Giving Back

When we lead student trips to Zanzibar we routinely visit primary schools on the island of Pemba. It is always an inspiring but also a humbling experience for our college students, because they meet much younger students who dream of being doctors or teachers or engineers while also facing innumerable challenges.  For example, the young Pemban students really enjoy studying computer science but the school doesn't have any computers.  On last year's trip a group of amazing Champlain College students (who we'll be talking about in more detail in a later post) decided that they wanted to do something to give back to the folks on Pemba who have been so kind to us.  After they returned to Vermont the students formed a group called TechDren (Technology for Children) and they have spent the last year collecting laptops and raising funds to bring computers to Pemba.  Next month we'll be bringing over our first shipment of thirty refurbished laptops and solar panels for elementary school students.  We're so proud of our students (and we would be even if they weren't our students, naturally) so HLA is setting aside a portion of every person's fee for every educational tour, starting with this summer's educational tour of Zanzibar, to support TechDren's efforts.