Weekly Reflection 6- Personal Contributions

July 29, 2018

Since starting at my project six weeks ago, I feel like I have made many personal contributions that have been relatively visible. Firstly, I planned and executed a series of educational seminars in the evenings regarding sexual and reproductive health. I taught the girls about the inner workings and anatomy of the female and male reproductive system. In addition, we discussed safe sex, healthy relationships, exercise, and personal hygiene. The girls don’t get this sort of education in their schools, so they found this seminar engaging and informational. It ended up lasting an hour longer than we had scheduled, and they had many questions that they eventually felt comfortable asking. I also worked one-on-one with girls to apply to colleges and jobs. In addition, throughout the past few months I have created and promoted my own fundraiser to create a college fund for the women of Pippi House. I raised almost $1500, and I have been able to sponsor 4 different women to get college degrees. I think this might be my longest lasting impact on Pippi House—once these girls get educated and get jobs, they can support themselves and they won’t have to depend on Pippi House to provide them with food, shelter, and other needs. They will also be able to have their own stream of income and hopefully give some of it back to support the girls in Pippi House that come after them. I have created lasting relationships with the women that I spent most of my time with at Pippi House. I worked with them on their studies, whether it was English, math, science, or geography. I set up a Facebook business page for the Pippi House recording studio complete with contact information, business hours, services offered, and location. I advertised this Facebook page in Arusha buy/sell forums, so hopefully the Pippi House recording studio will attract more customers and create a reliable and steady stream of income to support the women. I also worked with four nurses who were volunteering at Pippi House to conduct a first aid/CPR training program. We gave the girls demonstrations and specific instructions/steps on how to resuscitate someone who has stopped breathing. We also covered how to deal with choking, injury, and burns. I taught the women some songs/basic instrument skills, and they loved to practice and perform with me. We also did some basic dance, drawing, and acting lessons to liven up the days that were gloomy. My work at Pippi House was extremely rewarding, and I hope that it will make long term improvements in the lives of the women/children at Pippi House!