May 12, 2016

Hello, my name is Pamela Whitman and I am the latest team member to join the TFFT Office in Arusha. I will be working with TFFT for the next year and a half, as a part of the Australian Volunteers for International Development Program. My role will be as Advisor for Peer Mentoring Program and Livelihoods Strengthening. I will be working closely with the Scholarship Program.

I have been working in various countries in Africa for the last ten years, working in the field of organizational development. In my work, the theme that seems to be developing is working with support groups in the area of psychosocial support. I have worked with a Human Rights Organization in South Africa for victims of gross human rights violations; HIV Peer Counselor Groups in Kenya; volunteer community groups for Red Cross in Mozambique and now vulnerable children’s groups in Tanzania. The common thread is people joining together to support each other and to have meaningful and useful connections. I advise staff and community members on how best to achieve this and other goals they may have.

I have completed my Masters of Organizational Psychology quite a while ago now. My early mid-life crisis was a productive one. After working as a Registered Nurse for over thirteen years off and on, I decided I needed a major shake up, and 8 years later, and very few weekends off, I became an organizational psychologist! I have been traveling all my life, so no one who knows me well is surprised that I have made my professional niche working in different countries in Africa in the field of organizational and community development.

TFFT has recently started developing Family Cells, to better support our scholars, and build stronger and closer ties with them.  One of my goals is to strengthen these Family Cells so that they can be responsive to our scholar’s changing needs. I envisage the Family Cell to be the basis for a Mentoring Program, so there will be a new model developed to better support our scholars who sometimes struggle with their environments at school.

The work that inspires me is focused on building psychological strength and well-being. I have certainly learned so many valuable lessons from my work in Africa about resilience and remaining calm in the face of setbacks! I hope I will be able to incorporate into my time at TFFT strategies for young people to adjust to their new environments, to deal with life stressors, to become effective support people themselves, and to be more well rounded individuals with emotional intelligence. The Family Cells and the Mentoring Program will certainly be the platforms to develop these areas.