– Mahatma Gandhi
M
andy Stein (Omega-Texas) isn’t the type of woman to encounter a problem or witness a wrongdoing and not do
something about it. She acts. So, when she first experienced Tanzania’s wicked cycle of poverty and how it affects the children there on a volunteer abroad trip in 2011 as a rising junior in college, she set out to sustainably correct it through an education-forward approach that synergized environmental and economic sustainability with creative learning and community engagement. Within one week of being in Tanzania on a volunteer abroad trip in 2011 Mandy met the children who would change the course of her life. A year later in 2012 and at just 20 years old, Mandy founded Neema International in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania in Africa, which was her pathway to making a sustainable impact in a community that desperately needed it. In 2013, Tanzania responded to poor national literacy rates by making education free. However, the government did not have the funding, workforce, infrastructure or physical resources to adequately meet the huge demand for education. According to Mandy, these government schools are extremely overcrowded and generally unsuccessful overall. With ratios of 60-80 students to one teacher, one book for every five to 10 students and the prevalence of corporal punishment, failure to succeed in this environment is the norm (and it’s accepted). Between the absence of an academic foundation or healthcare and the trauma and violence to which children in Uru are exposed, many children are set so far behind before they even have a chance to get started. This is where Mandy and Neema International come into play.
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