Wheels of Freedom

It all started with a simple question: “Do you all have any students with disabilities?” 

It was a common question, but it sparked a conversation about the many struggles these students face on a daily basis.

At JBFC, we have three disabled students – Neema Malele, Veneranda and Mayila. The two girls live with us at our home; Mayila lives with his family in the village about half a mile away from school. 

Both Mayila (below on left) and Neema Malele (below on right) contracted a bacterial infection when they were infants. The disease caused their legs to become malformed and both walk on their hands and knees. 

We are still working to get Veneranda properly diagnosed, but we think she suffers from severe scoliosis which has stunted her growth. She endures a lot of pain and needs a cane to get around campus. 

Despite their conditions, these are three of the most cheerful and active members of our JBFC family. But sometimes they can’t hide their hardship. The reading buddies program was a favorite activity between both our summer guests and girls. But it took place in our new library. After a long day at school, it was almost too difficult for Neema Malele and Veneranda to make the trip down the dusty road to the library.

Thankfully one of their sisters or a kind-hearted friend would carry them the distance, but some time they would have to stay behind in the dorms, having a guest or one of their sisters pick out a book for them. Mayila is on scholarship to attend JBFC’s Joseph & Mary Schools. Every day he walks on his hands and his callused knees about half a mile each way to learn. Truth be told Mayila gets around on his hands and feet better than most kids do on two legs. He “runs” plays tennis and horses around like any other 9-year-old.

But at the end of the day, even this seemingly tireless little boy hangs his head in fatigue as has to makes the trek home.

These were the stories I told to a friend of my aunt who lives in Greenwich, Connecticut. Lisa Stuart and her husband, Scott, immediately thought wheelchairs would be the answer to helping our students with disabilities. However, our sandy and rocky environment was not exactly conducive to the standard variety of wheelchairs. Working with the Walkabout Foundation, the Stuarts found the Tough Rider. It’s a wheelchair made for Africa- sturdy, tall, and as its name suggests- tough! Best of all, the wheels are actual bicycle wheels, making the inevitable puncture a breeze to repair. 

After a few months of working out logistical matters of getting the Tough Rider chairs to campus, three brand new chairs arrived last week, have been assembled, and have been passed out to our three children with difficulties- Neema, Veneranda, and Mayila! 

They took their first spin around our home dining hall with all of their sisters and matrons cheering them on. Neema Malele is actually an old pro – she had a wheelchair before but it broke and could not be fixed. She was quick to lead her new wheelchair buddies in a quick tutorial. 

Mayila’s first question – “Can I ride this all the way home?” The smile that cracked across his face when I told him he could, would break your heart. 

Their smiles say all that needs to be said. They have freedom - freedom to go where they please, freedom to attend reading buddies all on their own, freedom to go to and from home for school without wearing down their knees. 

Distributing the chairs and giving a lesson in wheelchair use for the first time reminded me how incredible our entire JBFC family is- from the ones here in Tanzania, to all of our supporters and friends abroad! We thank our supporters Lisa and Scott Stuart, from Greenwich, CT, who made this happen. And we look forward to seeing what these three students will now be able to do with their newfound freedom.





Chris Gates is the Executive Director & Founder of JBFC.

Volunteer Lessons: Education, Money & Family

Guest blogger Anna Sokolosky talks about what she learned at JBFC in Tanzania this summer. 

There was something different about this year. My first year to JBFC, I skimmed the surface. I made memories with the girls, grew in my faith, and started relationships with lifelong friends. This year, I learned the importance of education, money, and family.

I attend Holland Hall, an independent Episcopal college prep school in Tulsa, Oklahoma; I’ve attended Holland Hall since preschool. I’ve always appreciated the amazing opportunity I’ve had, but I’m embarrassed to say I took it for granted until this year. At JBFC, we tutored the girls one-on-one everyday. I got a peek inside education in Tanzania. The girls are highly intelligent and motivated but have not been exposed to education fundamentals. The Joseph and Mary School lacks resources we use everyday: web access, up-to-date textbooks, and teacher resources. These students have astounding capabilities and JBFC has a 100 percent passing rate on national exams. This year showed me the importance of education for all, how blessed I am to live in a country that strives to attain it,

and to be involved with helping JBFC get to that point.

When I say I learned about the importance of money while living in a country where 90% of the population lives on less than $1.25 a day, you might assume I mean how important it is to live in a first world country and have the luxuries we do. But it’s actually quite the opposite. The importance of money is to learn how to live without it. And once you do that, you’ll learn what you really need. While comparing my life to the girls’, you would say they have nothing. But in fact, they have everything. They have a home, food for every meal and a family. Their luxuries aren’t buying a new car, splurging on designer clothes, or summer vacation. Their luxuries are a soda on their birthday, new clothes that someone gave away, or getting to read a new book. After being around this kind of mindset, it changed my own.

When I explain to someone what JBFC is, and I refer to it as a family, some people say it’s not a real family. But it’s the most close knit family I’ve been around. The love every single one of them has for another is incredible. They are so grateful for one another and are always laughing together. They would do anything for each other, and if any one of them is upset or having a bad day there are 42 sisters around to pick her up. And if that’s not a family, I don’t know what is.

Anna Sokolosky is a Holland Hall Senior and has visited JBFC several times. She's also a JBFC Ambassador and is working to raise money to pay for solar panels for JBFC's dorms.

Reflections on Guest Season: Seth Diemond

 They come from all over the U.S.- even the world. Some are young- in high school. Some are in college. Some are well into their careers and have families with grown children of their own. Despite coming from many different places with wildly different backgrounds, they all come with one goal in mind- to make better the lives of the girls at JBFC and to enrich the education of the children at Joseph and Mary schools. That, I am sure, they have done- far beyond our or their expectations.

As guest season here at JBFC comes to an end and I enter into my fourth month in this position, by far one of my favorite aspects of this job has been meeting so many wonderful guests, supporters, board members, and volunteers. In addition to just being able to spend time with these people- high school students from Bronxville, New York, soon to be college graduates from Vanderbilt University, recent graduates from Holland Hall in Tulsa, Oklahoma- it has been truly amazing to see the impact that all of these guests have had on campus. I have seen a young man- soon to be a college freshman (whose nickname is Kuku Kaka)- build (or continue, depending on who you are talking to) a lifelong relationship with our youngest girl, Esther. I have seen a couple of very talented soon to be teachers from Vanderbilt University share their skills and knowledge with our teacher at Joseph and Mary. I have seen American teachers- whose passion has brought them back to JBFC time and time again- digging holes, moving manure, and painting buildings with the idea of helping JBFC improve its programs

and meet its goal of being self-sustaining. I have seen groups of high school students- some of them away from home for the first time and some of them returning volunteers to JBFC- spending afternoon after afternoon on the guest house porch or in our newly stocked library reading with the JBFC girls during “reading buddies.”  

I have seen all of these volunteers- young and old, big and small, from New England or from the Southwest or from Germany- spend hours upon hours building relationships with Zai, Lau, Neema (all of them), Eliza, Nyamalwa, Shida, Yonga, and all of the other girls here. Ultimately, and I have written about this before, they spend hours upon hours with the girls who now see them as family. One thing that is obvious is that in just a short amount of time, guests can have a profound impact on both our girls and on our school and it has been truly remarkable to watch first hand.


One thing that I have learned during my four plus years in Tanzania- and it’s one of the things I most hope that our guests will take home with them- is a lesson that I  think, at least for some people, doesn’t hit until later.
Many times guests and volunteers in Tanzania -- and this was more than true for myself during my first trip to Tanzania in 2008 -- come here expecting to teach, to guide, to change fortunes, to improve lives, to inspire, and this is certainly true, often beyond their wildest dreams. But what I want our guests to remember is that often times- even when they can’t see it- the change happens in them. 

The impact on them is as big as the impact on any of the girls could ever be. And as a result these volunteers are even more empowered to inspire or create change.

This change - this impact- that kids in Tanzania have had on my life has made all of the difference and has put me on the path that has brought me to JBFC.

