Volunteering has taken me further than I ever imagined; over the years, I’ve taught in classrooms, planted gardens, designed curriculums, shopped for school supplies, ridden ‘dala dalas’ (local buses), balanced buckets of water on my head while walking, cleaned pebbles out of rice for dinner, taken cold bucket showers, attended graduations and have been welcomed in many homes and schools. I’ve been encouraged and supported by family, friends, and friends of friends who’ve recognized the value of volunteering in someone else’s community. I’ve been inspired by our dedicated and energetic staff, our American and Tanzanian Board of Directors, teachers and administrators of the schools we partner with, our students, and their families.

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finding a way to make a lasting difference

 
The Tanzanians I’ve met value education greatly. They know that with an education their children can have a better life. Most parents’ biggest worry is paying for school fees for their children. In Tanzania, primary school is free, but secondary school is not. As a teacher, I worried about the future of some of my students after they graduated from primary school. I felt compelled to provide further educational opportunities for bright, promising girls whose
families couldn’t afford to send them to school. That compulsion led me to co-found The Girls Foundation of Tanzania.
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Volunteering in Tanzania has expanded my world, instilled a sense of purpose and deeply enriched my life. I’m inspired by our students, their curiosity and desire to learn. A 13-year-old girl has different needs than a 21-year-old young woman. When our 7th grade students arrive for the first time at The Girls Center, they’ve never seen so many books in one place, much less typed on a computer or used a flush toilet. We teach them everything from how
and when to wash their hands properly, to the difference between a fact and an opinion. We encourage them both to speak up and to know when to ask for help. Our older students recognize themselves in our younger students and step in to become their friends, buddies and mentors. They assure them that The Girls Center is a community
of peers who care and respect one another, and who want to learn from each other. And then something wonderful happens—a joyful connection among the new girls and our charismatic and caring Executive Director, Estahappy Mariki and exuberant House Supervisor, Grace Mbuya. The Girls Center becomes a home away from home, a place to
study, to learn, to teach, to share and to support each other.

What's next for our girls and our organization 
 
I am continually reminded of how lucky I am to be part of this team. It’s a team that’s dedicated and engaged in creative problem-solving. Our priority is serving and providing for smart girls and tenacious young women who desperately want an education.  TGFT strives to match their ambitions with skills, their passions with knowledge, their steadfastness with responsibilities. We are educating young girls today who we hope will become tomorrow’s middle class; well-educated young women empowered to make their own choices about who to marry and when to have children, successful, employable adults civically engaged in their home communities.
 
None of us can hope to solve the problems of the entire world. However, at The Girls Foundation of Tanzania, we’re changing the entire world for a single girl, one girl at a time.