Yet becoming a Master of Ceremony was not what she had in mind when she enrolled for vocational training in 2025.
She had signed up to learn hairdressing and beauty.
Before the training, Ester sold clothes from house to house.
She had completed secondary school but had been unable to continue her education. After becoming a mother, her responsibilities increased. With little support from her child's father and limited capital to expand her clothing business, she needed a more reliable way to earn an income and provide for her daughter.
Then she heard about a hairdressing and beauty course in Kibaha District.
Ester was one of 73 young mothers who participated in the training delivered by Anjita Child Development Foundation (ACDF) under Swisscontact Tanzania's EmpowerHer through Skills project in 2025.
She joined expecting to learn a trade.
And she did. But alongside the hairdressing lessons were sessions on confidence, identifying personal talents and purpose, customer care, saving and business management.
Those conversations made Ester think differently about what she could do.
She realised she was comfortable speaking before people and engaging an audience.
Discovering a talent and earning from it are two different things.
Ester started small. She volunteered at events and took opportunities that allowed her to practice. Each event gave her experience. Her confidence increased, and people began recognising her ability to engage audiences and manage events.
Eventually, the calls became paid assignments.
Today, her MC work brings in at least TZS 100,000 (31CHF) per event. In months when opportunities are available, she hosts two to three events.
But the microphone did not replace the vocational skills she had originally set out to learn.
Ester also put her hairdressing and beauty training to work.
She now runs her own salon in Kibaha and has brought in a part-time assistant, whom she pays by the day.
Then she noticed something else.
People in her community were travelling long distances to access mobile money services. Ester saw a business opportunity and added the service to her salon.
Customers can now access M-Pesa, Mixx by Yas, Halotel and Airtel Money from the same business.
One young woman who once walked from house to house selling clothes now has three sources of income: her salon, mobile money services and paid MC engagements.
She also uses social media to market all three.
Ester is still building.
She wants to improve her public-speaking and event-hosting skills and eventually become a professional MC for larger weddings, corporate events and other functions. At the same time, she plans to expand her salon and strengthen her mobile money business.
Her experience illustrates what can happen when vocational training combines technical skills with business and life skills.
For Ester, learning hairdressing created one economic pathway. Recognising what else she could do opened another.
She enrolled expecting to work with her hands.
She discovered that she could also earn with her voice.
This project is financed by the Irene M. Staehelin Foundation. It is part of the Swisscontact Development Programme, co-financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA.