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STORIES
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Alice and Damares are best friends. They're in the same preschool class, are both five years old and share a favorite song called "Be Happy!" Damares is taller. Alice aspires to be a doctor, Damares a teacher. Already, their own teachers ask these precocious little girls to lead morning assemblies, and they direct hundreds of their peers to sing, dance and stand at attention. When Damares demands silence, they listen. These best buds are born leaders in a country where women have traditionally not held positions of power. At their school in Tanzania, students perform plays about women's rights in their culture, and stage debates on whether boys are better than girls. To see a short video of Alice and Damares leading their school in their favorite song, click here.
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Gideon
When we asked Gideon to draw a picture of what makes him happy, he drew a picture of himself playing in the rain. He dreams of one day becoming an astronaut who reaches new planets. When we interviewed Gideon's father, a welder who’s volunteering his skills to help build the new school and is also a minister, Mr. Gidori wondered aloud how they could have the same God as the people he once visited in Australia, why they would have so much while his people have so little. He went on to say, “if you tell a man he is weak, he will be weak, if you tell a man he is poor, he will be poor,” illustrating perfectly the reasoning behind the Epic Change model: we treat our partners not as recipients of charity but rather as leaders who possess the strength and resources (i.e., their stories) to improve their own communities - and even to improve other communities in need elsewhere on the globe. Learn more about Gideon on our blog here. In addition, you can view our interview with his father here, as well as his thoughts on poverty in this insightful essay.
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Glory
When we asked Glory her favorite place, she said it was the ocean. She said she'd never been, but she just knew it was beautiful. This aspiring teacher who is consistently ranked at the top of her class is also an orphan who often struggles to meet basic needs. Glory currently lives with her sisters in a house made of mud and sticks that has a patch of banana trees in front where their outhouse is located and both their parents are buried. During one of our visits, Glory, who's rarely absent and loves school, mysteriously missed class for three consecutive three days. We later learned it was because she’d lost the sole on one of her shoes, the only pair she had to walk the mile or more to school. This is the same little girl who wrote to us in crayon on a construction paper thank you card a note that simply said: “I am so lucky.” There’s more about Glory’s story on our blog here.
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Leah
During one of our visits to Tanzania, we went on a field trip with the children and our safari bus broke down stranding us in a wild game park for nearly 8 hours with the children. Leah helped us pass the time by sharing the story of a little girl who wanted to touch the stars in the sky, and tried to convince butterflies to carry her up to see them. As the evening wore on, we switched to a new topic, and the children wanted to know more about us and about America. Leah asked questions so insightful you can’t imagine them from a third grader in a third world country: “What motivated you to return to Tanzania?” “Do you love your president?” she asked and continued “Were you happy when Saddam Hussein was killed?” I responded hoping, likely in vain, that my answers were nearly as intelligent as her questions. When we asked what she’d do if she were granted omnipotence, she replied that she would cure HIV and help street children. When she grows up, she wants to be a pediatrician, or the president.
Leah’s beautiful photograph of a giraffe at Tarangire National Park is featured on our first line of postcards that began to be sold in 2007 at select hotels and safari companies in Arusha.
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Naomi
Little Naomi loves school. Her Babu (Swahili for "grandfather") says even if she catches a cold, she refuses to stay home for even a day; she doesn't want to miss a moment in Teacher Happy's classroom at her school in Tanzania. Babu is an elderly man who, despite a difficult life, wears a constant grin that bares few teeth and much joy. Babu cares for his granddaughter as she's lost both her mother and father. To him, Naomi is hope.
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Norbert
Norbert, the first grader who's pictured on the the front of this card, lives in Tanzania. He and his brother, Gipson, who's in the third grade, share dimples and smiles that could light up a room...and they're pretty great dancers too. Both boys aspire to be bus drivers.
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Pius
Pius is a six-year-old boy whose mother, Anna, thinks he just might be president someday. At his school in Tanzania, his teacher Selena says he’s consistently the top student in her kindergarten class. To his mother who struggles with HIV, and who lost her husband to the disease, and to a country gripped by poverty, Pius represents hope. To learn more about Pius and his mother, Anna, check out this video.
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Sayuni
Sayuni lives in an orphanage a few blocks away from Shepherds Junior.
When we visited there, we met Mama Ana, a woman who couldn’t be older than about 20, who single-handedly - and without any pay - cares full-time for Sayuni and 10 other orphans, ages 3-15. While we asked for some details about where Sayuni came from, and what happened to her parents, Mama Ana knew very little, except that she was brought to the orphanage by someone who attended her mother’s funeral. Like over 1 million orphans in Tanzania, Sayuni has lost both of her parents. At Shepherds Junior, though, she attends school in an environment that doesn’t brand her with a mark of poverty or shame, in a uniform that is washed regularly by her teacher, Rachel, to ensure that little Sayuni fits in with her peers.
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Teivin
Teivin is a 12-year-old boy who lives in Tanzania. His parents live in Nairobi, but he moved to Arusha a few years ago to live with his grandmother. When asked why, he said that, in Nairobi, there is "too much fighting, not with hands...with guns." He said that he was scared. When asked what makes him most happy, Teivin replied "Mount Meru", one of the tallest peaks in all of Africa, in whose shadow he now lives, learns and grows. Like the mountain, Teivin aims high, and dreams of one day becoming a pilot. This blog entry includes a short exchange with Teivin during a school safari trip.
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