Giving My Heart to Africa

In less than three weeks I will get on a plane in Boston and after a brief layover in Amsterdam (and almost 20 hours on a plane), I will land at the Kilimanjaro Airport in Tanzania and my adventure at Give a Heart to Africa will begin.  I'm both extremely excited and a little nervous! This blog entry is about why I chose Give a Heart to Africa (GHTA) as my volunteer destination.

The most important reason is that GHTA is small, and I mean really small. I didn't want to go to an NGO where I would be overwhelmed or lost in the shuffle.  While I was researching international volunteering I read story after story of people "volunteering" but never actually getting any hands on experience with the people they thought they were going to help. GHTA is tiny and very hands on. This week I chatted with Monika, the Czech-Canadian woman who started and runs GHTA, about my trip.  She said there will be three other people volunteering while I'm there, John and Jenny, a British couple in their 60s who live in Belgium, and Erin, a 38 year old woman who is originally from Peru but now lives in Australia.  We will all live in the volunteer house with Monika.

Another reason is because of the people that Give a Heart to Africa helps.  The GHTA website calls it a "A Women's Empowerment Project" and it's that and so much more.  It is a school for older women, most of them over 30 years old, that runs for one year.  Most school-related NGOs cater to children, and older women are often overlooked as a population who might need education and  training. The classes taught at GHTA are English, business, and vocational skills.  It is completely free.  They also accept some younger women and a few men with a total of around 50 students per year.

 In Tanzania it is expensive to go to school past the elementary grades and most families, if they can afford it, only send the boys.  GHTA helps women get jobs, start businesses, or continue their education at technical schools or college.  GHTA also includes a child care for the students' children as many are single parents (or grandparents).

GHTA stood out from so many other NGOs because it is run completely by volunteers.  No one gets paid except for the Tanzanians who work at the school as translators and those who maintain the house (housekeepers and security)...and they are former GHTA students.  The volunteer fees (and they are quite reasonable) pay for the bulk of the school's operation with donations covering the rest.

GHTA is not affiliated with any religion. I believe that teaching people skills they need to better themselves and help them provide for their families is a good thing.  I don't see where religion fits in to that picture. I have no problem with religion but also view it as a personal choice.

And the final reason I chose GHTA is that it isn't an American NGO.  I am a thankful American and  grateful for all the opportunities I've had because of my country of birth (and yes, I have the birth certificate to prove it!).  I realized over the last few years, after reading the book, Half the Sky, and visiting Kate in Colombia, that my perspective of the world is completely American-centric.  I decided that I wanted to broaden my horizons and maybe learn a little about what it's like to be from a different country and culture.

If you would like to check out the GHTA website, here is the link:

http://www.giveahearttoafrica.org/

Where's Tanzania?

When I started telling people that I was going to volunteer at an NGO called Give a Heart to Africa (GHTA) in Moshi, Tanzania the first question everyone asked me is, Where's Tanzania?  So here's the answer to that question...and more.

Tanzania is in East Africa and borders many countries with names most would recognize like Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and Rwanda.  It also borders some lesser known countries like Burundi, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. The far east border of Tanzania is the Indian Ocean.

It's a fairly new country, created in 1964 by the merging of Tanganyika (you might have heard of the lake by the same name) and Zanzibar (an island off the coast), a successful merger of Christian and Muslim cultures. It has a parliamentary government with an elected president.  It is relatively safe and stable.

Even though you might not think you know anything about Tanzania...you do.  It's where Mt. Kilimanjaro is (I actually fly into Mt. Kilimanjaro airport). It's home to Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa.  It's also the home of many national parks including the Serengeti.  It's where the wildebeest migration takes place each year.  There are lions, elephants, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus in the parks.  And it's where Jane Goodall studied chimps (the Jane Goodall Institute is still in operation there).  So you've probably seen pictures of Tanzania hundreds of times and just didn't realize it.

The climate where I will be in Moshi is warm during the day (in the 80s) and cool at night (in the 60s).  I will be there during one of the rainy seasons (but not the really bad one...I hope!).  In any case I have my rain boots packed!  And the language the people speak is Swahili (called Kiswahili there). 

I will end with a piece of trivia...Freddie Mercury of the group Queen was from Tanzania (Zanzibar).  His real name was Farrokh Bulsara!