Welcome to EdPowerment
While visitors challenge themselves on Mt. Kilimanjaro, many who live under its gaze face a very different kind of climb every day. Individuals born into poverty beneath the majestic mountain struggle to access education that can take them from meager subsistence to economic security - the ability to cover essential needs of food, shelter, hygiene, clothing and health care.
Mission
Anchored in Moshi, Tanzania, EdPowerment provides transformative educational support and programs that help otherwise discarded individuals to advance in the educational system, workplace and society in order to achieve secure, fulfilling lives.
Why EdPowerment
EdPowerment is a powerful way for those who know first-hand the impact of education to share these benefits with the least fortunate. Our U.S. Board has worked on the ground in Tanzania for over a decade through multiple visits each year and extended stays. The resulting insight produces uncommon results: young people, otherwise unable to conceive of a future, are becoming professionals and skilled workers, while some of the poorest community members have changed their prospects through our interventions.
Our Work Today
HIGHER-EDUCATION SPONSORSHIPS: EdPowerment continues hands-on oversight of higher-education sponsorships (currently 11) to college and university programs intended to give each student the best chance at a self-supporting life. To boost each participant's opportunities, we supplement academics with skills coaching that includes computer and internet training, job-search and interview strategies, CV writing, job applications and other essentials. Learn more.
EDPOWERMENT BUSINESS INCUBATION CENTER/WINGS FOR CONFIDENT WOMEN
In 2023 feedback from the Skills Seminars and Boys and Girls Club at the minimally-resourced Dahani Secondary School inspired EdPowerment to undertake two new related projects aimed at enabling young adults achieve better lives within their own communities.
First we launched Wings For Confident Women through the Dahani Girls Club to educate female students on menstrual health and facilitate the use of reusable sanitary pads. This program is critical to promoting both school attendance/performance and social participation of young women in isolated, poor communities such as Siha.
This year – 2024 – we incorporated WCW into the EdPowerment Business Incubation Center, also in the Siha District. This Center now houses the WCW production of reusable feminine pads and two other practical income-generating enterprises: carpentry and snack production. Apprentices in each of these programs learn their trade, basic business strategies and better English in order to establish their own local ventures upon completion of their program. Learn more
MALNUTRITION PREVENTION PROGRAM: EdPowerment has formalized its food relief intervention begun in 2022. Coordinating with local educational and social service authorities, we now feed students and families where extreme hunger exists in the villages we serve . Learn more.
WOMEN'S SMALL BUSINESS INITIATIVE: In the SIHA district outside of Moshi, we mentor and provide seed money for the UWAMA women's group, as they develop a business of liquid and bar soap. Fighting cultural limitations, these brave women have come together to find a way to provide income that will enable a more stable life for their children. In 2024 we continue to assist them expand to more markets with better strategies and processes. Learn more.
Impact
A personalized, holistic approach, coupled with deliberate financial management, underpin our work. We strive to build relationships, networks and culturally-aware processes that can best yield successful outcomes. Since 2010 EdPowerment has partnered with local organizations, non-profits and secondary schools to enable the life-changing benefits of education:
Higher-Education Sponsorships (Ongoing)
We have provided roughly 80 higher education sponsorships that have transformed neglected teenagers into independent adults. 35 of these students have now completed college or university studies. Today, 11 continue to reach for independent, productive lives in colleges and universities. See Impact Data
Completed Programs
Kilimahewa Educational Center (KIWOCE Open School): From 2010 - 2021, we funded this learning oasis that provided low-cost, high quality secondary equivalency programs, skills courses, and other motivational experiences and resources for hundreds of underserved students. See Support and Impact Data
Connects Autism Tanzania: Our guidance and support of from 2010 – 2020 opened doors for societal acceptance and educational inclusion of those with autism and other cognitive disabilities. See Support and Impact Data
Endorsements & Funding
The programs EdPowerment supports have received key support from the following:
