Recent News
AfricAid Brings Cutting-Edge Computing to the Children of Tanzania
That’s the title of a recent case study on AfricAid’s use of innovative technology in its new Kisa Project, published by NComputing, a leading global provider of low-cost, virtual desktop technology. Led by Louis Gutierrez, AfricAid’s IT Manager, the installation of the NComputing technology in the computer labs at the first two Kisa Project schools in Tanzania has already begun to revolutionize the learning experiences of thousands of young students there. By providing low-cost, low-energy, easily maintainable PC access to students in a replicable fashion, AfricAid has made it possible for its Kisa Scholars to connect with their US sponsors through the internet, and made the benefits of modern computer technology available to all the school’s students. To read the case study, click here.
AfricAid’s 2009 Successes At A Glance
December 3, 2009
Here’s a quick look at what we accomplished in 2009:
• Teaching in Action and AfricAid named one of three “Champions of Quality Education in Africa” in grant competition sponsored by Ashoka Changemakers and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. 400 organizations entered and only 3 received $5,000 grants.
• Greg Mortenson, founder of the Central Asia Institute and bestselling author of Three Cups of Tea, secured a $10,000 donation to help launch the Kisa Project in January 2010
• Women’s Foundation of Colorado awarded $5,000 grant to the Kisa Project
• The third successful year of Teaching in Action brought student-centered and participatory teaching methods to 51 undertrained secondary school teachers. The teachers have, in turn, impacted the lives of 1,100 students in their schools.
• Solar power panel installed at Losinoni Primary School. The electricity is enough to power a light bulb, computer, printer, and several cell phones. Electricity will attract prospective teachers and will allow the school to teach more effectively.
• Attendance increased by 30% at Losinoni Primary School, due in large part to AfricAid’s school lunch program which provides one nutritious meal to Losinoni students per day.
• Outfitted vocational facilities at Muungano Secondary School in Tanzania with a grant from Western Union. As a result, students can now take computer and secretarial courses, tailoring, business management, and entrepreneurship.
• One science lab and one computer lab constructed at Ebenezer Girls’ School outside Arusha, Tanzania with the help of AfricAid and Rockland Community Church.
• Several former AfricAid scholarship students are continuing their education and teachers’ and nurses’ colleges. One such student, Theresia, was the first woman in her village to go to secondary school and is now studying to become the first female teacher in her village.
• Kisa Film Festival introduced the Denver community to the Kisa Project and the power of the digital storytelling, which will connect Kisa Scholars to their U.S. partner families and groups starting 2010. The 12 short films made by Coloradans with connections to Africa can be viewed here.
AfricAid’s New Kisa Project Featured on Colorado Public Radio
November 20, 2009
Ashley Shuyler had the opportunity to talk today about AfricAid’s new Kisa Project on CPR’s Colorado Matters on November 20th. Click here and scroll to November 20, 2009 to listen to the interview with Ashley Shuyler
The program also featured short segments from several of the digital stories created by 12 Coloradans about their various connections to Africa that were screened last month at AfricAid’s Kisa Film Festival at Denver’s Starz Film Center at the Tivoli. Videos like these will be an important aspect of the Kisa Project, helping to both better educate those in the U.S. with the realities of life in Africa, as well as create a meaningful and immediate connection between the Kisa Scholars in Tanzania and their American sponsors. The complete videos can be viewed here.
Greg Mortenson Endorses and Launches AfricAid’s new Kisa Project
September 20, 2009
“My real heart has always been in Africa. I often say I’m African– which causes confusion here in the U.S,” Greg Mortenson told a gathering of a hundred AfricAid supporters at Red Rocks Amphitheater on September 20th. The child of two missionary parents, Mortenson spent the first fifteen years of his life in Tanzania. “I was so blessed to grow up on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro,” he reminisced.
Mortenson, the New York Times bestselling author of Three Cups of Tea and 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee for his work promoting education in Afghanistan and Pakistan, returned to his roots in Tanzania to help launch AfricAid’s new girls’ scholarship and leadership program, the Kisa Project. During the event, Mortenson gave a resounding and heart-felt endorsement of the new AfricAid program– which gives high school scholarships to girls, enrolls them in a two-year leadership training program, and connects them to their sponsors in the U.S. through an interactive website.
Mortenson spoke about his deep commitment to girls’ education, both in Central Asia and East Africa, and announced that he had already secured a $10,000 donation to help launch the Kisa Project in January 2010. Quoting the famous proverb in the original Swahili, “If you educate a boy, you educate an individual. If you educate a woman, you educate an entire community,” Mortenson said that women are about three times likelier than men to return to their communities after getting an education. “They teach their mothers how to read and write. They become bridges and advocates for their people, ” he said.
“If you really want to change a culture, empower women, improve basic hygiene and health care, and fight high rates of infant mortality– the answer is to educate girls.”
Mortenson also gave an inspiring update about his organization, the Central Asia Institute, which has started to build schools in the most remote communities of Afghanistan and Pakistan– in regions where even the U.S. military is unable to maintain a presence. In a telling statement about the power of using education to build peace, Mortenson said, “I often tell people that fighting terrorism is based in fear, but building peace is based in hope. The real enemy is ignorance.”
