WAHI means “be on time” in Swahili. But at Global Outreach Tanzania (GOT) it now means We Are the Hope of Iringa. But the Swahili is applicable to both the timeliness expected from the participating students to the timeliness of the initiative itself.
The program was envisioned byGOT Executive Director Maryline Mamuya, who has wanted to find a way to give students learning and personal skills that they do not get in school. This has been the driving force behind her passion in leading GOT since her US experience.
But the true architect of the program is new GOT employee Adventina Emmanuel. She was given the project with an open opportunity to build it in her own vision. And build it she did.
The project was conducted as an after-school activity and was hosted in the Kichangani Computer lab every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Two days were devoted to primary school students and two days to middle school students, during the last two hours each day.
The pilot was begun in October 2018 with 28 students from two schools meeting once a week. Within a few weeks, the numbers started increasing because interns encouraged students to bring their friends along. To date, over 200 students have participated in WAHI, and the numbers just keep climbing. The program is now split into multiple areas and disciplines each session, with GOT interns offloading Adventina in leading the sessions.
According to Adventina, she wants all her kids to experience:
A Reading Habit—Creative Writing—Computer Learning—Visual Learning—Creativity—Problem Solving—Public Speaking—and feeling good about themselves.
She does this through her own creativity, expertise in technology, and unbounded enthusiasm. It’s a two-way love affair between her and the kids. All that plus a green-light from Maryline to change kids’ lives. You can see why I love coming to Iringa.
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