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GIRAFFE OF THE MONTH
Teaching for Smiles in Tanzania
Anne Kenney of TucsonTeacher Anne Kenney has always traveled the world, bringing back firsthand reports and photos for her classes in geography, multiculturalism and global studies at a Tucson public school. When on such a learning journey to Africa, she came across a parochial boarding school for girls in Bagamayo, Tanzania.
The school was primitive, the girls survivors of female mutilation. Taught only by priests and male teachers, the girls' hair was shorn, they were rarely allowed to see their families, and they could not send or receive mail. Kenney decided the girls needed a new teacher.
She also knew taking on the job would mean jeopardizing her career, risking her health, and working without pay. Kenney loved her teaching job in Tucson, had not recovered from double hip replacements, and didn't have the personal resources to live without a salary. She decided to go anyway.
She sold her furniture and rented out her home, using the cash to purchase books and clothing for the Tanzanian girls and to finance her new life in Africa.
Living in a Tanzanian hut with no plumbing, electricity or clean water, she began the work of teaching the girls about the world at large and about their ability to take their place in it. Fighting long traditions, both tribal and cultural, she championed changes in the rules and regulations that governed the treatment of females. She encouraged the girls to take pride in their heritage and in themselves, and to consider careers.
With assistance from teachers in the States, she brought in obsolete US library equipment that works fine in Bagamayo. She set up a school library, trained the girls to run it, and opened it to the entire village. Made head mistress of the school, she petitioned the Archdiocese and the administration about the girls' strict treatment, with little success.
When friends urged her to return home after an outbreak of embassy bombings and threats of anti-American terrorism; Kenney never considered leaving. But when her parents fell ill, she took a leave of absence and came home to see them through their final illnesses. Now she's returning to Bagamayo, back to the primitive hut and the job that only pays in the smiles of the students.
"At my age people don't usually do such things," Anne Kenney says. "But if you can do it, go! Africa needs you desperately, and you get more than you give."
Visit the Giraffe website to learn about The Giraffe Program, a K-12 curriculum that teaches kids about real heroes and gets them going on lives of courage, caring and responsibility, and the Giraffe Partners Trunk--everything a business or club needs to help a classroom full of kids to stand tall.
Copyright © 2000 The Giraffe Project, all rights reserved.Posted with permission by New Horizons for Learning
http://www.newhorizons.org
E-mail: info@newhorizons.org