When I was a sophomore at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, studying to be a teacher, I hit a wall in my life. I didn’t know what I wanted to be, where I wanted to go, or, most importantly, how to get there. I was lost, to say the least. Just as I hit this difficult junction in my life, my best friend -- my sister, really --  invited me on a trip to Tanzania for the following winter. I had always had an interest in Africa, but had never really dreamed of traveling to such a far off, foreign, abstract place. While we were snowboarding in Maine one day I agreed- on a whim- on a chance- to go to Tanzania with her for no better reason than I didn’t know where else to go. It was on this ensuing trip to Tanzania that I would arguably make the most important relationship- most important bond- of my life. I met my role model- a person who remains my role model, my idol, until today.

When I tell this story I usually ask “who do you think my role model is?” Often (more often than not actually) people answer, “Chris Gates!” Chris is truly an amazing person and an outstanding role model for anyone (including for me). And although I learn something new from him nearly every day, he isn’t “my” role model.

Usually a couple more names of a couple more amazing, wonderful, courageous, adults are guessed before I tell the true answer (no one has yet to guess correctly who my role model actually is). In reality, and in all honesty,
my role model was six years old when I met her.

Today she is a beautiful, intelligent, hard working, caring, amazing ten year old girl named Elizabeth Gideon Shemaya. I call her my daughter. She calls me dad. We tell each other almost everything. She’s the reason I am in Tanzania today. She’s the reason I am at JBFC. And she is the reason, for better or worse, that I am the person that I am today.


Like many, if not most of JBFC’s volunteers, I expected my first trip to Tanzania to be my one and only trip to Tanzania. The night before I left for this trip I remember talking to my father. We were discussing the possibility of me going on a safari to the Serengeti and I was convinced that I should do it because this would probably be a once in a lifetime experience. My father, very wisely, said that “if this experience turns out the way I think it will, you very well may end up back in Tanzania, maybe many times.” He was more right than he could have ever known. It was on this trip that I met Elizabeth. She sat quiet in the back of a classroom for students who didn’t have enough money to go to school that I taught in every day in a rundown section of a small city called Moshi. For the first couple of days I barely noticed her. One day, as I was helping students correct problems that they had gotten wrong on a worksheet, I noticed why Elizabeth sat so quietly; Elizabeth, rather than being detached, was teaching herself English from an English-Swahili dictionary. 

It was at that very moment- and every moment over the course of the next couple of weeks- that Elizabeth became my role model in life. The sum of what Elizabeth taught me in that short amount of time- what she taught me about life, about perseverance, about patience, about caring, about being positive and not giving up, about love was more important than any number of English words or Algebra that I could have ever taught her. She continues to teach me these lessons until today. Elizabeth taught me that no matter how hard it gets, no matter how many obstacles you have put in front of you, all you need to do is hold your head up high, believe in yourself, remain positive, and know that tomorrow, or next week, or next month, or even next year, things will be better.

I tried to pay Elizabeth back for these lessons by sponsoring her to go to school after I left Tanzania, still thinking this would be a one-time trip. It took one phone call from Elizabeth a couple of months later and receiving one picture from her in her school uniform via email for me to plan my second trip back to Tanzania. And then my third. And fourth. And fifth. 

My father and Elizabeth were both teaching the same thing- sending the same message- however unintentional it may have been. What they were teaching me- my father by telling me not to rule out coming back to Tanzania and Elizabeth by teaching herself English out of a second-hand dictionary- was to never discount an opportunity as too small to matter, an experience too little to be worthy of further thought. Had Elizabeth discarded that dictionary, I may not have taken notice of her and she may not be in school today -- most importantly, I wouldn’t have her as a daughter. Had I gone on that safari and had it decided in my mind that I would never come back to Tanzania, I wouldn’t have seen her again. I wouldn’t be at JBFC and I wouldn’t have had the wonderful opportunity to work with Chris and the rest of the staff here, to meet so many amazing guests, and most importantly, to meet our girls here. 

If Chris hadn’t been open-minded to the experience that he was having on his first trip to Tanzania and the opportunity that it could become, I wouldn’t be here; our dozens of staff members wouldn’t have their jobs here; our wonderful guests wouldn’t have these experiences; and, although it is hard to imagine, the girls wouldn’t be here.

