Stafford students have a wonderful opportunity to be a part of a service-learning project through our connection with the non-profit organization, Africa Bridge.  This local organization, founded by Barry Childs, helps orphaned and vulnerable children in Tanzania find homes, and get an education. 

Our Africa Bridge: Read to Feed/Read to Build Reading Challenge Project for second graders inspires children to get involved in a real hands-on way to help solve global problems like hunger and poverty, as well as to help students attend school.  Our goal is to foster in children a love for reading, a passion to help others and a way to help create a better world.  Children are asked to get sponsors for each book they read (or unit of time they spend reading) during the month of April.

Through the effort of our second graders and the fourth graders’ school-wide Marketplace event in May, Stafford has raised over $13,700 in the past two years to help support our buddy school, Pakati Primary School in the village of Ntandabala.  Not only have these funds been used to help send Pakati students to school, but they have also been put toward the completion of three new classrooms. 

Students have exchanged pen pal letters, pictures and even videos with our friends at Pakati School.  We are excited to see how Stafford students are learning to think globally and feel empowered to make a difference in our world. 

If you would like to be a part of our effort to help our buddy school and make a donation, here are the details of how your contribution makes a difference:

•                $25 pays for supplies for a child to attend primary school for a year

•                $120 pays for fees and supplies to send a child to secondary school for a year

•                $250 pays for one family's membership in a pig co-op

•                $1,000 pays for one family's membership in a potato or cow co-op

•                $10,000 builds a classroom

Pakati Primary School

A slideshow of the students at our buddy school in Ntandabala, Tanzania

Pictures courtesy of Africa Bridge: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijgrPZGuBoc

Tanzania Trip, November 2010

New Classrooms and the Pakati students

Video and pictures courtesy of Africa Bridge:

View the videos and pictures:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/africabridge/

Barry Childs

2010 Purpose Prize Winner 

Barry Childs was honored for his work to help orphaned

and vulnerable children in Tanzania.

Watch the video:    http://www.encore.org/prize2010winners

Visit the Africa Bridge website:      http://www.africabridge.org/