What inspired you to work for Give a Heart Africa?
My organization's goal is to help women in my community and that is the first thing that inspires me because the targeted age of people we are helping did not get an equal chance to get an education.
I found this as a very good opportunity to help them and also me because I'm among those who benefited from this. Also, I love working with people. I learn everyday and find this as the right place for me to give the little knowledge I have. I receive from the students too. I'm glad that I'm learning everyday.
On the presentation day with our students
Describe a typical day at work.
After signing in at work, I make sure that I have my phone with me so if my fellow staff or students call or text for permission, they reach me. When it is time for classes, I join them at different times before class finishes.
I get time to do office work a few minutes before classes are done or after lunch with my fellow staff. If it’s the end of the month, I spend more time in the office preparing the payments and other stuff.
Why do you do what you do?
I help in teaching, do the bookkeeping, and prepare meetings. I prepare and type quizzes and exams. I visit the business that our organization is supporting, manage the school in general, and complete other duties.
What is your favorite part of your job?
The favorite part of my job is managing the team because this helps me in understanding different people and how to learn from each other. We all have different backgrounds. Everyone of us gets a chance to learn from each other.
Also, I like the chance to teach the students what I learnt 10 years back. It is very interesting as it makes me understand how challenging it was for our teachers to make us understand the lesson.
A home visit to one of our students in the village
How do you use your education and international background in your current role?
In my current role, my education background helps me a lot, especially in using some devices like computers. We use it in our daily operations. I learn everyday from it. Also English helps me a lot in communication whether teaching or explaining other knowledge for our team to work together.
What challenges do you often face and how do you overcome them?
Most challenges I face is miscommunication. Most of the time, I sit down with the team and resolve the issue. I also can have a delay on getting some government information to our organization.
I have tried to find people who will give me any updates earlier.Other challenges are from working in a different field based on selling products. But, I'm glad that I learned a lot and am improving everyday.
What are some current projects you are working on?
Currently, I’m preparing for exams. I finished the business and English exams for one group and I will finish the rest. I’m also preparing for our students' graduation. I’m interviewing our new students and preparing a list of stuff to buy for next year.
What advice would you tell your pre-travel self?
Need to have some information of where someone wants to go, the amount of money, emergency number of the place, know the period for stay, know the weather condition of the place, do some health check if needed. I would get more information so that you will be able to stay safe.
What makes Give a Heart to Africa special?
My organization is so special compared to others because it gives women a chance to get an education and other different vocational skills which will help them earn money in the future. Also, my organization is so special in treating every staff equally.
All staff are getting equal opportunity to give advice or suggest things to do better. Our senior managers work on them and always give feedback or implementations. I would say that it's very cooperative.
What hopes do you have for the future for Give a Heart to Africa?
I hope this organization will grow bigger in the future and will have other projects which will fund the organization and depend on ourselves instead of relying on only volunteers and donors since it was so difficult when COVID-19 entered.
What makes Give a Heart to Africa easy to market to potential participants?
It is easy to market our organization because it is within the region we live and operate in. Also, it started 10+ years back. Lots of women have been here as students and they tell other people about us.
Having social media accounts helps too. But also when our team meets people in different places in Moshi, it helps because during that time we get enough time to tell them about us in person and they are able to ask us questions.
Here we were marking exams with my fellow staff and our volunteer, Sophie
What is Give a Heart to Africa’s mission and how do you continue to work toward it?
The mission is to empower women through education and entrepreneurship. I continue working toward it by telling people about our school and giving them my background as I'm one of the graduates. Also, by encouraging our students to study, they will reach where they want to be and be independent women who can take care of themselves and their families too.
What do you hope participants take away from your programs?
The love, courage, and support in different matters of life is what we both give each other.
Also, we give the unity that I always want to be strong every day.
How do you help support participants?
I think I'm not just helping them, we are helping each other in some way. What we normally do is that we are exchanging our experiences in different matters of life.
If you could participate on one of your organization's programs, where would you go and what would you do?
I think this will depend on the areas where my organization lists. Though Canada is our Headquarters, I would love to go anywhere for our organization's programs. I will be happy to participate in that.
What questions do participants often ask you, and how do you typically respond?
Mostly the help or assistance that's they are asking for. I always try to my best to find solutions or work with them to find a solution. If it's something I'm good at, I make sure that I make them learn too.
Why is it important for people to travel abroad and experience new cultures?
It's important for us to learn new cultures and to experience different ways people live their daily life. Also, it's another way of getting exposure and knowing different lifestyles of people.
One of our student's kids asked to take a picture with me
Why do you think learning a new language is important?
Learning a new language is very important as it helps all of us communicate with different people from different places. It simplifies communication between two parties, and also it unites people. They will be speaking that new language which helps both parties understand each other.
What advice do you have for individuals thinking about going abroad?
I would advise them to go when they are prepared enough financially, but no one should go abroad without purpose. Also, they should be respectful of the community they meet there and respect their culture without any comparisons of where the person comes from.
What does meaningful travel mean to you?
It means to go somewhere for purpose. It's when you know exactly what brings you there.
It’s learning new things and understanding different ways of living.