What I want our guests to take away is a sense that they should never discount an opportunity, an experience, a moment, as small, or unworthy, or meaningless. 

Moments become experiences; experiences become your path; and your path, years from now, becomes your life.

I met Elizabeth in one small moment and let that moment determine my path in life. Kayci, our Administrative Director, came to JBFC as a volunteer and ended up coming back (and has stayed for several years). Chris saw an opportunity, regardless of how small it may have seemed at the time, and made dreams come true- not just for himself but for dozens, if not hundreds, of other people in Kitongo, in Tanzania, and around the world.

Our guests deserve a huge thanks- the work they do, their dedication, their love- it shows up and makes a huge difference every minute that they spend here (and even when they return home). But to those same guests- let the girls teach you something- let them change you and empower you to do something bigger, be something better, for them. 

Don’t forget that moment sitting with Liku on the porch or in the library.

Don’t forget that moment when Esther came running across the court yard to see you again. 

Don’t forget that moment when one of the girls started crying because she knew you were leaving to go start college. 

Don't forget, because they don’t.

Guest Blogger, Seth Diemond, is JBFC's Campus Director.

Art for Africa

UPDATE: JBFC Ambassador Emily Wilson, 17, has volunteered at JBFC’s campus in Tanzania for two years in a row. In early September, she hosted Art for Africa in Tulsa, Ok to help raise money for her friends in Africa. Her goal was to raise $2,200. She tripled that amount, raising more than six thousand dollars in one weekend! Emily still has art left to sell, so she's set her sights on not only paying for the handicapped bathroom for some of JBFC's neediest students, but she also wants to support a campus biogas system that will enable JBFC to utilize waste for energy.

I've been wanting to do a big project of some sort to really benefit JBFC. I've been lucky enough to visit the JBFC community for two consecutive summers, and I know it's changed my life, so I wanted to do something more to help improve the lives of the girls (and boys) living at JBFC.

Art for Africa seemed like a cost-friendly way to incorporate my own strengths into a fundraising project. I am selling fused art, hand-blown glass art, jewelry and ceramics.

Many of the materials needed were donated by awesome members of our community, so that 100% of profits will benefit JBFC! I like Art for Africa because I feel like it brought together the members of Tulsa's artistic community for a good cause, in order to benefit the incredible community that is JBFC. 

My goal is to raise enough money to buy JBFC a handicapped bathroom for its handicapped students. There are several very sweet students living at JBFC with physical handicaps - little girls like Neema Malele, who came to live at JBFC this year, and students like Mayila. Both of them contracted a bacterial infection when they were just babies, which caused their legs to be malformed leaving them permanently disabled. The monetary goal seems achievable to me, and I think it will improve the lives of these incredible young kids who have to manage every day with a physical handicap.

Art for Africa 

Friday, September 6th, 6-9 pm 

Brady District Art Crawl 

On the sidewalk at 19 Brady Street 

Sunday, September 8th, 10 am – 4pm 

Guthrie Green Market 

Downtown Tulsa Brady District 

JBFC reminds me that it’s possible to make a difference in other people’s lives and that humanity can be awesome. Just knowing that there is a program that does so much good in a part of the world, where for the most part programs like JBFC don’t exist. I love knowing that JBFC is doing awesome things for Kitongo (and Tanzania as well) and that I can be part of it.

Emily Wilson is a student at Tulsa’s Holland Hall High School. For more information on volunteering at JBFC or our Ambassador program, click here.

Volunteer Perspective: JBFC's Impact

Guest blogger Hogan Gardner talks about the difference between life at JBFC and the rest of Tanzania.

Obviously (or perhaps not if you don’t have feelings) when I sat down to write this blog, I thought I was going to focus on a couple of the girls. And it’s not that I don’t want to - I could go on all day about any one of them and everyone knows the kids here are awesome. I’d just prefer to use this part your day to actually educate you about the JBFC Community and the impact it has had, because of the standard it holds itself to.

