Local Charity’s Twitter Celebration Supports Education in Tanzania
Posted by metroafrican on Dec 3, 2009 in In the News • No commentsAfricAid Hosts First Annual Unwrap-A-Story Twitterbration to Support Girls’ Education
Denver, Colo. November 24, 2009– AfricAid announces the Unwrap-A-Story “twitterbration” to support girls’ education in Africa. Running from December 8th to 11th, the three-day online celebration will invite the public to use online tools like Twitter and Facebook to share and celebrate the people who have made a lasting impact on their lives while making a $10 donation to the Kisa Project– a two-year program that provides African girls with a school scholarship, leadership training, and formal mentoring. In the spirit of Kisa, which means “story” in Swahili, participants will tweet a short, 140-character story about the person who gave them their greatest gift. After making the donation and tweeting their story, participants can send a customizable thank-you letter to the person they honor in their donation.
“Unwrap a Story is about paying it forward,” says AfricAid founder and Executive Director Ashley Shuyler. “It’s a way to honor those people in your life who have helped you along the way, and give a girl in Tanzania the same opportunity to be mentored as they begin the long journey ahead.”
Set to launch in January 2010, the Kisa Project gives African girls scholarships to secondary school and enrolls them in a two-year leadership-training program. Upon graduation, these “Kisa Scholars” are given a small salary to return home to mentor a group of fifteen other young girls and create a community project that addresses a need in their hometowns. The Kisa Scholars will be taught by trained Tanzanian university graduates, called “Kisa Mentors”, who Shuyler says, “are the greatest gift you could give young Tanzanian women. A mentor will help them realize their potential, and support them as they become part of a new generation of women leaders across Africa.”
“Our goal is to raise a total of $4,000,” says Shuyler. “It may not seem like a lot, but with $4,000, AfricAid can provide 20 young Tanzanian women with 2 years of formal mentoring and leadership training through our Kisa Project. And because every Kisa Scholar will in turn mentor 15 young Tanzanian women– an additional 300 girls will receive formal mentoring because of the $4,000 we hope to raise through Unwrap-A-Story.”
“It is exciting that this campaign gives people the opportunity to take a moment in the busy holiday season to share a story about a person who touched their lives,” says AfricAid intern Cara Wagner.
The money raised from the Unwrap-A-Story online celebration will educate and empower 20 young women through the Kisa Project, set to launch in Tanzania in January 2010.
For more information on the Unwrap-A-Story “twitterbration” visit: http://africaid.com/unwrap-a-story
About AfricAid
AfricAid is an international non-profit organization that supports girls’ education in Africa in order to provide young women with the opportunity to transform their own lives and improve the future of their communities.
AfricAid’s origins date back to 1996 when its founder, Ashley Shuyler, traveled to Tanzania with her family at the age of 11 and saw first-hand the enormous educational needs that exist there. Determined to find a way to help, she formed AfricAid in 2001 at the age of 16, which has since raised nearly $700,000 in its efforts to help support the educational needs of girls in Africa.
The Kisa Project is a new AfricAid initiative that will provide school scholarships and leadership training to some of Africa’s brightest young women. Through sponsorships provided by American families and groups, these young women will be able to complete their secondary school education, while also participating in a formal, two-year leadership training program. At the same time, through a specially designed curriculum and interactive website, American sponsors will develop a truly meaningful connection with their Kisa Scholar in Africa. Upon graduation, the “Kisa Scholars” will return to their home communities to implement vital community projects and provide life-skills mentoring to groups of other young women, thus helping to create the next generation of leaders across Africa.
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