have little access to the courts. The Rukwa WomenÆs Legal Aid program is working with local organizations, running education campaigns to improve the legal status of women and inform them of their rights under the law. Tanzanian law overrides traditional law in terms of inheritance, where traditional law denies women rights in these areas. Access to the Tanzanian legal system helps women gain property rights. It also helps in matters of sexual and domestic violence. The Rukwa WomenÆs Legal Aid program wants to help raise consciousness among women about their legal rights under Tanzanian law; increase womenÆs feelings of self-confidence and self-respect; and help women secure more control over their lives.
Research in a western district of Tanzania found that the elderly women who had lost adult children to AIDS were invariably destitute (Bindura-Mutangadura 93). During the course of the illness, they had sold off their possessions to pay medical bills and buy food for the sick. When their children died, the elderly wo
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