My Giving Pledge Letter: July 2016

Having witnessed severe poverty throughout my upbringing, I have always felt a deep responsibility to give back to my community. I was fortunate enough to be blessed with endless opportunities — great health, a stellar education, and a strong family unit and religious community that were always supportive and encouraging of my growth and development.

From day one, my parents have been instrumental in instilling in me the ethos of philanthropy, particularly my responsibility as a Muslim to give and care for the less fortunate in our society. Our role as citizens of this world is to truly support the betterment of our society so that future generations and their offspring grow up to live even better lives and strive for even more than they think is possible today.

One of the first avenues through which I chose to tackle these goals was embedding the concept of impact investing in my core business at MeTL Group. When devising our expansion plans, I continuously stressed the importance of a business strategy that sees the economically disadvantaged not as charity cases but as willing and able consumers for products that match their needs. A variety of my new consumer products were designed for the sole purpose of being affordable to lower-income people in East Africa, who traditionally would been priced out of such access. This type of impact investment has the potential to drive large-scale social change by not only improving the saving potential of the poor as a result of product affordability, but also improve their contentment with life and confidence resulting from their newly found purchasing power. While foreign aid across the continent has been instrumental in various aspects of human development, ultimately only home-grown development can act as a catalyst for sustainable social and economic growth. Through MeTL products, we have taken incremental steps towards this through locally-led impact investments.

It wasn’t until the year 2000 that I realized I needed to go beyond my core business in order to support the livelihoods of Tanzanians. It was then that I decided to join politics and represent my home constituency of Singida as a Member of Parliament (MP). Upon being elected in 2005, one of the biggest realizations was the socio-economic profile of my constituents in Singida. Not only was I representing one of the poorest regions in Tanzania, but their day-to-day realities became embedded in all aspects of my personal and professional life.

Shortly after being elected in 2005, I established Singida Yetu, a charitable entity with the aim of improving the lives of Tanzanians in the region by helping create sustainable socio-economic development. The purpose of setting up this entity was to go beyond my duty as an MP and use my own personal funds to give back to the region that birthed me. In the first few years alone, I supported a wide range of activities, including constructing schools, drilling wells, distributing mosquito nets, supplying maize flour during the 2005—2006 drought, funding scholarships for secondary school students, providing healthcare for the critically ill, constructing an eye unit at the regional hospital, installing street lighting, offering food support for those with HIV/AIDS, rehabilitating mosques and churches, purchasing sports equipment and equipping farmers. Despite the wide array of interventions, which yielded many successful results, I still felt my efforts were not enough to truly tackle the poverty that plagued the region and Tanzania as whole.

Knowing that I had made the decision to retire from politics in 2015, I began thinking of ways in which I could give back more holistically to the country. It was then that I decided to set up the Mo Dewji Foundation in 2014, with the aim of creating lasting solutions to enhance the quality of life and well-being of under-privileged Tanzanian citizens. In selecting the thematic focus of my philanthropy, I was particularly influenced by the basic needs of my constituency in Singida, many of whom lacked access to education and quality healthcare and the skills required to become financially literate and self-sustaining citizens. The funded activities to date have included patient assistance programs, health facility grants, school refurbishment programs, educational scholarships, agri-business community projects and most recently an entrepreneurship program aimed at providing financial literacy capacity building, coupled with an interest-free loan to established young SME’s in Tanzania. All the current and future projects supported by the Mo Dewji Foundation will be aligned to my philanthropic vision of facilitating the development of a poverty-free Tanzania and a future where the possibilities, opportunities and dreams of Tanzanians are limitless.

If there’s only one thing we’re certain about this life, it is that it ends. All these material comforts that surround us are temporary accessories and this is why I decided a long time ago that I do not need any more personal wealth. As a result, I plan to donate well above half my net worth to various organizations and individuals for philanthropic purposes, similar to what I have done thus far. I expect to continue this support for the betterment of country during my lifetime and in the hereafter, simply in recognition that they (‘the less fortunate’) need it more than I do. And well after my death, I would like to ensure that the legacy of supporting our brothers and sisters in need remains at the forefront of our development agenda. I hope that my children and grandchildren inherit this ethos and lead by example in years to come.

By signing this pledge, I hope to inspire my peers, fellow Africans and citizens of the world to take a close look at the funds they truly need to maintain their families, versus their ability to give. In retrospect, many of us have well above what we need and still constantly accrue a list of what we want. We all have a moral obligation as the more affluent in society to give back as best we know how. I’ll leave you with a few words I share with many of my comrades: “When God blesses you financially, don't raise your standard of living. Raise your standard of GIVING.”

Sincerely,

Mohammed Dewji

This was originally published at givingpledge.org