Zenais is a Community Development Specialist with 19 years of experience working in various programmes at national, district and at the community levels.

She is an expert in financial Inclusion, especially on the Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs); linking projects and advocacy agendas with key Government leaders, including Ministers and Members of Parliament. Zenais also possesses skills in Monitoring and Evaluation, research and report writing, financial management and partner engagement in project implementation.

Zenais has made a great contribution in facilitating the economic empowerment of women in 7 regions in Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar by facilitating the formation of a total of more than 6,000 saving groups, whereby women were about 85% of the reached members. She has led the design and implementation of different savings group formation and training approaches, including partner organizations, franchisee model, Community Based Trainer’s model and Fee for Service Model. She is a champion of Gender and Women Economic Empowerment issues, and she has a very strong working relationship with the Government, including the Ministry of Health, Gender, Community Development, Children and Elderly, Ministry of Finance and Planning, National Economic Empowerment Council and President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government. Zenais has a very strong working relationship with the Local Government in all 7 Regions and in 38 districts, where the project has been implemented. 

Zenais also has vast experience in Gender and Women Empowerment; advocating for girls education rights, quality education; Livelihood Restoration, Community and Stakeholders Engagement, Managing Community Relations and Grievances, promoting readership habits among pupils and teachers; Policy Analysis and Advocacy; Strengthening the capacity of Civil Society Organizations (NGOs, CBOs, FBOs) from grassroots up to national levels;  formation and supporting of networks, alliance and coalitions; Advocacy of Women Land and Property Rights; designing and implementing campaigns; Advocacy on violence against women and girls; plan and implementation of the National women Forum; supporting out of school and vulnerable girls, establishments of Complementary Basic Education Centres in Kahama district, Linking vulnerable girls with alternative education systems known as COBET (Complementary Basic Education in Tanzania); skills on conducting situational analysis for vulnerable and out of school girls; coordinating community engagement to support vulnerable girls and out of school girls to access education.