Society-Tanzania - The stage is set, the awards are ready, the sponsors have fulfilled their promises, what remains is for the women that were competently nominated to receive their prizes in this year's Tanzania Women of Achievement Awards (TWAA) which will be help on March 8 to coincide with Women's Day. "The Awards provide a wonderful opportunity to recognize and applaud women who are helping to reshape Tanzania for the better. For many of the women this will be the first time that their achievement has received public accolade," said Irene Kiwia, Managing Director of Frontline Porter Novelli.

She said that the nominated women are awarded cash prize as well as a trophy and certificate signed by the current patron who is the UWT chairlady Mama Sophia Simba at a dinner gala attended by the corporate, government, NGO's and diplomatic community.

TWAA seek to recognize women, currently working in the geographical boundaries of Tanzania, paying tribute to the most exceptional and achieving women in the country who have not only achieved success in their own respective fields but who through their work and initiatives have made a significant difference in their community and society as a whole.

To add more value to the awards, this year TWAA will incorporate a mentorship program where young emerging women leaders from different villages across the country will be identified and paired with women executives in politics and business for a 3 weeks mentorship program that aims at combining leadership training, networking and professional development to provide the mentees with the tools that they need to succeed as well as teach them a "pay it forward' model of leadership that promotes the mentees efforts to promote positive changes in their communities, Kiwia explained.

The Categories for this year's awards are Arts and Culture, Business Entrepreneur, Information and Communication, Sports, Professional, Education, Health, Social Welfare, Science and Technology, Public Sector, Young Achiever, Agriculture, Lifetime Achievement and the overall Woman of the Year.

These annual awards were first launched in 2009 in honor of women across the country that has been at the forefront of achieving political, economical and social equality in their communities.

The 2009 Woman of the Year was Ms Anna Lukona and the Star recently ran into seeking to know how she has been progressing.

"Since receiving the honour bestowed on me, I have managed to start up an institution called Women Empowers the Deaf in Tanzania (WEDET) and now working even closer with children with disabilities," she said.

Anna Lukona is a mere teacher at Kilakala Primary School in Morogoro, who saw the need to help deaf students that were studying at the school's normal classes and fought to establish a special class for them.

After the class was started, Ms Lukona went ahead to start evening classes for the parents and relatives of the deaf students to enable better communication with their children. Anna's win has made her become the Tanzanian UN Goodwill Ambassador to fight gender-based violence.

Ms Lukona says that there is nothing more fulfilling than someone appreciating your work you do for society although we do this job under very harsh conditions and I honestly feel that the awards need to go to those who have fulfilled the objectives they had set for themselves.

Masembe Tambwe

Tanzania Daily News/05/03/2011