Reaching Children's Potential Tanzania

I have volunteered as part of the Reach the Children’s’ Potential Program in 2018 and 2021. I really like the philosophy of Global Volunteers: the community decides on the projects and the families from the RCP program and community are actively engaged in the volunteer projects and programs. In addition, the program is committed to use local materials, resources, and tools readily available in the community which fosters the ability for self-sufficiency and sustainable long-term change.

RCP program has a lot of depth and there are numerous opportunities for volunteers to contribute. Some examples of activities that the team participated this year are the following: Home visits with caregivers, building chick coops, working in the local primary school teaching English, working and supporting the local women’s co-ops, facilitating workshops at the center and in the community, building earth boxes, working in the green house, working on computer related project that relate to the collection of data for the program, assisting a local pastor with harvesting his wheat field and participate in community building activities with local leaders, hospital and Iringa University. This program has so many different types of opportunities for volunteers to contribute!

It is great to be on the ground again and see the progress made in the region over the past two and half years since I was here back in November 2018. I truly saw the impact the RCP program is making in the region and how this demonstration program is working. Some areas that I can see change.
1. Having a health center on the mountain that mothers can now have a safe place to birth their children
2. The RCP center has a small guest house for some of the expecting mothers to stay at the RCP center when they are near their due dates. This ensure that mothers that live far away from the center do not need to make the trip in labor up the steep mountain roads.
3. The schools are more well attended and reported by the teachers that the children are more attentive/progressing further in school since the program now provides for 2 healthy meals for the children each day.
4. Nursing mothers have healthier supplemented meals, plus many families now have earth boxes where they can grow their own food rich in micronutrients. This directly impacts the health and growth of the nursing children. The children in the program for the past few years you can see as growing faster and are healthier. This can be backed by the measurements that are taken as part of the program.
5. Many of the staff at the RCP program have been here for many years. Many I worked with back in 2018. With stable staff it fosters the ability to build long term relationships with the families and community leaders. The staff and volunteers are looked as trusted advisors with the RCP families and many of the local community leaders. This helps support sustainable change in the region.
6. The community is now ready to deal with mental health related issue in the villages with more of the community getting basic needs such as healthy food met. Mental Health back in 2018 was an aspirational goal for the village community leaders to be addressed.