AfricAid is a nonprofit organization that supports girls’ education in Africa in order to provide young women with the opportunity to transform their own lives and the futures of their communities. AfricAid was founded by Ashley Shuyler in 2001 while she was a student at Colorado Academy.
Mission and Work
In support of its mission, AfricAid provides funding for scholarships, school supplies, school building projects, school lunch programs, vocational training and teacher training, and works in conjunction with the local initiatives of Tanzanians and other African leaders committed to education.
Headquartered in Golden, Colorado, USA, AfricAid was formally granted its 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in 2001, and has since received rapidly-increasing support and publicity for its work in promoting awareness of the educational needs of girls in Africa. Through unique and creative fundraising efforts, including a climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2003, the work of AfricAid Clubs throughout the country, along with its unique AfricAid Kids’ Team concept, AfricAid has raised over $500,000 since 2001. These funds have been used to provide scholarships, textbooks, classrooms and school supplies to schools throughout Tanzania, and to support other educational initiatives, including vocational training assistance and funding of teacher training.
AfricAid currently supports eight schools in northern Tanzania and has funded hundreds of scholarships for girls’ secondary education there. Most recently, AfricAid has expanded its efforts by helping to provide funds and volunteer help for the construction of school classrooms at several locations in Tanzania, providing funding for vocational schooling, and sponsoring teacher training initiatives designed to bring more participatory learning methods to the classroom. In addition, AfricAid has provided support for the funding of a primary school water pipe project in Tanzania, school supplies for a school in Ethiopia and funding for two community school projects in Zambia.
AfricAid also believes that we in the US have an increasing responsibility to help build a culture of service learning and service activities among the youth of America. As a result, AfricAid promotes the work of the AfricAid Kids’ Team and the AfricAid Clubs that have been formed in schools throughout the country, in such diverse locations as Utah, Georgia, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Colorado. Most recently AfricAid has helped develop the “Changemakers” Service Learning Curriculum project, a curriculum for elementary school teachers in the United States that can be used to help teach young children the value and satisfaction that comes from developing life-long habits of serving, giving and caring. All of these efforts are dedicated to the truth that one person or one child can make a difference in this world.