A growing coalition of University at Buffalo educators and community members has set its sights on helping to build a school for girls in a remote Tanzanian village, a community enhancement that for these young girls will give them opportunity beyond the harsh limits of their reality.
The effort includes enough human elements to stir the civic consciousness of everyone from teenagers to veteran academics. It also road-tests an institutional model for collaboration UB educators believe has great potential to link the university's resources with those most in need.
The strategic model was created through UB's partnership with the Buffalo Public Schools. Those who have nurtured this model for collaboration see the development of a school as an opportunity to test it in Africa, and see if it works as well there as it has in the university's own backyard.
The ongoing effort includes engaging local high school students in fundraising, educational and cultural activities to benefit the girls in Tanzania, who wait with hundreds of others in their region for educational opportunities beyond their primary schooling.
For example, Sweet Home High School Honors students have started a bracelet sale to raise money for the school. The bracelets imprinted with the phrase "If you educate a girl, you educate a nation."
The effort includes enough human elements to stir the civic consciousness of everyone from teenagers to veteran academics. It also road-tests an institutional model for collaboration UB educators believe has great potential to link the university's resources with those most in need.
The strategic model was created through UB's partnership with the Buffalo Public Schools. Those who have nurtured this model for collaboration see the development of a school as an opportunity to test it in Africa, and see if it works as well there as it has in the university's own backyard.
The ongoing effort includes engaging local high school students in fundraising, educational and cultural activities to benefit the girls in Tanzania, who wait with hundreds of others in their region for educational opportunities beyond their primary schooling.
For example, Sweet Home High School Honors students have started a bracelet sale to raise money for the school. The bracelets imprinted with the phrase "If you educate a girl, you educate a nation."
Bracelets are $3 and all proceeds will go to benefit the Tanzania school. If you are interested in ordering bracelets, please email Katie Biggie at mailto:kjbiggie@buffalo.edu. (See also LINK). The Sweet Home students are also holding a Tanzania Awareness Week May 26-29 with a main event night on May 28 to highlight African culture.
In addition, other school projects include the "Education Is a Right" campaign at Buffalo's Grover Cleveland High School and Nichols High School, in which students will write letters to the young women in Tanzania to learn more about their lives, culture and educational opportunities -- and also have the opportunity to reflect on what education means to them. Children in the Elmwood Village area will also raise funds and awareness through a KidsFest on June 14.
This year's preparation includes sending a team of six representatives from UB and Western New York to Tanzania in July.
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