Africa's Children Need Guardian Angels

FOUNDER: Professor Jeff Fadiman, Ph.D, ED.

JUNIOR PARTNER: Scott Hollblad-Fadiman [My son, Age 6--G.A. in training]

    “Throughout the world “the poor” live in villages. These… are people who want out of poverty, who want their children out of poverty…There is no magic bullet…There are just basic problems that require basic work.”
               Jeffrey Sachs, UN Millennium Project (paraphrased)

HOW “GUARDIAN ANGELS” BEGAN:
    Africa’s Children Need Guardian Angels (GA) was launched to do that basic work and thus resolve those basic problems. My first idea was to collect goods, then provide them to established Non-Profits for distribution abroad. However, I found most NGO’s do not want goods; they want money—AND the right to decide just how to spend it. Some that accept goods sell them to middle-men, for resale abroad. Most use some of the money they receive to pay staff salaries, air tickets and lodging overseas. They also use it to hire consultants, hold conferences and do studies.   Oh yes, they do help many needy people—just not enough.

    We’re working on that. We work without pay. We pay our own costs, from airfare to lodging and lunch while abroad. Every cent of every dollar we do use goes to helping children—to eat more and thus learn more—often from teachers we send to their schools. This is nothing to brag about!! A few U.S. dollars go a long way. In Zimbabwe, for instance, $13 dollars buys lunch, OR IT CAN SUPPORT ONE PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILD FOR ONE PRIMARY SCHOOL YEAR!

GUARDIAN ANGEL GROUND RULES:
    * Give no money to anyone. “Use” money to provide educational goods and services to those who need education.
    * Work only with people who work with us, taking co-responsibility for project’ success. No giveaways. No dependence. Just partners.
    * Try only what both sides agree might actually work.
     * Provide personal, on-site follow-up, to ensure both goods and services do what donors wish.
     * Provide training, education, status—and hope

AFRICAN PARTNERS:
    Zimbabwe:
    We work with a wilderness safari firm that places U.S. students, teachers and nurses as African Wilderness Interns, in organizations that specialize in eco-tourism, wildlife conservation, rural medicine and primary education. The firm offers “Wilderness Awareness Courses” to introduce non-Africans to the Bush

    Tanzania:
     We work with an eco-safari firm, dedicated to both wildlife and community development in the Great Rift Valley and Maasai Steppe. Safari fees are used, in part, to trigger grass roots legal, agricultural, ecological and educational projects, as well as conservation of predators, prey and the wilderness that must provide the funds required to sustain them.

These African partners serve as trusted middlemen/women to ensure that every pen, paper, book and ball reaches precisely those children for which they are intended.

GUARDIAN ANGEL PROJECTS:

    1-    “ADOPT” SPECIFIC SCHOOLS
    GA adopts entire schools. In rural Zimbabwe we are “guardian angels” to one pre-primary, five primary and one secondary school, as well as one rural medical clinic (AIDS orphans). In rural Tanzania, we work with five primary schools, one secondary and one AIDS-orphan community center. To do this, we interview school heads, teachers and the mothers of those kids now in each school. Simply put, we ask each group to identify the most urgent educational needs. Then, then we try to fill them—one by one.

    2-    BECOME A TEACHER. (Join the African Teaching staff)
    Where possible, I join the teaching staff. I teach for a week to a month. I have two goals. One is to share what I know with both students and fellow teachers ; the other is to have them teach me. Only by sharing their problems can I learn what they are. And, only after having discovered them can I “try” to help them find solutions.

     3-    BRING EC0-TOURISTS (and through them, school supplies) TO THOSE SCHOOLS
    Many “tourists” visit Africa only to live in luxury and photograph animals. In contrast, “eco-tourists” want to both learn (in depth) about our wilderness and help its children. We have thus linked two         concepts:
            The Wilderness Eco-Safari     [Tanzania,Off The Tourist Track]
                                    +
             Helping Kids in Rural Schools

          Each eco-tourist comes to Africa with one suitcase for him/herself, and one filled entirely with school supplies. Africa’s children need such Guardian Angels!   Pupils’ not only need pens, magic markers, rulers, crayons, paper, math sets and exercise books. They also lack desks, tables, chairs, food and sometimes water. Many “learn” while sitting all day on the classroom floors. These use their laps as desks and their fingers as imaginary pens. At recess, they play with imaginary “soccer balls” made from plastic shopping bags, hand-held and melted over a fire. Imaginary roofs and windows fail to block the rain that soaks the classes. Breakfast and lunch are also imaginary. They do not eat, thus cannot learn.
    [Note: In 2005, our Tanzania eco-tourists launched a fund, (on return to the U.S) to help the schools to which they had brought supplies. Thus far, they have raised $13,000.]

    4-    BRING GUEST-TEACHERS TO THE SCHOOLS
      The best eco-tourists become guest-teachers (GT’s).
*GT’s teach English, science, math, health and sports. Each GT lands with one suitcase for him/herself and one filled with just those school supplies he/she will use while teaching. Since the schools lack almost everything, they are most welcome.
*Each person brings a ball to Africa. There is no better tool to break the ice with children. There is also no better way to insure that educational goods will be well used than to bring and use them yourself.

