Shooting For the Moon

This past week some pretty significant things happened in the world. One of them was that Sally Ride died. Many people remember her as the first American woman to fly into space. Sally was this woman, and a lot more. When she flew into space in 1983, Sally became a symbol to many girls and young women that it was possible to move beyond cultural barriers and do things that had never been done before. That's so important.

Some of these girls from Longido and Kimokouwa
are enrolled in Vocational Training courses.

Thirty years later, courageous young girls all over the world are still asking for their rights to be met, including the right to education. In many cultures and for many years, girls have been told their lives would be devoted to building the family home, having children, fetching water and firewood each day, cooking, and cleaning. What if a girl wants to do something different? It isn't easy and the obstacles are huge.

Not everyone has the privilege of helping young girls mount near insurmountable odds in pursuit of their dreams. I am one woman who does, and I am just one of many people.

Astronaut, Sally Ride, was the first American woman to fly
outer space in 1983 - breaking through barriers to achieve her dream.

Last week 11 girls from Longido and Kimokouwa returned to Vocational Training courses and 13 new girls began new Vocational Training programs. Taking this step has the potential to dramatically change their lives. The girls - Rahema, Mary, Martha, Tabitha, Rachel, Ester, Nimfa, Sereya, Upendo, Margreth, and many others, are stepping over the confines of old restrictive barriers and into very strange and new worlds beyond the security of their Maasai bomas and traditions. They are enrolled in many different courses of study including: marketing, tailoring, community development, early childhood education, food preparation, tour guide, police officer, bookkeeping, medical assistant, and agricultural college training. The girls may not think they are doing anything special, but they are trailblazers and role models today, just as Sally Ride was in 1983. The choice they are making today means their daughters will grow up in a world that is very different from their world today.

These 24 girls are courageous for another reason, too. By continuing in school they are saying very clearly "I WILL NOT BE A CHILD BRIDE AND A CHILD MOTHER." They will not be added to the 51 million other girls throughout the world who are adolescent brides and mothers. That is an astounding number that is larger than the entire population of my country, Canada.

To these girls I say, "You are pretty special. You are change makers. You are a very big news story in the world this week."

Just Imagine

I hope every girl, and every woman, and all the men and boys I know in Tanzania and beyond 

will take inspiration from the life of Nelson Mandela today. 

Imagine someone having the audacity to say that 

'no matter what you do, you will never imprison me.'

And even if you do imprison my body, you will never imprison my spirit.

Imagine witnessing this coming true

during our lifetime.

And imagine someone saying that we can accomplish even what seems impossible.

Don't let go of your dreams. 

Your struggle to achieve them is worthwhile, 

for you and those who come after you.

Being 12: the End or the Beginning?

I came across the above quotation from The Girl Effect today and it has really gotten me thinking. Thinking - about all the 12 year old girls in Kimokouwa and Longido who will be finishing Standard 7 in October - at the end of this term. What will the future hold for them? TEMBO will sponsor as many of the girls as we can and, hopefully, other organizations will do the same. Otherwise, the girls will miss the greatest opportunity in the world to set the course for the rest of their lives: Secondary School education. Yes, it really is that important.

Consider this excerpt from Girls Count: A Global Action and Investment Agenda from the Center for Global Development in Washington:

If you want to change the world, invest in an adolescent girl. 

An adolescent girl stands at the threshold of adulthood.  In that moment, much is decided. If she stays in school, remains healthy, and gains real skills, she will marry later, have fewer and healthier children, and earn an income that she’ll invest back into her family.

But if she follows the path laid down by poverty, she’ll leave school and enter marriage. As a girl mother, an unskilled worker, and an uneducated citizen, she’ll miss out on the opportunity to reach her full human potential. And each individual tragedy, multiplied by millions of girls, will contribute to a much larger downward spiral for her nation.

There was another quotation from an entirely different source that struck me, as well: "If you can't feed 100 people, then just feed one." Mother Teresa's words. I put them in the context of girls and school. Individually, we can do little more than help just one girl. And, if you think for one minute that this is not HUGE, it's only because you don't know the girls at Longido Primary School and Kimokouwa Primary School that I know.

