Notes From Tanzania: A Visit to MWEDO Secondary School
By Wanda Bedard, 60 million girls Foundation, President and Founder
A reflection on the value of relationships
Photo: Wanda with her family and MWEDO team members
I had forgotten how helpful a visit is. Rather than a long-distance conversation, even via zoom, these chances to meet, see, talk, reflect and then continue the conversation are so important. It’s the finer details that help us focus on what we do and how we can continue to support our partners in the best way possible. I think our visit brought out to me even more than before the suspicion that 60 million girls’ true superpower is our network of relationships.
Beyond the vital function of our grants supporting concrete actions to enable girls to attend school and thrive, over the years we have developed, created, and imagined things like the Mobile Learning Lab (MLL), our climate action content repository on the Notions platform, and dozens, if not hundreds of relationships spanning girls’ education, sexual and reproductive health, sustainable agriculture and climate resilience, educational technologies, AI unplugged, scholarship opportunities and more.
Development work is complex because people and problems are complex. Supporting communities in the Global South is not about finding quick fixes but supporting our partners in what they know will most benefit them.
An inspiring visit with MWEDO secondary school
Photo: Wanda with Ndinini Kimesera Sikar, MWEDO co-founder and executive director, and a MWEDO student
During our visit to MWEDO secondary school including a day with the MWEDO women’s group of Longido, we saw the inspiring impact of our work and discussed ways that our 20 years of experience can help beyond funding.
Advancing girls’ education in fragile communities means being constantly alert to crises and emergencies when girls are first to be pulled out of school. We heard about the devastating impact of COVID. Early in the pandemic when the government of Tanzania closed all schools for three months, ten students left MWEDO’s secondary school due to pregnancy or early marriage. Either way, these girls will not be returning to school. From what we have heard from MWEDO management and very poignantly from the Maasai women’s gathering, climate change is the next crisis already affecting their lives.
The MWEDO singers greeted us before we even arrived in the school courtyard. They lined up facing each other and we had the privilege of walking as through an honour guard.
Photo: MWEDO women’s group
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