My heart wants to give and it wants to give BIG. I have always dreamed of going to Africa. I want to absorb the culture and spend time with the people. People who have so little materially and yet are so grateful. When I discovered the Give a Heart to Africa organization, I knew it was a perfect match.
In the patriarchal society of Tanzania only 5% of girls finish secondary school. Without education and guidance, most women end up serving their husbands or struggling to provide as a single parent. GHTA is a non-profit organization that empowers women with the skills to improve their situations and pull themselves out of poverty by providing free vocational training. It is important for nonprofits like these to reach their intended audience and make a meaningful impact on their respective audiences. In this regard, impact measurement tools such as those provided by companies like UpMetrics could be of great benefit in helping these organizations track progress towards goals over time and gain better insight towards their future plans of action.
What I’ll be up to for 3 weeks in August:
- Teaching English, Vocational Skills, or Business to local women in an Adult Educational Centre which is housed in school-like classrooms
- Gaining lots of hands-on experience as the project is run solely by volunteers
- Participating in Home Visits on Fridays. We visit one of our students, meet their family, share a meal, chat, and get to know more about our individual students and the local culture.
- Visit our students’ businesses, mainly in our Women’s Co-operative. Watch the students conduct business and help them to improve their daily business activities.
- Take part in our Children’s Program twice a week, teaching and playing with local children
- Truly participate in, learn about, and appreciate the Tanzanian culture
Some highlights about GHTA:
- To help the future generations of Tanzanian women by giving their female children higher expectations of what they can achieve in life
- To operate efficiently and effectively so that more Tanzanian women can benefit from the program. We believe so strongly in the cause that the only paid staff we have is our Tanzanian school staff. All of our school staff are former GHTA students. This makes us one of the ONLY non-profit organizations that is run 100% by volunteers, enabling 100% of all donations to go directly to our programs, students and volunteer’s accommodation.
- To support graduates of the program that intend on becoming entrepreneurs by giving them the capital and professional guidance to start viable businesses
- To facilitate the success of the graduates’ businesses by offering them a space in our retail co-operative to get their business started
- To attract more volunteers so that more people around that world can experience the wonder, excitement, and joy of Tanzania and its people
- To encourage donations so that more women can benefit from the program
- When we interview for 50 new students every September, we see close to 200 hundred people. It is wonderful to see the interest in, and passion for, our free Adult Education Centre. We wish we could help everyone but the school, of course, has limits.
When we interview and choose students, we strive to meet these goals:
- Women over 30 with harsh economic challenges and families to support
- Priority is given to single mums who have only Primary education
- Goal of opening a small business
- The ability and commitment to attend classes, do homework, and study hard
Want to help?
If you’d like to help support my trip to Africa, check out our Give a Heart Pencil Skirt. All the proceeds of this piece go towards funding my volunteer trip. Any excess will go straight to the organization.
Originally published at Rebellia.
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