Ashley Shuyler’s Education Research Publicized in Tanzania
The research conducted by AfricAid’s founder on the country’s system of national examinations and their impact on Tanzania’s economic development was recently published by HakiElimu, a nationwide policy and advocacy organization that focuses on children’s rights to a quality education, and featured in Tanzania’s nationwide Business Times periodical. Click here to read the full article.
Colorado Academy’s AfricAid Club and Jane Goodall
Colorado Academy’s AfricAid Club was recently honored to be selected by Global Explorers as one of only ten groups to participate in the Global Explorers Citizens of the World Award Service Event. Each year, Global Explorers, a Colorado based non- profit that teaches leadership, service learning, cultural tolerance, and conservation biology through student travel, celebrates those leaders who inspire youth to take action. This year, they partnered with the Denver Zoo, the Wildlife Experience, and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to honor world-renowned primatologist, Dr. Jane Goodall. As a part of the program, the AfricAid Club members put together an exhibit of the work they have been doing on behalf of AfricAid and women’s education in Tanzania, and then had the opportunity to share their exhibit with Dr. Goodall at the awards event held at Colorado Academy. That evening, the Club members then attended a VIP event at the University of Denver’s Newman Center to hear Dr. Goodall speak. It was an inspiring evening, and the Club members were excited to hear Dr. Goodalls’ remarkable story and of the work that she is doing with her own youth organization, Roots & Shoots. We are proud of the AfricAid Club for this recognition of their important efforts for women’s education!
Ashley Shuyler’s Work with AfricAid and Her Film “Somebody Like Me” Featured on KUSA 9News
The Denver film screening of Ashley Shuyler’s ethnographic film “Somebody Like Me” was previewed by Denver’s KUSA 9News in a segment highlighting AfricAid’s work on behalf of girls’ education in Africa. Stressing that, “an education is one of the most precious and invaluable gifts,” the segment took note of the over $500,000 that AfricAid has raised to help train teachers, provide much-needed school supplies and textbooks, and support African women with scholarships. It also discusses Ashley’s film, which traces the village life of a young Maasai woman, the first in her remote village to attend secondary school, who is now hoping to attend college to be a teacher and share her lessons with both her fellow villagers and with future generations. Click here to view the segment.
Ashley Shuyler and AfricAid Featured on KUSA 9News: My Africa with Bazi Kanani
Ashley Shuyler’s work with AfricAid was featured in Bazi Kanani’s series on Africa that aired on Denver’s KUSA 9News. In this informative and moving piece, entitled “My Africa”, the 9News anchor and reporter explores her family history in Tanzania and deals with several of the issues facing Africa today. One of the segments highlights Tanzania’s educational needs and Ashley’s work there with AfricAid to help provide educational opportunities for Tanzanian youth.
Ashley Shuyler’s Film “Somebody Like Me” Screened
“Somebody Like Me”, an ethnographic documentary film produced by AfricAid’s founder, Ashley Shuyler, was shown in multiple screenings at the Starz Film Center at the Tivoli in Denver, Colorado on October 26th. “Somebody Like Me” follows a young Maasai woman who was the first in her remote Tanzanian village to go to secondary school, after she returns home to her village. The film, which was also selected for screening at Russia’s recently-held Moscow International Visual Anthropology Film Festival, documents the three weeks that Ms. Shuyler spent there last summer, recording their traditional ways of life, herding goats, fetching water and gathering firewood each day, and their rich cultural heritage.
A prior screening was held at the Rialto Theater in Loveland, CO on August 23rd. The film was shown in collaboration with an artist group from northern Colorado that came together to support a primary school in Tanzania that they visited in 2007. The group displayed a number of their works during the evening, with 50% of the sale proceeds of their art going to AfricAid. Our thanks go out to the wonderful members of this group and to all the AfricAid supporters who attended the screening and made it such an inspiring and successful event.
Ashley Shuyler Speaks at Emma Willard School Symposium
On September 27th, AfricAid’s founder, Ashley Shuyler, joined a distinguished panel of speakers at Emma Willard School’s “Women, Power and Possibility” symposium. Located in Troy, New York, Emma Willard School is the oldest existing school in the U.S. to offer an academic curriculum exclusively to girls. The symposium, the second in a series, consisted of a panel of young women already making their mark around the globe. They examined the issues and challenges that women face when they translate their beliefs into action with commitment and conviction, and discussed their own experiences in that regard.
Recent Interviews and Media Coverage
Ashley was interviewed by Tamara Banks on Martini 101.5 about AfricAid’s work and the Art Show fundraiser!
You can see here Ashley’s recent interview on Denver’s KCNC, CBS Channel 4.
Click here to read the Denver Post’s story on Ashley and the Art Show.
Read the article in the Golden Transcript on Ashley’s work with AfricAid and the Art Show event.
Young Heroes Book on Ashley Shuyler Published
In June 2007, the KidHaven Press published Young Heroes: Ashley Shuyler, Founder of AfricAid, one of its continuing series of books for younger readers. According to KidHaven, these books are intended to “examine the lives of remarkable and heroic young people. Some have shown great personal courage in the face of difficult circumstances. Others have acted selflessly in an effort to improve other people’s lives. Each book presents a truly inspirational story that will appeal both to student researchers and casual readers.” Recounting the history of Ashley’s work with AfricAid, this inspiring book emphasizes the difference that young people can make in the lives of others, and how youth of all ages can get involved.
