Nurturing Minds in Africa

We recently received the following message from a good friend of Marnie's:

Polly Dolan has been in Africa for about a decade now. Previously, she was working for CARE, but she is currently working on her own personal project. She was alarmed by the fact that the state of education in Tanzania in particular is deplorable, and those who suffer the most from this fact are girls. Only 20% of Tanzanian citizens attend secondary school. Polly decided to focus on girls not only because they are given far fewer opportunities than boys, but also because of the reality that women can have a profound influence on their family, which has a ripple effect on society as a whole. It is for this reason that she has been working tirelessly on building a boarding school for girls in Morogoro, Tanzania.

Currently, she has 30 girls enrolled in the Sega Secondary School for Girls, where the girls are learning leadership skills, social responsibility, environmental care. The curriculum is based on experiential learning and stresses decision-making and life skills, strengthening self esteem, business and financial management for self-reliance, on-site activities in life science, horticulture, forestry, civic responsibility and democratic processes...

As of now, the school is open as a day school but once phase II of the construction is complete, in 2010, they plan to open for boarders. Until now, Polly has basically been bankrolling the project herself. However, at this stage she is ready to (and must) begin fundraising in earnest. Currently, Penn State has an exhibit of photos taken at the school, in their Brandywine Library. Obviously a big component of the fundraising effort is to promote awareness. Please visit the website, and if you have a few minutes, watch the video:
http://www.nurturingmindsinafrica.org/

What a terrific idea for corporate gift giving this holiday season! You may donate from that page, and print out the receipt and give it to your gift recipient as proof of your thoughtful generosity, or you can email Polly (pollydolan@iwayafrica.com) and she can send you a special gift receipt. I bet your friends & family don't need another pair of slippers as badly as a 12-yr-old Tanzanian girl needs the only way out of a bleak future.

Thanks for opening your heart.

All our best,
Marnie & Lesa