The Project

Background/History

Martha Mattia's host on her initial Tanzania trip was the family of Glory Baltazari, a young Tanzanian woman whose law school education was funded by Mattia's family through the Kapadia Education Foundation where Mattia is a board member. The foundation was established by Pradeep Kapadia, who attended the same high school as Mattia three decades ago and who inspired Mattia's commitment to girls' education.

During her Tanzania trip, Mattia interviewed a girl named Lily on a Wednesday. On Thursday, Lily was kicked out of school. The reason: Lily's family couldn't pay. Mattia visited the family's 10' x 12' shack. The walls of sticks and mud were covered with newspapers and simple Swahili sayings. Sayings like: "We may have little, but we have love," and "Don't complain...others have it worse than you."

"I could hardly imagine anyone who could have it worse, really," Mattia said. She told her host that she would like to help Lily, but was advised not to offer money to the family because of alcohol abuse. How much to keep Lily in the 10th grade? Eighty US dollars.

Mattia felt there was no choice. Without hesitation, she paid the school directly, and promised Lily that if she did well, the support would continue the next year Meanwhile she began thinking of a way to help more girls without relying only on charity. She wanted the girls to learn that they could use their skill and dedication to take some control in their lives. Was there something that girls could make and sell without paying for raw materials, she wondered? Glory, Mattia's law school protege, pointed out the banana leaves, garbage and coconuts on the ground. That's what we have to work with, she told Mattia, but we can do something. After brainstorming with Glory, Mattia asked her to develop a pilot group of five at-risk girls who could create crafts and artwork requiring little or no initial investment. Mattia offered no additional direction at first, wanting to see what the girls could come up with on their own. Her plan was to show the items to her contacts in the USA with the idea of fine-tuning and developing a simple range of crafts that could be sold to fund the girls' education.

The first items arrived in November 2007 in a box that cost $70 for Glory to mail in time for the December holidays. The girls had woven banana leaves into coinpurses and matts, they had made beautiful African scenes with banana leaf collages, they had invested in low-cost beads to create belts, keyrings and jewelry, and they had converted trash into paper mache to create exquisite African animals in a folk art style Mattia had never seen before. Treasure from trash.

Mattia wired money to Glory to cover postage costs and the anticipated revenue from selling the objects to her friends. In doing so, the bank required her to sign a document indicating that she realized the money may never arrive at its destination because as is the case with many third-world countries, Tanzania's financial infrastructure is not always reliable.

"This was new territory for me," Mattia recalled. "When I signed that bank document, I had a roller coaster type thrill. I knew I was making a leap of faith, that I was taking a small risk and all the money could disappear. But I felt certain that something good was being born."

The Project

The Girls Education Mission is a small scale foundation that has started in a village outside Arusha, Tanzania. However it is designed to be easily replicated and scalable.

"I am going slowly with this because I want to do it right," Mattia said. "We can take it anywhere - Asia, Africa, South America - one village at a time."

Churches, schools, service organizations, families and individuals can choose to adopt a village group, agreeing to take donations and/or purchase or sell handmade crafts to fund girls's education. In addition, the same groups and individuals may suggest beneficiary villages in which to make a difference. The goal is to have groups of f ive girls in each village so that they can encourage each other and share ideas while inspiring other girls and women in the village.

On the other end, "It works sort of like a Tupperware party," Mattia said. "You meet with your church group or sports team or book group, and show them these charming crafts and tell them about the girls who made them. And before the night is over, you can educate a girl - or a group of five girls - for the next year."

Money raised from purchase of crafts and donations directly funds each girl's education. It is paid from the organization directly to the girls' schools. No funds are paid to anyone else involved in the organization. Mattia has applied for 501C (3) status as a tax-exempt organization.

To particpate in the program, each girl must show financial need and must commit both to keeping her grades at scholarship level and doing the work necessary to create marketable crafts - just enough to fund her education. "I am not trying to get the girls to start a business that could get in the way of their education," Mattia noted. "I understand the danger of unintended consequences."

Current products shown on the website were created with no input from the organization. Each item is hand made...By popular demand, the girls will devote the next few months to making angels from trash, beads and found objects. Every angel will be different.