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.

KFC: Tanzania Style

Guest Blogger, Kris Mills, joined JBFC in December as assistant to Executive Director Chris Gates.

It is undeniable that Fried Chicken is a favorite dish among Americans. I mean who doesn’t love to bite into a juicy piece of white meat coated with a perfectly seasoned crunchy exterior? And how could one forget those fluffy white mashed potatoes covered in butter and gravy that are also in company?

Well even though I may be living in the far distant land of Tanzania, I for sure have not forgotten this traditional southern meal I’ve grown up eating. In fact, yesterday Chris, Kayci and I successfully made this favored dish. However, unlike in America where one can easily drive over to the local grocery store and buy some chicken, in Tanzania it’s done a little differently.

And yesterday, I was given the unsettling task of killing our dinner.

Though I’m not a vegetarian, the idea of killing another breathing creature is unsettling to me to say the least and rarely done on my part besides the occasional spider or cockroach. I was not thrilled about killing our chickens to then be fried to savory perfection but having lived at JBFC for the past month or so I’ve gained a new perspective on food, particularly livestock.

Here at JBFC, we have an extensive livestock and agriculture component that is necessary in keeping the organization sustainable. From spinach to pigs to potatoes and chickens, the agriculture and livestock programs provide food for the JBFC family as well as a source of income. Now being able to view these animals more objectively has made me gain a better understanding and appreciation for their role at JBFC and enabled me to overcome my personal inhibitions in killing livestock.

While I won’t go into too many details about the killing itself, I will say that I did not have nightmares the following night and may even do the deed again if the opportunity arises. All I can say is at that night’s dinner, I had some of the best fried chicken I have ever eaten in my life!

Small Sacrifices Can Lead To Big Rewards

Guest Blogger, Kris Mills, joined JBFC in December as assistant to Executive Director Chris Gates.

Having the privilege of living with 40 of the most spirited, smart and beautiful girls I have ever met, it is easy for me to say that I am one lucky guy. Since officially joining the JBFC team in December, I could not wait to get over to Tanzania to meet the girls. After arriving mid-February, my time at JBFC has been enlightening, breath taking and many times rewarding.

One such experience happened a couple of days ago when Julia and I invited all the girls for a Saturday afternoon hike up a nearby mountain/large hill. Having checked out the hike a couple of days in advance, Julia and I were sure the girls were capable of this physical activity and that the view made it TOTALLY worth it. However, I quickly remember th

at Veneranda or “Vene” has a physical disability. During my time here, I have come to get to know Vene, who is a quiet and shy third grader and typically unable to participate in many group activities due to her physical limitations. Vene is diagnosed with scoliosis, which has severely deformed her spinal column and lower extremities making it very difficult for her to get around. Troubled by this I decided “why not carry her up the mountain?”

Though I will admit the 30 minute walk there plus the 30 minute ascend up the mountain were physically difficult for me carrying this small girl, I reminded myself that my exhaustion did not even compare to the difficulty and pain she faces everyday. Having reached the top, it brought me great joy seeing her enjoying herself with the other girls and as I looked back at JBFC in the distance, I was so happy knowing she was there with us and had not been left back at campus.

Making the Dream a Reality

The exciting time has come where our first campus in Kitongo, Tanzania is nearing completion. Over the past few weeks, our new Director of Development, Ashli Sims, and myself have completed a strategic plan for the future development of JBFC. We have budgeted and phased a general development plan for the construction of future campuses based on the model of our current campus. We have broken the development plan into 8 phases with all of them being completed in roughly 5 years with an estimated $830,000 USD needed for capital needs.


Everyone at JBFC is pleased to announce that our board has approved the first phase of our expansion plan on this second campus. This phase will take approximately 6 months to complete. After we have funding and have a few geological analysts give the site approval, JBFC will begin construction of our second campus. The site of the second campus will be about an hour and a half south of Kitongo in a town called Mwampuru (pictured below). The local government has donated 50 acres to JBFC for this campus, and we are thrilled that our services are being well recognized and welcomed in a neighboring community. We are very excited to expand the JBFC family so stay tuned for updates as me move closer to breaking ground on JBFC’s next location!

Communication At Last!

Very exciting news- I am writing this blog and posting it from the comfort of our very own campus all the way out here in Kitongo! Thanks to the generosity of the Bronxville Rotary Club in New York, we were able to purchase a satellite internet service a couple weeks ago on a trial basis, and everything seems to be working great. There are obviously little hiccups now and then (we are in the African bush after all), but overall, we are extremely happy with the service and it will definitely enable Kayci and I to stay in touch on a more regular basis with all of you.

Once again, the Rotary Club has come through in enabling us to build our organization’s infrastructure here in Tanzania so that we can ultimately serve more and more children across Tanzania. For those of you who don't know, the Rotary Club of Will Rogers in Tulsa, OK and Rotary International were the driving force behind our current water system on campus and are the reason we have permanent running water and great water pressure!

We hope that you all will stay tuned on a more regular basis so that we can keep you up to date on the day-to-day happenings here at JBFC in Tanzania!