Project Tanzania Report 2008

Global Service Learning: Preventing HIV/AIDS

Nubra Floyd, Phd

Purpose: As a San Jose State faculty member, my return to Tanzania in January 2008 was made possible by support from Dr. Steven Milner of the African American Studies Department and Maricela Martinez of Cesar Chavez Community Action Center. The purpose of this second trip was to begin developing global service learning opportunities in the area of HIV/AIDS prevention with street kids.

Goal: Our original idea for this project was to create new kinds of learning pathways, which led us to a focus on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) with suitable service placements for international volunteers that might be offered on a co-curricular basis.

Entering Mamma Lydia’s Agroecology Homestead in Arusha

Objectives: This trip was mainly intended to explore new contacts in the northern region of Tanzania, while also revisiting places where we had been hosted the year before that showed promise for future collaboration.

Feeling at Home in Mamma Lydia’s Cheerful Accommodations

• Promote cross cultural understanding: This year there was more time for enjoying Lydia Joachim’s country style accommodations and for talking with her over traditional African meals made from organically grown meats and produce. Lydia told me one evening about the new secondary school for girls that the Archdiocese of Arusha would soon be opening and asked whether Second Saturday Network might somehow help with fundraising for that project. Blair Bowman’s earlier request for a partner school in Tanzania came immediately to mind. Crosscultural Solutions (www.crossculturalsolutions.org) was an American based NGO Maribel Martinez had encouraged me to visit, after finding them on the internet. As it turned out, they were no longer operating in the Arusha area, but other local contacts put us in touch with appropriate youth services agencies.

Professor Nubra Joins Mayala Family Photo Session – Arusha

• Foster participation in the worldwide spiritual community: Youth outreach workers Joseph and Naillah Mayala made it possible to create a Second Saturday Network Photoart Project at African Inlands Church that would involve young people sharing photos of their daily lives. Their friend and colleague, Elieshi Kisinza also put me in contact with an NGO called Children of the Streets Welfare Association (http://www.chree.org) that provided food and shelter for about fifty Arusha area children. Soon after my visit there, two boys named, John and Mandela approached me in Arusha Center asking for money to buy food and eventually told me about a government sponsored program called Mkombozi, (http://www.mkombozi.org) that provides basic self help resources for young people living in the streets.

Informal End of Day  Meeting with Elieshi and Friend Angel

• Encourage mentorship: Last year, we bought a few batik wall hangings from a young street vendor named Jonah and agreed to help him find a sponsor for English lessons that might improve his chances of becoming a tour guide. After meeting with several other street vendors and small shop vendors this year and being told that many of them had once been street kids, Second Saturday Network’s Street School Project occurred to me as a possible way to help a few of them obtain educational support and funding.

Prof  Nubra poses with Street Vendors near Arusha Clock Tower