 For example, if somebody wanted to know what Tanzania was really like, I would tell them to steer clear of this place, because they are two different places. Take a short drive away from JBFC’s campus down to the main road that heads to the million plus city of Mwanza and it is a different world. Out there people are trying to survive, they get their money, they get their food, and on to the next day, every man for himself: a kid trying to sell little bags of peanuts to passing cars, a woman begging for money, a man throwing bags of rice into the back of a truck. Not a horrific scene, but you can sense as you look around that there is a “you get yours, I’ll get mine” mentality. They do not have time to think about tomorrow.

In here, at JBFC, no one has to worry about the necessities. Everyone is fed; everyone is paid. As a result people can afford to look forwards. There is an attitude of progression that is nonexistent in the rest of Tanzania. 

If you look around the campus during the day, it is always buzzing: kids reading in the library; workers employed from the neighboring village turning what used to be a random plot of land into a soccer field, so the soccer team has a place to practice; the construction team working to get the new dining hall and restaurant ready; the kitchen staff at PAPA’s laughing while they prepare the orders for tonight’s reservations.

Of course, that is not to say this campus doesn’t experience setbacks. There are, but the ability of the administration to keep everyone motivated creates an atmosphere that I have not felt outside of JBFC. A feeling that makes you think this is just the beginning of an organization that will eventually become a household name.

 It would be cool to say I went to a third world country for a couple of months this summer, but I didn’t. I came here.

Hogan Gardner is a rising sophomore at NYU. He is a JBFC Ambassador, who has visited JBFC four times since 2010. He spent this summer working as an intern for JBFC.

Questions & Answers: 3 Years of Lessons at JBFC

Veteran Volunteer, Tamarco Davis, writes about what he's learned after visiting JBFC's campus in Tanzania for three summers in a row.

The beauty still strikes me. It’s not a type of beauty that can be put into words, but one you have to feel and see for yourself, and even then people often overlook it.

“What did you learn?!”- Multiple people
Year 1
I can still hear the chopping of her feet. I turned around and there she was again. I first met her at the school on campus in the summer of 2011. In a sea of stretched out arms, she stood there and just smiled at me. It was a moment I will never forget because that is when it struck me. I made my way through the crowd of kids and picked her up and she hugged me with a grip, it felt like she used every muscle in her small body not to let me go. It was almost a competition to see who wouldn’t let go first.

That entire day we spent together, we climbed trees, laughed, played soccer and ate together. During lunch that day, I got up to get my water bottle from the guesthouse, and as I was walking I heard the chopping of her feet, I turned around and there she was. I picked her up, and she used every muscle in her body not to let me go. Once again it struck me.

Later that day we were on the soccer field, she kept pointing at my livestrong band which I wore in remembrance of my grandmother, who died of cancer in July of 2005. I was reluctant to give up the bracelet because it was my way of keeping my grandmother close to my heart. Eventually, after thinking about it for hours, I gave her my band. For the next few hours I felt bare, and it stayed on my mind for the rest of the day.

The next day, I saw her again still wearing the livestrong band. I remember picking her up, but something was different this time. It wasn’t the same bear grabbing, hug, but yet a softer, looser hug, and for the first time she let go before me. I sat her down and she ran off. Couple hours later I go back to the school to say goodbye her, I searched everywhere and finally I asked her teacher where she was. Her teacher had told me that she had left; it was the last day of school. I saw the last of Kamadumyla.

 Her beauty still strikes me. It’s not the type of beauty that can put into words, but one you have feel and see for your-self and even then people over look it. There was never a word spoken between us, but she taught me one of the most important lessons I’ve learned to this day. You have to let go.

Year 2, 3
“Do something to change the world.”- Tiamoya Collins, mom

One of my best friends, Hogan Gardner, and I were out one night talking to some of the school boys staying

at Chris’s house as they prepare for the class 7 national exams. We were sitting outside the dinning hall in front of the water tap and we were discussing school. I was describing the American education system with one of the boys and he was telling me about how horrific the Tanzanian system was. Referring to the Tanzanian system, he than turned to me and asked, “What are you going to do about it?”

