If you remember back to March of this year, you will remember a story of collaboration between Full Circle and an organization called RENEW.  Former Full Circle Program Director, Adam Rubin and former TFFT volunteer, Uswege Mwakapango started RENEW with the mission to provide opportunities for young people to connect through creative expression and empower them as leaders in their communities.  In March we had our first RENEW workshop with TFFT Secondary Students.  The week together was a HUGE success!  Now, we are moving forward with our partnership with RENEW to support the formation of a RENEW Club at Usa River Academy!

This past week, Uswege and I held a workshop after school for 21 secondary school leaders.  The topics for the workshop were leadership, community service and project planning.  Together, Uswege and I led the students through the process of community service project planning.  The results were astounding…but I’m getting ahead of myself now! (It’s just too exciting)

Our first day, our students really didn’t know what to expect.  As some of the students were running late, we started with a goofy game, thus the students who came in had no idea what was going on—but were willing to be very skeptical on the legitimacy of this activity they were being required to attend.  We fought during the first day to get some participation from the students until one fateful question that Uswege asked, “Are women weaker than men?”  Suddenly we had some VERY active participation from a few of the students!  This openness and participation helped to propel us into a week of active discussions, debates, participation, and interest.

All too often education in Tanzania doesn’t involve a student’s opinion or input, which is why it takes time and trust for us to build this environment in a workshop.  As we talked about community service and involvement, we talked about the power and voice that youth have.  As we saw as we progressed through the week, this group of students has a lot to say about issues that are facing them and their country.  What they lacked was the knowledge that what they have to say is IMPORTANT.  And they didn’t really know how to say it.  Adam, Uswege, and I advocate for speaking through action to solve community issues.

After we covered the importance and benefits of community service, we started in on the meat of the workshop—identifying and planning a community service project.  The students were divided into groups to brainstorm community problems in different sectors: environment and animal welfare, education, youth development, quality of life, health and safety, and hunger & poverty.  From brainstorming problems, to creating solutions, to creating plans, to convincing the whole group of their idea, the youth really took over from there.  The results were astounding!  (I think maybe I have said that already?)

But since we are into this whole “giving the youth a voice” thing, I’ll let their words tell you what they learned:

“Through this club, we can do a project which will inspire other students at this school to think creatively!”

“Raising awareness on gender equality is a solution. Gender inequality is a big problem not only in communities, but in schools too. You will find teachers calling headboys whenever they have a problem, and not headgirls. This situation has a lifetime impact on girls since it influences girls to be treated that way where ever they go. These actions build a sense of dependency. We need to start educating people about gender equality, especially younger students, so that they can grow while knowing this.”

“I learned that students can do community service and bring positive impact. Also I learned that women can do anything great for the community if they are given chances like better education.”