The Official S4Si Blog
Hello Everyone!
We at S4Si are so excited about our new website because it will foster more frequent, meaningful communication with you, our supporters. I cannot express how thankful we all are for your continued support over the years. You all really do make this organization possible, and now we have the tools to demonstrate just how great an impact your support has had.
Hello from Dar es Salaam! I am the first of the delegation to arrive in Tanzania. I am staying with a university student who has some great insights about women's education.
This week I will be visiting with Dr. Mukangara from the Gender Unit at the University of Dar es Salaam, the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme, and the Dar es Salaam branch of FAWE. My goal is to get more information about the barriers young women must face to get into university, specifically those on Zanzibar. I hope that these meetings will give us contacts for our scholars to turn to if they need help.
Last week I met with different organizations targeted towards women and education. Our main goal was to not only make contact with some in-country organizations, but also find out what they thought S4Si could do better to prepare our scholars in secondary school for university.
I first met with Marjorie Mbilinyi from the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP), a contact from UNC’s African Studies Department. She has lived in Tanzania since 1968 and became a citizen in 1969.
During the first two business days here in Zanzibar we have gotten a lot accomplished. After anticipating the work to be done in Zanzibar for many months, we have finally arrived!Though in our first few days here we have been lost for nearly hours in the windy streets of Stonetown, have faced significant language barriers, and have had to adapt to a much warmer climate, at the end of the day we feel accomplished.
Our first week in Zanzibar has been incredibly busy! Last Tuesday we returned to Ben Bella where we met with the Form V and form VI girls to discuss the scholarship with them, and if any areas could be improved. Many of the girls asked if we would be able to provide money for them to attend college. We had a hard time telling them that at this point in time the organization doesn’t have enough money to do so, especially because the girls’ desire to learn and do well was so apparent. Lulu, a form VI scholar, really touched me when she described to me why she wanted to go to college.
A woman in the developing world will reinvest 90% of her earnings into her family’s well-being, compared with 35% for a man.