I froze. Am I supposed to do something about it? Why is he asking me, I’m only 18?!

But then it struck me. This past summer, while helping Mr. Fredrick, one of the teachers at the school, he had mentioned in front of the class how bad the government was. I was sitting in the back of the room, and he looked at me and said, “Are you going to change it?” All the kids turned and looked at me, as I stared back. Am I supposed to do something about it? Why is he asking me I’m 19?! And that’s when it struck me. “Do something to change the world” Is this it?

The beauty of their eyes on me, awaiting an answer, still strikes me. It’s not a type of beauty that can be put into words, but one you have to feel and see for your-self, and even then people often overlook it.

Year 3
“Why do you keep going to Tanzania?”

“Hope” I said. “You hope what?”…-Multiple People
Everyone has had those moments. Those moments in which you look up and down, left and right and you realize that the only thing left for you to do is hope. Hope that things would swing your way. That is what I feel about Tanzania, I Hope. As I finish my third year, I’ve learned more about the country itself than I did in the past two years. Tanzania is one of the poorest nations in the world, with a declining literacy rate. They have a corrupt government that tries to get money anyway they can. In a world of poverty and corruption it’s hard to find a silver lining. JBFC is that silver lining. JBFC is the hope in which I see not only in Tanzania, but the world. I remember peeling garlic with some of the girls; Pili, Zai, Laurencia, and Valentina. In a conversation of comparisons between America and Tanzania, Zai, one of the smartest 10 years olds I’ve ever met, asked me, “Why do you come to Tanzania?” Then it struck me. I have 43 reasons.

Abby, Anna, Bhoke, Dotto, Elizabeth, Esther, Gertrude, Happiness, Imelda, Immakulata, Jackie, Julieti, Kulwa, Kulwa J, Laurencia, Reka, Leticia, Liku, Margaret, Martina, Neema D., Neema M., Neema M., Neema M., Neema R., Nyamalwa, Nyamisi, Pelusy, Pendo, Pili, Rachel, Rose, Salome, Shida, Siwema, Sophia, Teddy, Valentina, Veneranda, Vernoica, Yonga, Yuge, Zai.

Even in my third year at JBFC, their beauty still strikes me. It’s not a type of beauty that can be put into words, but one you have to feel and see for yourself, and even then people often overlook it.


Guest Blogger, Tamarco Davis, is a rising sophomore at the University of Missouri and graduate of Tulsa's Holland Hall High School. He is a JBFC Ambassador and has helped raise money and awareness about JBFC for several years.

Book by Book

 JBFC launched its Book by Book campaign back in April of this year in order to begin the process of stocking our new library.

Dollars are being donated, books are starting to come in, and nearly 70 summer guests have carried pounds and pounds of books over to Tanzania in their checked luggage.

Several of our artistically talented guests have helped transform a room into a brightly decorated home for reading and learning.

Thanks to your generosity our library has gone from virtually non-existent to more than 1,600 novels and children’s books.

Now, as you can see through the pictures, we have a great beginning of a library! But, what is most exciting about these books is how they are helping JBFC achieve our mission. Literacy in Tanzania hovers around 68% and is on the decline. But, here at JBFC, in our little corner of Tanzania called Kitongo, the love for books and reading is alive and well.

Every week, each class in both our primary and secondary schools visits the library once or twice for a little more than an hour. After school, our summer guests adopted reading buddies, spending quality time reading with one of our residential girls several times a week.


But, the fun doesn’t stop there. Thanks to volunteers from this summer, we were able to start a catalog system and begin checking these books out to our students, teachers and staff. In less than three months, more than 100 books have been checked out (and returned!) to JBFC’s library.

While we still need your help to achieve our goal of 10,000+ books on our campus, this is a much more successful start than any of us could have dreamed of. So, THANK YOU!

And, most importantly, you can see how important this campaign has been for our school by the smiling faces of our students as they march over to the library in their single file line for reading time! Please check out our guidelines, if you’re interested in donating dollars or books to JBFC’s Book by Book campaign. Help us continue to break down barriers to literacy, one book at a time.

 Chris Gates is the Founder and Executive Director of JBFC.