It all started with an email.The Waka Waka Project was founded in 2011, after a fateful summer living and working in Tanzania. We spent almost every afternoon getting to know the kids because most of them weren't in school; their parents are farmers and day laborers who couldn't afford schooling for all of their children and when the time came to leave Tanzania, we knew we had to do something to help. When we got home, we sent out an email with pictures of the kids, asking all of our friends and family to help us raise money to get them in school. Not for one year or two, but for the entirety of their schooling and through university if we could. Nearly 15 years later, here we are. We've seen most of them graduate from secondary school (high school) and our oldest student, Wema, will be a university graduate in 2026. All because of that summer, that email, and the continued support of our family and friends.
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Some of the Waka kids in 2011.
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Naomi with Ivone and Wema (from right to left) at Ivone's high school graduation ceremony in 2023.
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Our team. |
Glory, Regina, Ivone, me (the other Regina), and Jenny (from left to right) after a tutoring session in the classroom we built in the village.
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A personal note from Regina.Education has changed my life in many ways; I was privileged to be born in a part of the world where quality education was accessible to me, and into a family who was able to prioritize that for my life. Experiencing the educational inequity that exists in many countries like Tanzania was a shock in 2010. It was a pivotal moment for me and, since then, I've spent a significant amount of my time and abilities to understanding education systems to try to improve opportunities, not only for the Waka kids but for wider populations in sub-Saharan Africa and around the world. I am currently pursing a doctorate in Education at the University of Cambridge in the UK, where my research is on education policy in Tanzania. The university wrote a profile on Waka, which you can read here.
What we have accomplished with The Waka Waka Project has been incredible; it has been a labor of love and dedication and I will be forever grateful to every friend, family member, and stranger, who has donated to help make schooling happen for our 15 students who not only deserve it, but demand it. Every child should be in school; learning, growing, and bettering yourself through education should not be a privilege. But alas, the world is more complicated than what 'should be' and I hope to continue advocating for equitable education for many more years and beyond the confines of a university. I sometimes write about my journey with Waka and other parts of my research on Medium, should you be interested in reading along. |
