General Information
As a volunteer on our HIV/AIDS NGO Support project, you will work with Lifted Strong Community Organization (LISCO), an NGO focused on empowering women with the skills necessary to become healthy and financially self-sufficient. Many people in Tanzania who are known to be suffering from HIV/AIDS can find it difficult to gain employment and ultimately provide for their households. Without proper health education and treatment, HIV/AIDS can be a physically and mentally debilitating illness. Pervasive gender divides exasperate the challenges faced by women with the illness.
If you’re someone who is open minded and interested in making a sustainable difference in the lives of Tanzanian women, then this is a great project for you.
Lifted Strong is a year-long program that takes in a dozen women (compassionately referred to as the ‘Mamas’) from January to December each year. Acceptance into this program is based on need. All the mamas in the program come from difficult backgrounds, most of them are HIV positive or were found in dire circumstances somewhere in the community. Lifted Strong’s goal is to equip its dozen members with the skills necessary to help themselves, their families, and their communities, and ultimately enable them to be self-sufficient by the time that they graduate from the program in December.
At Lifted Strong, you will have the opportunity to work on a wide range of projects. Your impact is limited only by your creativity, initiative, and desire to learn. Some of Lifted Strong’s ongoing projects are as follows:
English, business, and health classes: Daily English, business, and health classes are the backbone of Lifted Strong’s skill development. Often the women welcomed in to Lifted Strong’s program have little to no formal education. Most of the women have a very basic understanding of the English language, have limited knowledge of how to start and run a successful business, and have never received reliable and actionable information regarding their health. Upon entry into the program, Lifted Strong’s primary goal is to get these women healthy through comprehensive health and basic treatment education. Once healthy, the women participate in twice-weekly English and business classes to develop their skills towards becoming self-sufficient. Volunteers with education in business, health, and English teaching (including TEFL certification) are highly encouraged to join the program. Most importantly, volunteers should come with an eagerness to learn and a desire to teach.
Pad Program: Lifted Strong has partnered with an affiliate NGO, Oyana International, to produce and distribute reusable menstrual pads to women and girls around Arusha. You will assist with facilitating the production of these sanitary pads, their distribution to nearby villages, and with educating girls regarding proper hygienic use of their pads. You will also assist with educating girls and boys in nearby villages regarding their sexual and reproductive health.
Chicken Program: Breeding chickens is one of the most effective ways for individuals in emergent economies to start earning a sustainable source of income to support themselves and their families. You will assist with teaching the Mamas how to properly care for chickens, how to make money through the production of eggs and chicks, and important business lessons on how to save and invest money to grow their businesses. The goal of Lifted Strong’s Chicken Program is to set up each of the Mamas with their own functioning and profitable chicken business.
Microfinance Program: One of the greatest challenges when starting a business is acquiring capital in order to purchase the supplies necessary to start selling. For example, if someone wants to start a clothing business that sells shirts, they first need to purchase the materials necessary to produce the shirts. Microfinance programs allow individuals to apply for loans in order to fund their business ventures. You will assist with the issuance of business loans through Lifted Strong’s Microfinance Program and with organizing scheduled loan repayments from the Mamas.
Cooking Program: Lifted Strong hosts cooking classes where the Mamas teach volunteers and tourists how to cook traditional Tanzanian dishes using local techniques. This is an excellent opportunity for the Mamas to develop their English skills while generating a recurrent source of income for the organization. The vision for this program is to continue improving the experience in order to eventually open it up to tourists visiting Tanzania from all over the world.
Home visits and health outreach: In addition to working directly with the mamas at Lifted Strong, volunteers will have the opportunity to plan and execute home visits and health outreaches in high-need communities in and around Arusha. During home visits, volunteers are welcomed into the homes of Tanzanian families where they will have the opportunity to learn first-hand about how these people live their lives, while providing food and basic medical assistance to those in need. On health outreaches, the HIV/AIDS NGO Support project will partner with volunteers on the Medical project to set up temporary health clinics in high-need areas. These temporary health clinics allow people in rural villages and areas that have limited or no access to healthcare to receive medical attention and treatment from trained medical personnel.
You will work closely with the Lifted Strong founders and other volunteers to set goals regarding the development and improvement of these and other programs. As a volunteer on this project, please keep in mind that your primary goal should be to make sustainable contributions to Lifted Strong. In doing so, be prepared to go out of your comfort zone and help on projects that may be outside your specific area of expertise.
In order to ensure continuity in the work done by past volunteers, it is important that volunteers on the HIV/AIDS NGO Support project stay for a minimum of 4 weeks. All the programs at Lifted Strong are focused on the long-term vision of the organization; therefore, the longer you stay, the greater the impact you can have on Lifted Strong, and the longer you have to see the effect of your work. Volunteers are also highly encouraged to bring their laptops and/or tablets as some of the most important work is done behind the scenes using Microsoft Office, Photoshop, Google Drive, and other online programs.
Volunteers come from a wide variety of backgrounds and you will be encouraged to bring whatever knowledge or skills you have to help develop the Lifted Strong organization and provide for the needs of the women. As you will be volunteering alongside our local team, past experience working with HIV/AIDS or NGO’s is not required to participate on this project; however, we strongly recommend that you gain some understanding of these areas prior to your arrival in Tanzania.
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Past Volunteer Experience
In the comment section below, post your name, the dates you were in Tanzania, contributions you made to your placement, advice for future volunteers, and any additional notes you would like to add that may help future volunteers, as well as notify past volunteers of the placement’s progress.
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