Comment by lukehandcool
8 hours ago
Thank you very much. When I was 19 I was convinced that my understanding of the world was wrong so I decided to travel to East Africa to see some of it for myself. Tanzania is a relatively safe place to travel and I wanted to learn swahili.
A friend of a friend of my parents heard that I was going and asked me to check up on a orphanage they were funding in the Njombe region. That's how I ended up in such a remote place. I helped work on the orphanage and spent time getting to know the village. That's where I met Anwarite.
I go back every few years to check up on things. It's quite the journey to get there.
I haven't though of documenting actual data points about this yet. I think that's a good idea. Any ideas on where to start?
> I haven't though of documenting actual data points about this yet. I think that's a good idea. Any ideas on where to start?
I think it’s important to be careful with this. “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure” and all that. You’re doing something good and your heart seems in the right place, so don’t lose that. It’s perfectly fine to measure your success with “the people from the village tell me it’s having a positive impact” without having to quantify things yourself, as long as you’re happy that the money is being used for the intended purpose.
I agree with you. Qualitative data would be great.
It would be very satisfying to find out that one of the kids is now a doctor or nurse and working in the clinic that services the town. Or somebody studied agriculture and now helps farmers in the area.
There are a lot of success stories that could be a success for the person but maybe not for the town (like the person got their degree and was able to build a great life in some other place). I can't imagine there's a ton of opportunity in rural Tanzanian communities...