Summer in Tanzania: The Parent Perspective

Guest Blogger: Vicki Vrooman, Holland Hall Parent & JBFC Volunteer, offers her perspective on sending her son nearly 9,000 miles away to JBFC in Tanzania and the profound impact it had on her and her son.

My son, Weston, has been in Tanzania, Africa for two weeks now working at an orphanage with JBFC. I can't believe that he is so far away across the ocean on another continent! I wasn't worried until I took him to the airport and the reality that I was sending my child nearly 9,000 miles away really hit me. He was going to be somewhere that I didn't have access to him if I needed to.

All I asked from him was that he text me and let me know when he landed in Dubai and then when he got to the orphanage. He was great--and he contacted me with very short, quick texts that said he was there and that he loved me! Whew!

Weston and the Holland Hall group

But as the days progressed I longed for pictures and more texts from him. I knew that he was experiencing things that will forever change him and I couldn't wait to hear the stories. Fortunately, I've been able to see a few pictures of Weston and I can see that he is happy--always smiling!

"I've never loved a group of 

kids the way I do these."

The other day, I got a text message that was the very best response I could have gotten from my boy. He told me that it was going awesome and that he had to return to Africa.

"I can't just go once,” he said in a text message. “This place is indescribable; how purposeful it is to general happiness!"

Wow! I responded by telling him how much I loved him and I got an immediate second text.

Weston & Jonas, a JBFC Student

"Seriously though,” he continued. “I will start saving up to go again as soon as I get back. I've never loved a group of kids the way I do these."

I can't tell you how that makes me feel as a mom. I'm so happy for my son and so proud that he wants to go back to Africa to be with these kids.

I hoped that Weston would gain an understanding and compassion for others. I wanted him to see how fortunate he is to have grown up where he did. From the few text messages I've received so far, I believe that Weston has been deeply touched from his experiences.

I know he went to help them, but I believe that he is the one who has received the most. He will be changed forever. I, myself, am inspired to go to Africa to meet these amazing kids and be a part of the JBFC family!

I am so thankful that my son has had this opportunity and I appreciate all of the people who helped Weston financially so that he could go. Thank you, Christopher, and the entire JBFC family for welcoming my son and giving him this opportunity.

To the other parents out there, I know it is a little scary. But I would wholeheartedly encourage you to allow your children to experience JBFC in Tanzania. One of our roles as parents is to help guide our children to become compassionate, giving adults who will want to make a difference in their world. What better way is there to open our own children's eyes to the world!

Sunday Funday

Guest Blogger: Kayci Hebard, JBFC Asst Director 

Hebard first volunteered in Tanzania in 2008. She was so taken with the organization and the mission that she returned to JBFC in February 2011 and was soon hired on full-time to help manage the Kitongo campus.

Sundays ARE the weekend for Tanzanians. They have a six-day work week, so they take the seventh day of rest very seriously. No work!

So this is Sunday Funday at JBFC.

Sunday is for ... Chai “tea”

Sunday is for... Mandazi “Donuts”

Sunday is for... Dress up

Sunday is for... Dancing

Sunday is for... Outings

Sunday is for... Painting nails

Sunday is for... Laughing

Sunday is for... Slippin’...

Sunday is for... Slippin' And...

Sunday is for... Slidin’...

Sunday is for... Swimming

At JBFC, Sunday is the day the girls get to hang out with each other, bond over braiding hair, go to Church and just chill.  It is one of the few days that I can sit and just hang out with the girls. 

Living here is working here; you are always on.  I like to describe it as working 12 hours a day and then being on-call the other 12 hours.  It isn’t a conscious thing, but when Sundays roll around you start to realize how exhausted you are.  Sunday Fundays are like a big cup of coffee your week needs to start again on Mondays.

I just love Sunday evening prayer times. This is when the girls take time to say what they are thankful for that week. They also give a short performance in honor of what they are thankful for.  The girls often act out short plays. As far as I know they have made these up themselves - a lot of them are comedy, but some are drama.  They will sometimes address societal issues.  And it really shows their creativity and how they can work together as a family.   

Is JBFC tapping into a “silver bullet” to end poverty?

JBFC’s mission began with reaching out to the girls that Tanzanian society and even other non-governmental organizations had forgotten or overlooked. We couldn’t stop with providing a safe, loving home for abandoned and abused girls. Once they were cared for, they needed to be educated. That’s why we started the Joseph & Mary Primary School.

According to UNICEF, Tanzania is succeeding when it comes to primary school participation, with 97 percent of Tanzanian children enrolled. And girls are actually doing slightly better than boys, with 82 percent of girls attending school compared with only 79 percent of boys.

But that success plummets dramatically when it comes to secondary school education.

Robert L. Galluci, the President of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, recently wrote in his blog, *"The Power of Educating Girls:" 

“Around the world, 35 million girls who should be in primary or secondary school are not; half of them are in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Bank.”

In Tanzania, where we’ve achieved nearly universal primary school enrollment, UNICEF reports less than 1 in 4 Tanzania girls are attending secondary school.

Less than 1 in 4.

JBFC’s Joseph and Primary School expanded this year to add secondary school, so our students could continue their education beyond seventh grade.  This is a picture of our first class of secondary students.

More than half of them are girls.

In fact, the girls at our secondary school almost outnumber the boys 2 to 1.


All of our girls who completed seventh-grade went on to 8^th grade.

In Galluci's words:

“For those of us committed to addressing global poverty, improving education for girls may be the closest thing to a silver bullet. 

More education for girls brings well demonstrated benefits for them. Girls with higher levels of education marry later, have smaller families, survive childbirth at higher rates, experience reduced incidences of HIV/AIDS, have children more likely to survive to age five and earn more money."

If it’s a silver bullet, JBFC seems to have tapped into a solution.

Again, Galluci:

“Progress cannot come fast enough for girls and their communities in the developing world.”

At JBFC, we couldn’t agree more.

* The Power of Educating Girls was originally published on Huffington Post on June 4, 2012.