“I am the only unique me that will ever be. I have the power to make a difference in this world.”
These words were written on a wooden plaque that my parents bought me when I was a child. For years, it hung on the wall in my room right next to my bed. It was the last thing I saw before I went to bed every night, and it was the first thing I saw when I woke up each morning. I have wanted to change the world since I was five years old. I am a fortunate woman who has been given an incredible life filled with education, opportunity, support and unconditional love from the most wonderful family anyone could ask for. Most people who come from a background similar to mine don’t take the time to notice the world and the people outside of private schools, nice neighborhoods and materialistic items—but this isn't the case with me. I am a 20-year-old woman who truly wants nothing more than to make sure that no one has to go through life feeling unwanted, worthless or unimportant. My head and my heart are filled with dreams and visions of the future—more than anyone could ever imagine. And I plan to make each one of them come true. I am going to change the world.
I have dedicated my life to helping those who are less fortunate than I am, and for the first time I have stumbled upon a situation I cannot tackle on my own. Many people view America as a land of opportunity and prosperity and dream of coming here to find a better life. Quite the opposite, I spend countless hours day dreaming about the people living under stressful conditions in Africa and all that I could do to help them. In Africa, there are endless opportunities for me to make a difference because so many people are in dire need of love, care, and education. Last year, I decided that it was time to follow my heart and so on June 17, 2011, I departed for Tanzania, Africa.
Mama Faraji and the Tuleeni Orphans reside in the small village of Rau which is about 45 minutes from Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Tuleeni means ‘Care for Us’ in Swahili-- Mama Faraji and her husband (Baba) both work full time jobs in order to help supply for these amazing children. Mama is a teacher at a school called Rapanga Primary School and Baba is a very respected veterinarian. The thing that i believe was most special about the Tuleeni orphans was their intelligence, love, and desire for education and schooling-- mama believe that education is the most important thing in the world and she spends the majority of the money that she makes as well as the donations the orphanage receives on the children's schooling. Mama Faraji hopes that sending them to school will help them to obtain the
necessary tools for securing the best future possible. Next to Mama Faraji's home, she has opened a nursery school in order to
bring in as much money as they can to send these children to school.
Because of my background with social work and African/African American studies as well as my desire for unity and cultural acceptance in this world, I knew that I would fall in love with Africa and would return a changed person. However, returning a “changed person” is a bit of an understatement when describing the impact this trip had on me. Every morning I went to teach at a nursery school for extremely underprivileged children. At this school, I was given the name “Neema” because the young children couldn’t pronounce “Mandy”. When I asked the principal of the school why they picked this name, he told me that “Neema” means “ blessing” in Swahili. After two short days of volunteering at this school, I told the head coordinator of the volunteer program I was with (Cross Cultural Solutions) that as amazing as volunteering at the nursery was, four hours of volunteering in the mornings wasn’t enough work for me and that I wanted to do more. He told me that I could volunteer during my free time in the afternoons at an orphanage called Tuleeni. I was thrilled. My first day volunteering at this orphanage was the single most memorable and life-changing experience I've ever had. This day happened to be my twentieth birthday, and I thought that there was no better way to spend the celebration of my birth than to do the thing I was born to do--- help others. I spent the entire day at the orphanage playing games and singing songs with the children. They surprised me that evening and threw me a birthday party—the first song they played at the party was an American song called “One Step at a Time” by Jordan Sparks. My eyes began to fill with tears as I listening to the words and saw the smiling faces of children around me. One of the orphans asked me why I was crying. I took off my shoe and showed them the words tattooed on the inside of my foot… it reads “One Step at a Time.” A brilliant woman by the name of Marian Wright Edelman once said, “If you have a problem with the world, change it. You have an obligation to change it—just do it one step at a time.” These words on my foot are a constant reminder to me that while the journey of a million miles may seem long and out of reach, it all begins with one step. I felt like this song playing on my birthday in Africa was a message from God telling me that I was taking a huge step in my journey to change the world.
Currently there 78 Tuleeni Orphans living in Tanzania who Mama Faraji and her husband support. They provide these children with schooling, clothes, shelter, and love year round and essentially are the parents of all of them. Despite all of Mama and her husband's hard work efforts, the orphanage is much too small to house all these children and so many of them are sleeping three and four per a tiny bed-- I am currently working with DELL to help fundraise to furnish new beds and mattresses for the new orphanage. The children also are lacking mosquito nets, a necessity in the ongoing fight to prevent malaria. A huge portion of the orphanage’s money comes from donations and volunteers. However, as time goes on, many people’s interest begins to wane and the funds stop coming. Mama Faraji has been desperately trying to raise the funds to build a new home for these children—a home with beds, mosquito nets, food, and most importantly, a loving mother to help raise the children and provide them with a proper education. Mama Faraji spends over 52 million shillings a year on education for the children-- that is 36,000 USD-- while this may not seem like that much to you, keep in mind that at a good paying job, one will only make about $200 USD a month in Tanzania.
Over Christmas vacation, I went back to Tanzania to surprise the orphans and spend three weeks with them. While I was there, we were hard at work finishing last minute building plans and meeting with contractors and builders. I came back from Tanzania after winter vacation on January 13, 2012. Since then, some exciting things have been happening here in Texas! Check out the links below to read the article that was written about a fundraiser I put together as well as an interview with Fox News!
FOX NEWS interview with me about the Tuleeni Orphanage in Tanzania
http://www.myfoxaustin.com/dpp/good_day/Candy-for-a-Cause-20120227-ktbcw#axzz1ncH81DSE
University of Texas Daily Texan-- front page article on Valentine's Day:
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news/2012/02/13/student-works-local-candy-shop-fundraise-african-orphanage
Anyone interested in making a donation can donate at www.buildtuleeniahome.org and for those of you who would want to buy a t-shirt (which is featured in the end of the Fox News video) the shirts are $13 and that will pay to feed all the children at the orphanage for one day! Feel free to email me at MandyLstein@yahoo.com with any questions!
All my love and so much more,
Neema
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