 5 winners of Dare to Change Tanzania 2020, she won Tsh. 5,000,000 seed funding for her initiative.  She has since joined the Tony Elumelu Foundation and has won more seed capital for her social enterprise. 

Glory’s next big move is setting up a modern dairy plant with an appropriate milk collection system and collection centers in villages with chilling tanks. The support she needs now is dairy production machines and additional training and mentorship from people in the dairy industry.

“I would like to advise young people in Tanzania to find their passion but most importantly have a skill because once you have a skill that could be your employment. You can learn through the internet and institutions such as VETA and SIDO”

Glory’s Social

• LinkedIn: Glory Mtei  
• Instagram watoi_jaredm