Overview

The Kisa Project is a new AfricAid initiative that provides school scholarships and leadership training to some of Africa’s brightest young women. Through sponsorships provided by American families and groups, these young women are able to complete their secondary school education, while also participating in a formal, two-year leadership training program. Upon graduation, these “Kisa Scholars” then return to their home communities to implement vital community projects and provide life-skills mentoring to groups of other young women, thus helping to create the next generation of leaders across Africa.

At the same time, through a specially designed curriculum, digital storytelling, and interactive website, American sponsors can develop a truly meaningful connection with their Kisa Scholar in Africa. Through the website and curriculum, they are given the concrete tools they need to develop cross-cultural relationships, become leaders, and undertake service in their local and global communities on an ongoing basis. In partnership with the Center for Digital Storytelling, AfricAid leads the young women participating in the Kisa Project through storytelling workshops so they can develop, write, and share their life stories with their sponsors in a rich and vivid video format.

In this way, the Kisa Project will put into motion on both sides a powerful cycle of Sharing, Learning, Growing, and Leading.

Why Girls? Why Leadership?

Kisa’s goal is to provide young African women with schooling they might not otherwise receive, and to empower them to become leaders and mentors in their own communities. Young African girls all too often can’t afford to complete their education, and parents generally send sons to school instead of daughters, when forced to choose. Indeed, 95% of girls in Tanzania are unable to complete secondary school. At the same time, girls aren’t taught to believe they can achieve what men can, and rarely have mentors or role models to show them otherwise. Yet, these are very often the same bright young women who would eventually work to address their communities’ most pressing needs if they had the proper tools to do so. To address these many needs, the Kisa Project not only provides school scholarships for girls but also the leadership training needed to empower Africa’s young women to become community leaders and mentors to the next generation of young girls.

Impact

Through the Kisa Project, girls who pass the rigorous national exams for the final two years of secondary school, but who might not otherwise be able to afford the high tuition costs, are selected annually by local committees to participate in the two-year program. Weekly leadership training and individualized guidance by Tanzanian mentors gives them the skills and knowledge to return home after graduation, undertake needed community projects with small loans or grants provided by Kisa, and conduct life skills mentoring for at least 15 other girls. Over 5 years, it is expected that 1,000 young women who otherwise wouldn’t have finished school will have completed their secondary education and participated in a powerful leadership program, and nearly 10,000 girls will have been mentored and trained by them. At the same time, over 1,000 American families and groups will have formed relationships with their Kisa Scholar and completed the Kisa curriculum program, renewing their commitment to service, and armed with new tools with which to become leaders in their own communities and nation.

The Kisa Project pilot program, which is the result of dozens of focus group discussions conducted by AfricAid over 4 years with Tanzanian students, parents, teachers and educational leaders, was formally initiated in April 2010 with the selection of the first set of Kisa Scholars. After 2010, the intake of Kisa Scholars and corresponding American partners is expected to double each year, and it is envisioned that the program will expand to other African countries within five years.

Learn More

In the following video, AfricAid founder Ashley Shuyler describes the origins and goals of the Kisa Project. To see examples of AfricAid’s digital stories created by our staff, volunteers, and students, head here.

The Kisa website is currently in beta testing and can be visited here.www.kisaproject.org

Download the Kisa brochure here   and here  

Download the 10-page Kisa Project Concept Paper here  

Download the Girls Education Fact Sheet here  

The Kisa Project is empowered by: