Please watch our video from 2009: VIDEO

Please use the Gallery Tab above to meet the teens that are CREATING this project!

If you are just finding us and this project, please visit us at: www.youthinsight.wordpress.com for updates, links and to donate.  Thank you!

Why we are doing this:

Can you support us in achieving our goal?  It takes just $10!

It is an investment in the future.  We are 18 eager teenagers and young adults from the Los Angeles area that are creating a Service Project to empower the young people of Moshi, Tanzania.  We had an incredibly successful 2 weeks in August, 2009 and now we are going back for 2 weeks in August, 2011.

We were excited and encouraged by what we can accomplish when we set a clear intention.  Please help us create the second Service Project and gain a completely new level of self-accomplishment while volunteering with the children in Africa by teaching them English, facilitating Self-Esteem Workshops and making their schools function better for learning.

The affect this project will have is exponential as it is showing us how to take risks and create something larger than ourselves and it is helping African kids further their education so they can start creating the lives they want. 

 

TEEN INSIGHT LEADERSHIP MISSION
STATEMENT:
 
We are Teen Insight Leadership, traveling the world and creating opportunities to empower and support leaders of tomorrow
by giving and receiving service and connecting with the global community.

 

Project: 

The Journey to Tanzania Service Project

In the fall of 2008, teen graduates of the Teen Insight Leadership Program decided they wanted to give back and give back in a big way.  They were understanding the value of service and wanted to make the biggest impact they could.  So they researched and chose to travel to Moshi, Tanzania in East Africa to partner with Knock Foundation (who ensure the kids have food, shelter and access to education) to volunteer with a poverty and AIDS stricken area.  We completed our first Journey to Tanzania Service Project in August, 2009 and the teens fundraised the entire amount they needed, even giving a small donation to Knock after we left. 

There have been over 60 teens selected to be part of the Teen Insight Leadership Program.  They have taken all graduate level seminars of Teen Insight and volunteered with many programs over the course of at least 1 year.  

  

While in Tanzania in 2009, they built a new classroom for the Kindergarden class, painted a Dream Tree Mural and repainted the front of the school, facilitated Self Esteem Workshops for all the students of Mrupanga Primary (the kids from Matumaini Orphanage attend this school) and helped to create an Educator Workshop. 

This year we will be expanding to new primary schools and opening up the Educator Workshops to all the teachers in Moshi.  

The Journey to Tanzania Service Project is an opportunity for our new class of Graduates to Facilitate all the Self-Esteem Workshops and English Classes, as well as, help to create the Educator Workshops.

This is an amazing project to be working on at such a young age.  

The group of teens and young adults begin in February and start to fundraise for all of their expenses, as well as, learn Swahili and help to create curriculum and special projects.  This is a 7 month process that culminates into the experience of a lifetime in Tanzania. 

We invite you to join us in our project and donate to help make this Service Project happen.  

We will keep donors updated on our progress before we leave and email pictures once we are there.

The Tanzanian culture is so full of life and loving people.  We truly are grateful to be going back.  The Teachers are already asking about us and when we will be back at their school.  

 

A bit of history

The value and accessibility of education is different in Tanzania than in the US.  Public schools in the US can be free and taught in the same language we all speak.  Our intention is to work with Primary Schools in Moshi to help them not only learn better English so they can pass the test for Secondary School, but also see what the possibility of achieving dreams can do for their future.

In Tanzania, government secondary schools have a tuition around $15 USD per year plus fees. A typical private school tuition is around $525 USD. This creates quite a burden on many families that mostly make around $280 USD a year. It is even harder for large families, single parent families and orphans. Families where the parents do not yet appreciate the value of education, especially for girls, is often enough to keep them from agreeing to pay for schooling.

By law, all secondary education must be taught in English. For many students, English is their third language.  In 2009, only 35.44% of students sitting for the National Standard 7 Exam received passing marks in English. This means that numerous students who did not pass their Standard 7 Exam in English will be thrust into a school using only English for classroom instruction and textbooks. To further the issue, not all teachers in the Primary Schools speak English well enough to teach it.

This is why we are focusing on teaching English in the Primary Schools, so they can be better prepared for the Grade 7 Exam.  We want to bring the percentage of students from Mrupanga Primary that pass the Grade 7 Exam up above 50% this year alone and hope that the classes we offer will assist with that.

 

What We Need & What You Get

In this campaign, we are raising money to pay for the airline tickets for at least 4 teens flying from Los Angeles to Moshi, Tanzania as well as, the Workshop and English Class expenses when we get there. Those include: local translators (employing college students for 2 weeks), construction paper, pens, scissors, notebooks and audio equipment.  Our full fundraising goal is closer to $150,000 to pay for all 18 participants and 3 chaperones to travel to Moshi, all accommodations, meals, VISA's, transportation, insurance and administrative costs.  

We are also working on other projects to raise money to cover all expenses of the trip.  This Service Project will happen regardless of the money raised here, it just cuts down on the amount of coffee & bagel mornings we have to do around Los Angeles!

We want to include you in the project as much as possible so you can get to know all of us that are involved.  We will send you pictures and video from Tanzania and updates from here during our planning.  If you become a Best Friend Sponsor or Family Sponsor, we will happily advertise your logo on our tshirts and website.  Also, we are handmaking 300 unique bracelets to give as gifts to the students of Mrupanga Primary School and Matumaini Orphanage, so the more you donate, the more it not only ensures our expenses getting paid for, but a child gets a handmade bracelet they can wear and can think of us and his/her dreams when he/she looks at it. The bracelets will be mailed out to you by May 1.

 

Other Ways You Can Help

Please help us to spread the word!  We are working smarter this year by going online to raise much of the money needed.  We are getting creative with projects in our communities and working hard to ensure all money is fundraised. We would love it if you could send our link to your Tweeples and Facebook Friends, or anything else you can think of, it would greatly be appreciated! 

Thank you for supporting us,

Lisi, Eldrick, Gabe, Gabe, Tasha, Laney, Eli, Kaitlyn, Kaelee, Madeleine, Tessa, John, Austin, Ryan, Emma, Hayley, Ben and Christina