I was sent to volunteer in Africa...

My students at it again!

• Malaria
• Women empowerment
• HIV/Aids
• Child marriage
• Street kids 
• Corruption in government
• Drug abuse 

Emcompasses a small list of what my students are interested about. Their average age is mid twenties and they're all interested in tackling issues of this size. They want to volunteer at their placements and ontop of that, observe other class members who have gone into at-risk communities to do their research on community assessments to identify problems and try to find solutions for those communities.

To complete a year long course of "Emerging Leaders" program, they are to complete 2 grant proposals from the research they have done from the previous course in how to assess communities. They find the weakest links of the communities and address those issues. As part of this, I have given them the oppurtunity to also be placed in another NGO that best matches their interests and to begin working on the issues at hand.

Not one friend I know back home actively pursue the interests of these likes, of course each their own, but the idea of contributing time to make real changes in the world, especially with all the harsh crticism that's vocalized almost everyday and spewing onto Facebook.

If there's something in life worth doing, it's worth over doing.

Workshops in Tanzania

4 hours of sleep on Sunday, two nights, 3 days later with a 17 hours trip in Cairo washing my pant leg clean from horse dung, I found myself in a car screeching to a halt in the gridlock that was Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania having not slept since that Sunday. Another two days I get the full report of what I was doing.

In short, I am "to help the students find problems in the community and fix them" Said Stella, the regional director for YCI, the NGO I'm working with.

Or more indepth, I am to support Emerging Leaders (project) to link the problems identified during community mapping visits into project identification techniques and support Emerging Leaders to organize their ideas of  the problems identified in designing a project, and  discuss with them tips on project implementation, monitoring and evaluation. In more academia terms, increase the capacity of the community by strengthening their self-efficacy.