AfricAid “Lights Up Losinoni”!
Bluegrass Music to “Light Up Losinoni”!
On June 18th, AfricAid, the Evergreen Rotary Club and Evergreen’s Center/Stage joined together to present an exciting evening of bluegrass music. Featuring the original and compelling lyrics and melodies of John Erlandson, the foot-stomping gusto of the Hoofin’ High Country Cloggers, and the artistry and high-altitude energy of The O’Brien Family Band, the musical event served to help provide electricity, through solar power lighting, for the very first time to 750 children in their primary school in the remote Maasai village of Losinoni in Tanzania.
AfricAid thanks all those who helped make it such an enjoyable and successful evening: the Evergreen Rotary Club, and its steering committee of Bob and Brenda Hagerman, Hanna Holt and Marcia Walsh; Rib Crib Restaurant; and Gary Muse and Center/Stage. And a special thanks to all of those supporters of AfricAid and fans of wonderful bluegrass music who turned out for the event!
“Somebody Like Me”
Ashley Shuyler’s film “Somebody Like Me” has been shown in numerous venues across the United States, including multiple screenings at the Starz Film Center at the Tivoli in Denver, Colorado last October. “Somebody Like Me” follows a young Maasai woman who was the first in her remote village in Tanzania to go to secondary school, after she returns home to her village. The film, which was also selected for screening last October at Russia’s Moscow International Visual Anthropology Film Festival, documents the three weeks that Ms. Shuyler spent in this Maasai village last summer, recording their traditional ways of life, herding goats, fetching water and gathering firewood each day, and their rich cultural heritage. If you would like more information on how you can host a showing of “Somebody Like Me”, please contact us.
AfricAid’s Mission
AfricAid is a nonprofit organization that supports girls’ education in Africa in order to provide young women with the opportunity to transform their own lives and the futures of their communities.
The Origins of AfricAid
The vision for AfricAid has its roots in the experiences of its founder, Ashley Shuyler, who journeyed to Tanzania for the first time with her family in 1996 at the age of eleven. Struck by the poverty she saw while there, particularly among children her own age, she
became determined to do something to help. She soon learned that, in contrast to her own educational experiences in the United States, only a small fraction of girls in Tanzania are able to obtain an education beyond the primary school level. Because of her strong belief that education is the most crucial component of any long-term solution to the many challenges facing East Africa, particularly in the areas of health and inequality, she formed AfricAid. Since its inception in 2001, AfricAid has raised over $600,000 in its mission to support girls’ education in Africa.
The Need
Imagine for a moment that only 1 out of every 20 girls born in the U.S. were able to 
complete a high school education. As hard as that may be to envision, that is the reality facing girls in many African countries such as Tanzania. These young women often overcome extraordinary obstacles in their quest for educational opportunities, created in large part by the generally prohibitive cost of secondary schooling. In the face of limited resources, and with little governmental monetary support available for secondary education, families tend to choose their male children for schooling beyond the primary level, keeping girls at home to help with household chores. Those girls who live in rural areas, or belong to nomadic societies, face even greater challenges, as it is far less likely that they will have access to educational opportunities. Yet, a growing body of research shows that the education of these girls is vital in helping to equip communities with the tools with which they can successfully address economic and health challenges. As UNICEF’s recent “State of the World’s Children” shows, “Girls’ education is inextricably linked to…human development”. Indeed, former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said that “educating girls is not an option, it is a necessity,” and has proclaimed, “There is no tool for development more effective than the education of girls.” We at AfricAid believe that girls’ education in Africa is vital in the long-term fight against poverty, AIDS and inequality. Helping to provide that education is our mission and our passion.
