Thank you to all those who have donated to this cause so far. See all Telescope to Tanzania project needs.
Help expand programs like this by donating to Astronomers Without Borders general program fund.
There is an URGENT, emergency need for support for the Astronomers Without Borders (AWB) program Telescopes to Tanzania. In conjunction with the Galileo Teacher Training Program, which has trained 15,000 teachers worldwide to teach astronomy and other sciences since 2009, Telescopes to Tanzania is holding workshops in Arusha, Tanzania for 80 teachers from around the country, and providing resources that cannot otherwise be obtained in their country.
Bus fare of just $25 US per teacher is urgently needed for 40 teachers hoping to attend from outside the Arusha area. The bus fare was to be paid by their schools. But drought and the resulting famine have so badly damaged the country’s economy that schools can no longer afford it. Funding for living expenses in Arusha and most of the needed resources have already been raised. Lacking transportation to Arusha could mean the loss of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for specialized training in teaching science.
In fact, most teachers have been working for the past three months WITHOUT PAY. The schools will eventually have to close until the economy recovers. This $25 represents three weeks salary for a teacher in but in this desperately poor country – when they are being paid at all.
Education is a cultural imperative in Tanzania. Teachers continue to work even without pay because of their passion to educate the future leaders of their country. Families recognize education as the way out of poverty for their whole society. Classrooms with dirt floors, bare walls, and windows without glass do not discourage them.
Support is needed as soon as possible. Several members of the Telescopes to Tanzania are already in-country, and the workshops will be held from November 19 to 30 – for as many teachers as can attend. Additional funding for educational resources and telescopes that teachers to return with the teachers to their local schools is still needed.
Please take this opportunity to have an outsized impact on the abilities of these teachers and their schools – and all the students whose lives they will touch – in a country working to raise itself out of a desperate situation.
In developed countries drought means increased food prices. In developing countries it means death, despair, and hopelessness.
Who will create the scientists, engineers, and other experts who will give future generations in Tanzania the chance to live and develop? Who will provide hope for the future to the youth of today? The cost is small in countries like Tanzania but the impact is huge.
Learn more about Telescopes to Tanzania, its history, and all its needs for the 2012 session.
Astronomers Without Borders is an IRS 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization based in California.
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