codeforafrica

You probably also don't want to focus on just one location to avoid becoming a dominant factor there making people expect that you'll help them. I can actually ask my friend how he approaches that, and if he has some advice. Personally I'd pick only a few cases per village, and more importantly, per school. Because I just remembered another thing my friend experienced: Many of the sponsored kids went to their school, and those kids started sticking together because they thought they were something special. Once he realized that he broke that up of course (I don't know how though) and made sure that the the sponsored kids would integrate with the rest as normal.

You are probably have thought of some of this yourself in some way, but I believe it is helpful to hear it from someone else too, to confirm or challenge your own ideas about that, and learn from the experience of others.

I agree with that. But paying for a kids school is not enriching individuals. They don't get a financial benefit out of it, they just get education, which in the end is something that can only be applied individually. Meaning that while you could build a school for a whole village instead, in this case there is probably already a school there, it's just that the school system is set up such that you still need to pay for the school uniform, books, food, fees, etc, and some families can't even afford that.

And it'd not like local cooperation doesn't happen. I know one family who took in kids from their village from a disabled mother who could not care for them so that they could go to school. The family that we rented our rooms from was always full of people because they took in relatives from their village so they could get a chance at finding work in the city. I had kids where the families already did their best to cover the cost, but sometimes it wasn't enough. So I added a little bit to cover the rest. To enable them to participate on a school trip that they would otherwise have to sit out on. To buy lunch instead of going hungry until they got home because the money was just a bit short.

So what Luke is doing is just more of what the locals are doing already. Finding cases that fall through the cracks.

The thing with building cooperative societies is that it starts with education. You can't just waltz in as a foreigner into a village and say: OK, we are going to teach you how to cooperate. That doesn't work. You teach a few individuals by being an example of what it means to be cooperative and then let the locals spread the experience. But this takes the work of many people. Luke is doing what he can as an individual from where he is, and he has to trust that his efforts will add to the efforts of others, locals and non-locals alike to eventually make a difference. I actually moved here to do the same in a different way, but that's not something everyone can do, nor should they.

Helping people is much harder than simply giving money to someone in a way that makes you feel good about yourself

True, but again, paying for someones education is not doing that.

One thing that I feel is important, is that I do not believe charity, handouts in general are a good idea. they make people dependent or expectant of such charity instead of motivating them to solve problems.

Paying for education however is different. Education should be free. I come from a country where all education including university is free. So when I pay for a students education I am not being charitable, but I am correcting an error in the system.

Another way to look at it is to see going to school as the kids job. I literally got one kid off the streets by paying for their school and board, and all other personal expenses. The kid had already dropped out of school and ran away from home, and I offered to help only if and as long they would go back to school. That was their job. Their obligation.

My options then were to go back home, or to try Africa and see if it is possible to live there for a while. I'll be staying here as long as I can financially sustain myself with online work or through sponsors. And even if I can't stay much longer, we have now been here long enough that Africa has made an impact in our lives, and we'll hopefully be able to use that to have a positive impact on others too.

Practically I believe the individual outcome will be of two kinds: a student will use their schooling to help their village, start a business and bring a small amount of improvement. Or they will leave the area and find work elsewhere. Neither is unsustainable. The worst outcome would be if everyone leaves and the village dies out. Could that happen? Maybe. But I think it is unlikely. Or at least, I think that education is unlikely going to be a major factor, because even without education people from villages move to cities to seek their fortune.

And while this is pure speculation, I'd like to believe that people with education are more likely to stay because thanks to ubiquitous internet they have more opportunities to use that education to their advantage even from their remote location.

Systematic change will happen when more people with better education move into the ranks of government or business where they can affect such change.

Btw: when I talk about education I don't just mean STEM. I also mean ethics or moral education to teach people that contributing to society is important. Sponsoring students does not achieve that on its own, but it's something others are working on, and these students tend to be grateful for the help they get that they also get the message in a way and are motivated to pay it forward.

A documentary can't have anywhere near that effect, it could however motivate more people to investigate and maybe get some people to travel. It also would support the legitimacy of your project. Since if already fits with the things that you like to do, I'd say, go do it. As I wrote in another comment, we should try to find a way to contribute that is most suitable for each of us. And we should make use of all the skills available to us to further our goals. If documentary making is in your set of skills and interests, then by all means.

Is getting more children to school not in everyone's best interest? As for conflict with the state, in Tanzania any charity/NGO has to operate for three years before they are even allowed to apply for official recognized status. It makes sense to me. They can't control what everyone is doing. So go, do, and if you want to be officially recognized then show what you did for 3 years and they'll see if they like it. If they don't, they'll probably be told to stop. Small operations like this one can probably be ignored.

That's what I expected. Thanks. Your wording: "made almost 68K for ~2900 loans" had me confused. Making money means profit or income to me. You didn't make any money but you helped 2900 people.

68k/25=2720. That suggests that the defaults are less than 10%. That's not so bad I think.

But more importantly, can you share the details of how you did that practically? Did you do this yourself or as part of a larger organization who just took your money and paid you back later?

I think an important part is to figure out what is the best way to contribute. While it is good to let Tanzanians do as much as possible by themselves, they can't reach out to your friends. Only you can do that. When I tell my country mates about programmers in Africa, and I get a response like "They can do that?" with a big surprise impression on their face [1], I don't see how any African could do that by themselves. Bridges need to be built from both sides. If you remove yourself then you end up with half a bridge.

[1]: That was just one reaction I got when I told people about my work in Africa. Starkly contrasted by another reaction which was the opposite: "Oh cool, I am hiring devs in Ghana, they are awesome!". It's not all lost, but a lot of people simply still don't know. And that includes African-Americans.

I do believe however that it is possible to have an influence on what people experience. For one it is not even necessary to travel to remote villages. One can see the reality in the cities and just a few km out. I would introduce them to average people here, meet business owners and give them an insight to what is a typical life here.

This also should not be a short trip. A month minimum. And ideally not in a hotel but some form of homestay or maybe AirBnB where you have to cook for yourself. Go to the market, buy ingredients, realize what is available to the average person. Then maybe visit a village and find the difference. The idea is to get an experience of what is it like to live here, and not just be a tourist.

Any of these visitors can then multiply their impact just like you did. They can motivate their friends to sponsor students and act as ambassadors.