In May 2011 I was selected among many young people in the world to work as a Project Coordinator for 2Seeds, a non-profit organization that serves as an umbrella organization incubating small, efficient, and effective agricultural development projects in Africa. I’m the only Brazilian on board, the others are all Americans. In total we are 24 new Project Coordinators, working in 9 different projects for 9 months, starting from August.
Tanzania is one of the 10% poorest per capita income countries in the world. The majority of the population live in farms and the subsistence farming is the only food source for many tanzanian people. With the aggravation of dry seasons, many people are not able to produce to provide food for their own family, consequently denoting the serious problem of hunger in the region.
The project I’ll be working with is called The Magoma Project and is located in the village of Magoma in northeastern Tanzania, about 465 km from Dodoma, Tanzanian capital.
The Magoma Project began in July 2010 with a mission to integrate farming into education, an emphasis on sustainability and a commitment to self empowerment. The strategy is to utilize schools as community centers to teach innovation, nutrition, environmental conservation, and market-oriented thinking.
Rather than simply giving donations to meet community needs, the Magoma Project develops tools and knowledge to enable the community to provide for its own needs and actively involve local people to build a project sustainable in the long run future.
I've decided take this challenge as I got passionate about the purpose of the project, the sense of adventure, the project's capacity to inspire young people, the possibility of living and experiencing other cultures, the possibility to have genuine contact with local communities, the importance given to the local self empowerment.
I’m really looking forward to being in TZ! =)
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