Even with sponsorship, the girls face enormous challenges that threaten their success.

I am imagining a backpack filled with encouraging words and wishes and quotations from people all over the world. Imagine that every new girl TEMBO sponsors for Secondary School gets one of these backpacks at the beginning of the school year. If you could drop something inside that could be summed up in a word or a sentence, or a wise saying, what would it be? If you'd like to leave something, click on the 'comments' line just below the post and you can do so. You can also add your name and country, if you like. When I travel to Tanzania in September, I will bring all of your words and wishes and give them to the girls whose lives will be opening up because they are continuing in Secondary School - the next step to changing everything.

Against All Odds

Child marriages and early pregnancy spell the end of dreams.

This week 58 Secondary School girls being sponsored by TEMBO are preparing to return to school for Term II. Many have just finished a 2 week intensive English program called TEC - TEMBO English Camp - an experience in Longido that will better equip them to be successful in their studies. As many of you already know, this program, and Secondary School sponsorship, are generously funded by donations made to Project TEMBO in Canada.

I can picture the faces of so many of these girls. Compared to Canadian girls their age they are physically very small. Yet they teeter precariously on the edge of a very adult ritual they have, thus far, avoided - marriage. So many of their young friends, like millions of other girls around the world, have not been so lucky. This has prompted Time Magazine to recently ask the question, "Why is it so Hard to Combat Child Marriage?"

Joyce, from Kimokouwa, is currently at the 
University of Dar es Salam and stands as 
a role model for young girls.

 All girls TEMBO sponsors are not successful in navigating the minefield of child marriage and early pregnancy. I can tell you about Sara (not her real name) a Form 2 girl who attended TEC 2 years ago. Sara is from a very poor Maasai family and is young and full of dreams for life as an independent woman able to support herself economically. She could not attend TEC a year ago because she was pregnant and women in the village felt that allowing her to attend would be setting a bad precedent. Sara delivered a baby girl in October 2011. Still she enthusiastically wants to return to school and not get married to an older man. Sara knows only too well that marriage would spell the end of her dreams and relegate her to life as a woman with no voice.“[Child marriage] is one of the most stark examples of the devaluing of girls and of girls abilities beyond that of being wives and mothers,” says Margaret Hempel of the Ford Foundation. "The challenges faced by a female child bride are profound: the dwindling of opportunities for education, the loss of any hope for economic independence, the threat of infant mortality—the total narrowing of the girl’s life," the Time article continues.

The Ford Foundation has just released an interactive world map on child marriage and it is very telling and not surprising to those who have spent time in northern Tanzania. Tanzania is one of the 30 countries in the world with the highest rates of child marriages with almost 50% of girls married by age 18. Longido and Kimokouwa - where TEMBO works - are situated in one of two areas in Tanzania that have both the highest rates of child marriages and the lowest rates of education for girls. 

 The Ford Foundation believes that lasting solutions will come from those most directly affected. Those of us with resources can stand with mothers and daughters who want to change this practice.“Some of the most effective [solutions] are finding ways for girls themselves to be able to talk about the future that they want and be visible spokespeople for these changes in their own lives.” If you are supporting TEMBO you are actively engaged with us in doing this work through education sponsorships and the work of TEMBO staff, Paulina and Mary, in Tanzania. Sponsorship is crucial because it places girls in a safe school environment where child marriage is delayed. 

Mary and Paulina are powerful education advocates.

Mary and Paulina, two young Maasai women who understand the challenges, take it a step further by meeting regularly with the girls in school and talking about their "rights" and how to respond to unwanted advances by men. Girls who have had little experience outside of the confines of their family bomas don't know that life can be different for them then it has been for their mothers. Imagine the freedom and joy of  the sound of a girls own voice saying 'no' to centuries of ingrained behaviour. 

If the 58 girls about to begin Term 2 at Secondary School can withstand cultural pressures to be traditional Maasai women who marry early and have babies; and if they can stay in school instead, it will be thanks in large part to the partnership of donors to Project TEMBO in Canada with TEMBO Trust staff on the ground in Tanzania. Most of the credit, though, must go to the girls themselves for enduring in the face of such great odds against them.