Education Tanzania, United Republic of Project #14093

Send 35 Girls in Tanzania to Secondary School

by Girls Education International

Send 35 Girls in Tanzania to Secondary School

Project Report | Nov 18, 2014
November Update on Girls Education Tanzania

By Rai Farrelly | Member, Board of Directors

A Mattress for Boarding School

Greetings Girls Education International Supporters,

Thank you so much for supporting our recent program expansion to include girls in Tanzania! Through our partnership with Project Wezesha (www.projectwezesha.org), we are now supporting a group of young women in secondary school in western Tanzania.

The girls were honored to be selected in the summer of 2013 and were so excited when they received the items they needed to embark on their new school year. For some of them, that included mattresses! That's right - a few of our girls did so well on their secondary entrance exams that they were selected by the governmnet to attend boarding schools in various regions of the country. For the girls who stayed nearby, they were given other required (and perhaps unexpected) items - such as buckets, brushes, and hoes. Yes, that's right - part of the civic engagement of being a student is taking care of your school grounds. (See the pictures of the girls with their swag.)

After the first 6 months, the girls had a varied set of reports to share with us. Some reports were a bit disheartening, as can be the case when we check in. Studies are challenging because books are scarce. Subject matter is difficult to learn because classes are taught in English (and they speak Swahili). But, through interviews with the girls this past summer, we did hear from them that they know, without question, that education is the 'way forward'. They recounted the value of education to help them make their society better. They noted the importance of education to help their family with health related situations. They shared their ideas about how with education, they can do more to improve their lives. They also expressed that they are very happy and grateful to be going to school every day.

I'm going back in December to visit the students and attend the opening of the secondary school that Project Wezesha has been building with local leaders since 2010. We are very excited - as are the local primary students who are looking forward to filling these classrooms in the near future.

Thank you so much for your support! Because of you, these girls are in school as members of an academic community - trying (hard as it may be) to reach their educational goals and make their lives better!

Asante Sana!

Rai Farrelly
Board Member, Girls Education InternationalCo-Founder, Project Wezesha

Equipped and Ready for School

Getting Geared Up!

The Girls and Rai_Summer 2014

Permalink

Jun 25, 2014
Bonus Day! And a June 2014 Update on Tanzania

By Rai Farrelly | Member, Board of Directors

Dear Girls Ed Supporters,

Greetings from all of us here at Girls Education International and Project Wezesha. We're excited about an opportunity we have to increase our funding by 100% per donation! It's time for a YouthSpark Bonus Day. We hope that you'll join us, as Microsoft is planning to match your contributions - dollar for dollar! Here's how it works:

Between 12pm (EST) on Wednesday June 25th and midnight (EST) on Thursday June 26th, Microsoft will match at 100% all donations between $10 - $1,000 per donor, per project (up to $200,000). This cap at $200,000 means that funds will run out - and fast!

In addition to the 100% matching opportunity, the project with the most unique donors will also recieve $2,500! So, please share with your friends - every donation at even $10 will help us toward a potential award of $2,500. In addition, the project that raises the most money during Bonus Day will also earn an extra $2,500. So many ways to ensure that our girls in Tanzania have their scholarships covered until they graduate!

Please use the sharing buttons below to let others know about this opportunity. You can also donate by clicking the 'Give Now' button below - but wait until 12p (EST) on June 25th!

The girls we recently added last year have been in school since January. All of our girls are in Form 1, so none of them is facing any 'scary' exams this summer, however all of them are struggling and striving to balance home life and school life. For a young girl in Tanzania, this is often a delicate balance. There are many pressures that can force a girl to miss school - caring for other family members, having her period, working during harvest time, staying home to collect water when the pipes are turned on briefly, and various other reasons! We can at least make sure that school fees are not a barrier.

Nickolas Kristof recently wrote an Op-Ed piece for the NY Times in which he revisited the story of a young girl that he wrote about in 2011, who received educational support from the organization, Room to Read. He shares the story of her life, then and now, and what a difference education is making for her. Like so many of the students I meet in Tanzania, she can't imagine children complaining about getting out of bed early to go to school. Our students walk quite a way each morning and afternoon - and do so because they know education is a privilege, although it should be a right.

And why does education matter? Kristof also wrote a piece about 'smart girls' "Why are fanatics so terrified of girls’ education? Because there’s no force more powerful to transform a society. The greatest threat to extremism isn’t drones firing missiles, but girls reading books." A woman empowered is a truly a force to be reckoned with.

In Mgaraganza, I have encountered some rather surprising incidents of ignorance. One example - a man assaulted a visiting doctor because he touched his wife in 'her sex'. The doctor was run out of town. The woman? She was pregnant and the 'touching' was a routine check-up to make sure the baby was healthy and in the right position given her term. Neither she nor her husband were aware of what was happening. Education of both men and women is critical for progress - no doubt. We're focusing on the girls with this project because they are underserved in this region, with the majority of students in all classes being boys.

Information that many of us take for granted as 'common knowledge' is grounded in our educational experiences. We believe that all children should have access to an education that provides them with that 'common knowledge'. With your continued support, we will be able to make sure that our scholarship recipients stay in school until they graduate, and then they will have even greater opportunities to go to high school or vocational school, and maybe one day - university!

After my trip this summer, I'll send reports back from the girls - pictures, stories, voices, videos and reports on academic progress. I'm excited to see how their first year of secondary school has gone thus far, and I'm even more excited to share that news with you! Stay tuned!

With Gratitude,

Rai Farrelly & The Girls Ed Team

Some of our Girls with Rai

Congratulating New Scholarship Recipients

Permalink

Mar 18, 2014
March 2014 Update on Girls Ed in Tanzania

By Rai Farrelly | Member, Board of Directors

Dear Girls Ed Supporters,

Here in Armenia (where I am based now), International Day of the Woman (March 8th) spans the entire month of March! It has been nice to see so many celebrations of the wonder of women throughout this month. The flower salespeople can barely keep the roses and tulips stocked. Women greet each other with well-wishes for a happy women's month. Men seem to be going out of their way to let their women know how special they are.

Is there any wonder why? As UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka states in her International Day of the Woman address, 'progress for women is progress for all'.

With your help, we are doing our part to make an impact on the state of women in the world - starting locally in the villages of Tanzania, Liberia, and Pakistan and spreading out from there. When we think of the magnitude of work to be done related to educating girls and women worldwide, we sometimes think of The Hummingbird story told beautifully by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari Maathai of Kenya. We are all simply doing the best that we can - and we should celebrate that we are all at least doing something.

Be the hummingbird! Together our impact will resonate around the world.

Our girls in Tanzania started school in January. I will be visiting them at their schools in July to capture their smiles and stories and report back to you so you know exactly who you've touched and how. Thank you so much for your support. Please continue to support us by donating, spreading the word through Social Media and among friends, and just bringing us up in conversation. We truly appreciate every 'hummingbird drop' of support.

Asante Sana!

Rai Farrelly
Member, Board of Directors for Girls Ed
Co-Founder, Project Wezesha

Links:

Wangari Maathai tells the Humingbird Story

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.