By Elizabeth Abshire | Executive Director
The founder of AfricAid, Ashley Shuyler, recently visited Tanzania and came back with some great insight for AfricAid's work and its future, particularly the future of Tanzanian girls aspiring to gain more education.
Upon her return she shared her impressions and thoughts...
"The most inspiring moment of the trip for me was visiting the remote home of Prisca Lesakire, a young Maasai woman who was one of AfricAid’s first 10 scholarship recipients. She was the first girl in her village to go to high school, and she has now become the first woman teacher from her community. As a result of her education, Prisca is not only teaching math and science classes to hundreds of students, but she is serving as a powerful role model in her home community. As she has built a permanent home for her parents and sent her own two daughters to school, her entire village has seen just how valuable educating girls can be. Her father even allows her to eat together with the men, a sign of the deep respect Prisca has earned. The ripple effects of Prisca’s education are evident.
During my time with Prisca, I could see that AfricAid’s mission is more critical now than it ever has been before. The challenges that young women face in Tanzania are extraordinary – by the time they are teenagers, they are struggling in the face of having to live on $2 per day or less, of arranged marriages, the spread of HIV/AIDS – all with little hope for a brighter future. Indeed, 95% of girls don’t even have the chance to go to high school in Tanzania, leaving them little opportunity to have a voice in their future."
Sponsorship’s for these girls is life changing and your support is pivotal for this dramatic change in their lives. It is amazing how some things we take for granted, education, when for others it is such a privilege. Prisca is one of many that AfricAid has had the opportunity to help and as the next class of scholars enters our program we only hope to share these life-changing possibilities with more young Tanzanian women.
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