Strong Women Bridging Continents – by Makayla Simmer.
The most significant work I have done on my project this week is talking with Maggie Duncan Simbeye. She is a stakeholder of mine who is located in Tanzania. Maggie holds many different roles all of which she does VERY amazingly! She is the founder and director of Dare Women’s Foundation, an NGO working to empower and support women in alleviating poverty, economic empowerment, gender equality, and social justice issues. Maggie is also a guide for Dorobo Safari Company who Lewis & Clark works with. In this position she is our on site coordinator and supports the cross cultural engagement on the abroad program. WOW all of these things don’t even equal how amazing she is!
In our talk I asked her what it meant to her to have these study abroad programs come to Tanzania, she talked about the importance of sharing and engaging cultures. This is a beneficial action for both sides, she talks about the experiences local tribes have interacting with students and how it is some of their only interaction with American culture giving them a great opportunity. She also talked about the experience abroad students have when engaging with another culture and how it is an opportunity to reflect on our privilege and learn from a different culture. She shares with me her main four pillars of life, love, gratitude, abundance, and compassion. These are things that she brings into her work and as she facilitates these cross cultural engagements.
In answering the question of what she sees our students bringing out of a study abroad, while still answering what it means to have study abroad programs come to Tanzania Maggie talked about the perspective students gain and how when they go back to the US they are ambassadors. This is an oppertunity for students to “learn the reality of Africa” and then go back and share this. It challenges everything we learn in books, because books are not written by the people of Africa. By knowing the truth you are able to help. She describes how when most people think of Africa they think of the whole continent and this distances them, giving them the ability to do whatever they want to Africa. When people want to help they throw money at Africa, but this doesn’t help, the money funnels into the government and just a couple of people. She emphasizes “before you support a foreign place know what they need, because they know what they need, don’t just tell us about what to do.” Engaging with the culture and learning from them, students abroad learn about where and why to support.
The study abroad program brings money to local communities, and except for going to a few National Parks, all of the money goes back to the people, students also become aware of products local communities are making, such as soap, and can help the local communities by buying this soap.
Maggie through all of what she said expressed a very powerful message, that what we are doing is not for ourselves it is for the world; “you are privilege for the world, you are not going to school for you, you are going to school for the world” and “don’t do this for yourself only, this is for the world. It is not easy, but it is amazing if you know what you are doing.” She is saying here that all the work we are doing has larger implications and has a greater effect then just on us, but we are learning in order to support global dynamics.
This is a powerful message to hear and will be an even more powerful message to experience. Through my engagement in this project I am becoming aware and learning so many things, lessons that come from studying abroad. I am able to hear these things and understand them and I want to incorporate them into my life, but the effect of experiencing and living them while abroad I have a feeling will be even more influential in my implementation of them into my life.
Blog by:
Makayla Simmer