Women's Empowerment Project in Tanzania, Kilimanjaro Region

This was my first time volunteering in Africa, and I felt safe with my experience going through Give a Heart to Africa. Even prior to volunteering, I had a lot of questions that were answered by Monika, and you can tell you're not getting generic responses, but thorough ones addressing my specific questions. It was important to me that I choose an organization, that uses my volunteer fees to good use, and you can see it go a lot towards the students for school resources for them, and funding for them to start their own business ventures. Every day was very structured, as to which lessons to deliver on, and we had flexibility on how we wanted to deliver our lesson plans as well. Monika also knew the right tour operators to connect me with for any sightseeing I wanted to do as well, and it was easy to make friends at the volunteer house, I'm still friends with them several years after volunteering! This was a very rewarding experience.

In 2014 I volunteered with a volunteerism organization in Tanzania and later Ghana. It gave me a taste of the huge demand of help the people needed in these countries, but I came away feeling as though I hadn’t made a lasting impact in any way. I felt like I was just observing in my volunteer positions instead of actually helping. Then I found Give a Heart to Africa the following year. I was thrilled to learn that I would be teaching business to female entrepreneurs. Being a sole proprietor myself I was eager to pass on all that I had learned. All of the course content was laid out for me, I had a safe house to live in ( gated with security) nutritious food to eat and the companion of other volunteers. I didn’t need to cook or clean for 5 weeks! I could focus solely on my mission which was to depart wisdom and encouragement on the women. The largest hurdle I had was my own self confidence in delivering the material in an effective way. There was a translator available for almost all of my classes, this helped tremendously. Our goal was to have the women create a business plan for a business that wasn’t their usual domestic activities but something courageous they had never done or had hoped to always do. We came to a happy medium which was making chapati for the tourists at the local hotel. This blended their comfort zone with a little “get outside of the box” The business was a success. The very best part was watching the transformation of the women’s concept of self. There is nothing greater than watching a woman overcome her cultural norms and rise above to the person she never dreamed she could ever be. I highly recommend this program. There is so much good work being done here. It is a perfect blend of academic material and practical skills for both the student and the teacher. You will have free time in the afternoons and weekends to explore the surrounding area also so it is a perfect mix of work and play.

I volunteered at Give a Heart to Africa as an English Language teacher. The students were all women above the age of 18 and were highly motivated to learn English and vocational skills for their future lives. It was an amazing and very rewarding experience. Give a Heart to Africa GHTA is a very well administrated empowerment project for women. The women apply each year to be part of the project. There are three areas of study - English, Business Management and Vocational skills. The project is located in Moshi at the foot Kilimanjaro in a beautiful part of Tanzania. The home base offers a home for volunteers with a modern kitchen as well as three well supplied classrooms adjacent. It is a very rewarding volunteer experience because the students are welcoming, motivated and hard working. The coordinators are experienced and skilled and will go the extra mile for GHTA volunteers. It's really excellent volunteer placement in a beautiful part of Africa.