Program Overview
NTC was created to:
- Establish personal relationships between people in Tanzania and the United States, starting with students and schools and
- Undertake projects that build and reinforce these relationships and help overcome the very surmountable barriers to education in Tanzania.
An exploratory trip to Tanzania by NTC founders in 2006 found:
- A Tanzanian people committed to schools and education as a means of breaking the cycle of extreme poverty
- Teachers and staff who are dedicated and make real sacrifices to serve in their profession
- Students willing to dedicate themselves to an education despite a scarcity of proper learning materials and harsh living conditions. For many families, the cost of a school uniform, room and board, or even the need to keep the children at home to work is enough to prevent their sons and daughters from attending school.
NTC’s first partnership was between Newton, Massachusetts, and Kwala, a community in the Kibaha region of Tanzania. Newton students and citizens brought Athuman Msangi, a secondary school English and Kiswahili teacher in Kwala (and current NTC Tanzania advisor), to visit the Newton community and schools, and raise awareness of the challenges facing students and teachers in Tanzania. The results were inspirational – Newton students and citizens raised $5,000.00 to provide Kwala Secondary School with its first textbooks.
This first project confirmed a basic NTC principle: personal relationships result in projects that are meaningful to ‘donors’ and ‘recipients’ alike.
NTC continues to promote community outreach and cultural exchange programs with Kwala and other Tanzanian communities. NTC works with well-established partner non-profit organizations such as United Planet (which works in over 50 countries including Tanzania) to ensure accountability for each project – so that good intentions yield good results.
The Newton-Kwala relationship has served as a successful model for creating additional partnerships, changing lives by operating person-to-person, school-to-school, and community-to-community.