Mon-Fri: GT’s work both in schools, and between semesters. They teach day-long intensive English & math, BOTH to the children and their teachers. The kids not only wish to come, but walk up to 8 kms to get there. The teachers see intensive learning as the path up to career success and decent income. After school, GT’s provide additional instruction to AIDS orphans, to increase their chances of passing exams to high school
Sat-Sun: Each weekend is spent on Safari, in the bush. Led by experienced ecologist/guides, GT’s learn both wilderness and wildlife conservation, as well as their interaction (eg: lions) with the cattle-keeping Ndebele (Zimbabwe) or Maasai (Tanzania).

         Simultaneously, GT’s conduct research; holding in-depth, on-site oral interviews with African teachers, pupils and mothers. These are not “academic” studies. The problems are frighteningly real. They deal with ecological, educational, medical and economic survival in the face of AIDS, drought, famine, malnutrition, childhood disease, mass poaching, and declining tourism. GT reports are not only read, they may change lives.

    5-. PROVIDE SEEDS (School Garden Program)
We work in drought & famine zones. Pupils rise in darkness, skip breakfast, then walk 6-8 kilometers through the bush, to school. (In Zim, they walk in groups, to deter elephants.) The pattern: morning study, skip lunch, afternoon study, collapse from hunger, walk home, eat dinner—too often just maize meal or rice. Pupils who don’t eat fail exams. In our schools, where no one eats from dawn to dusk, the failure rate can reach 100%.

Our response: The School Garden Program, a partnership, between one school, the pupils’ mothers, the GT’s and GA:
    * GA: Buys seed sufficient to plant one crop of sorghum, millet, cow peas, peanuts, beans and sweet potatoes—enough, once harvested, to feed each pupil, one bowl of “porridge” per school day for the semester.
    * African partner: Provides the school with one agronomist to teach teachers, pupils AND MOTHERS agricultural self-sufficiency; multi- cropping, permaculture, etc. Mothers then transfer these techniques to their own farms.
         * School: (teachers + pupils + mothers) plows, guards, weeds, waters, harvests, stores, and distributes the harvest + seed for the subsequent season.
    * Mothers: Oversee the process and cook the school lunches.
       * GT’s: Ensure seeds are properly used, from plowing to harvest.
At first harvest, the seed program ends. The agronomist moves to a 2nd school to begin again. Thus, each school has one growing season to create food self-sufficiency (porridge lunch + seed for next growing season). The goal is not perpetual dependence, but swift self-sufficiency.

6-    PROVIDE SCHOOL SUPPLIES (The Trickle Program)
        Huge cash donations, though well intended, can be misused. As an alternative, GA funds school supplies in small trickles—which may some day become a steady, well monitored flow.
* Headmasters/Teachers: Decide which school supplies are most needed each semester. Agreement is reached as to what can be funded.
* GA: Funds the requested supplies (up to US$100 per semester, per school): pens, paper, exercise books, library books.
            (Note: $100 = Tanz $100,000 and Zim $8,000,000.)
* African Partner: Buys the supplies locally or hires local craftsmen to make them. Either way, the local economy benefits. Partners then deliver supplies to the schools.

* GT’s: Ensure supplies are properly used, identify new educational needs.

Note: To solve the problem of transmitting school supplies to children in 2005, GA allied with S.H.I.P. AID. (Shipping Humanitarian Aid to Impoverished People).   S.H.I.P AID’s co-founders began by placing a 20’ by 8’ by 6’ shipping crate in their garage. Then, they asked neighbors & friends to fill it with school supplies, school books, medical supplies, and baby clothing. On Feb l5, 2005, S.H.I.P AID (and Guardian Angels) sent l7,000 pounds of medical and educational supplies to the Kingdom of Lesotho. This included 653 boxes, four medical pallets and 21 pairs of crutches.

7-    SEND “GRADUATING ORPHANS” TO HIGH SCHOOL
    Some orphans pass their primary school graduation exams with high marks. NONE have the funds to go on to high school. Girls in this position are then passed to other families to work as house-servants. Without parents to protect them, they face a future of in-house rape, pregnancy, prostitution or AIDS. Boys face a lifetime working other peoples’ fields—with hoe and shovel. For orphans, there are virtually no other alternatives.
    GA responds BOTH by sending selected orphans on to high school, AND by finding other Americans to act as their Guardian Angels. The cost of playing guardian angel to one child for one year is ludicrously low, when placed in an American context: $105 (Tanzania) and $13 (Zimbabwe). Those sums cover school fees, uniforms, shoes, and ALL extra expenses. They do not cover “things to read” (eg: books), “things to write with” (eg: pens) and “things to write on” (eg: paper) because the schools are supposed to provide them—but don’t. In consequence, GA’s school supplies program (Step 5) gives priority to orphans.
     NOTE: When a secondary school begins to accept our GA orphans for further study, GA responds by adopting the secondary school—sending it school supplies and guest teachers. By so doing we hope to develop a genuine alliance, therefore ensuring that the school with accept our orphans for years to come.

8-    FIND “GUARDIAN ANGELS” (USA)
    I speak about Africa across the US. Prior speaking venues include the Commonwealth Club of California, the World Affairs Council and the US State Department. When appropriate, I ask specific donors to play guardian angel, by helping with specific projects. Tanzanian & Zimbabwean children need such grass roots guardian angels. African children need grass-roots guardian angels.

I believe:
*That even one determined person can cause visible change: me, you
*There are few changes more satisfying than making children glow.
*There are few roles more satisfying than that of “guardian angel.”

Africa’s Children need Guardian Angels. Want to help? Contact me