Tanzanian Schoolkids Tweet Their Thanks For Global Donations

This week, in the Moivaro village of Arusha, Tanzania, in the shadow of Mt. Meru, a group of schoolkids discovered Twitter. A year ago, Shepherds Junior School hadn't even been built yet and students who didn't even have access to a library couldn't have imagined that they would be able to communicate with the whole world through donations from social media.

That's where a U.S. nonprofit called Epic Change came in. They saw the Thanksgiving holiday as an opportunity to encourage thankful Twitter users to give back.

Epic Change launched the original TweetsGiving celebration in November 2008 as a 48-hour celebration of gratitude and giving that successfully raised over $10,000 to build a classroom in Arusha, Tanzania. Imagined and built entirely by volunteers in six days, TweetsGiving was launched 2 days before the US Thanksgiving holiday, and quickly became the #1 trending topic on Twitter as thousands of grateful tweets from across the globe filled the stream, and hundreds of blogs...Epic Change invested the funds to build a classroom at a school founded by Tanzanian Epic Change fellow "Mama Lucy" Kamptoni, a woman who used to sell chickens and used her income to build a school that now serves over 300 children near her home in Arusha. In this classroom built from gratitude, the Twitter handles of donors are now painted on the walls.

Now that the Internet is up and running, the students at Shepherds Junior School are raring to talk to the world. Epic Change has dubbed them "The Twitterkids of Tanzania" and has made it easy to catch up with the students, via Twitter, of course.

Users can send a tweet directly to any of the children listed on the #Twitterkids blog. For an overview of what the kids are doing, you can follow the #twitterkids meme or the school's @ShepherdsJr account.

We've got to admit, conversing with the kids, who are currently sharing their hobbies and dreams in @replies, is a lot more fun than reading about how bored our friends are at work.
So is this utterly adorable video of thanks (the fact that it's serving double duty as an ad doesn't even kill its cuteness):

Epic Change plans to expand their plans even more this year, by including live events around the world and reaching out to social media users on more online networks. They're also heading back to Tanzania:

With a recent grant from IdeaBlob that was also won through successful social media efforts in Tanzania and across the globe, Epic Change will be partnering with Kamptoni in Tanzania to implement a technology lab at the primary school where last year's TweetsGiving classroom was built.

This year's Tweetsgiving is scheduled for Nov. 24-26. It's easy to become a part of their global event, by checking out their Join Us page. They also have a giving page that year-round donations.

Comments

[Dave Kerpen]

01:54 AM on 10/25/2009

Thanks for covering this Victoria. I've been involved with Epic Change and Tweetsgivi­ng for nearly a year now, and attest to the incredible soul and deep caring of Stacey and the rest of those involved with the organizati­on.
It is nothing short of inspiratio­nal, and I am very thankful to be a part of it. I hope others will see this article and join us for this year's Tweetsgivi­ng!

[Liz Gorgue Rosas]

07:23 PM on 10/24/2009

I had the pleasure of working with both Stacey & Sanjay at the County of Santa Clara, and of reconnecti­ng with them years later on TweetsGivi­ng & TweetLuck, both as a participan­t last year, and more fully now, when Stacey recruited me to project manage the web component of this year's project. This project is work our team of volunteers (http://twe­etsgiving.­epicchange­.org/team/) does in our spare moments throughout the day, in the evenings, at dark o'clock in the morning, and on weekends. It often pushes me to my limits in terms of its demands on my time, impacts on brain function and spillage into other areas of my life... but I can honestly, it is the work I am most grateful to do and look forward to most, daily. To see how powerfully what we as individual­s can contribute and collective­ly impact to help this specific community, these specific children..­. it simply leaves me speechless­, in awe, of how *big* this small team effort is. Can you imagine, 100 more of such projects? *Do* you? You too can do something selfless..­. Enduring..­. Epic.

[GirlOutWest]

07:03 PM on 10/24/2009

Are those kids the cutest or what? Wonderful programs and it's so important for us all to be involved in projects here and around the world. Teaching kids at an early age about volunteeri­sm is SO important. It can become second nature to volunteer if you always done it and especially when you get to see the results. Contrary to the opinion of "some" people in infonews, volunteeri­ng isn't Maoist, Communist, or Marxist it just Humanist.
"ImissBush­" sorry to disappoint but most "Libs" are Humanist but they enjoy a good argument and thank goodness most people on this site are in agreement that this is all good.

[Danny Brown]

05:32 PM on 10/24/2009

I became aware of the Epic Change crew last year through the first Tweetsgivi­ng, and it helped me decide upon using Twitter as a key part of my 12for12k project. Stacey, Sanjay, Avi and everyone involved with this year's Tweetsgivi­ng (and, on a smaller scale, Epic Change) are making a difference that is truly inspiring.

If there were more Epic Changers in the world, we'd actually be proud to call ourselves a "human race"...

[Glenn Strachan]

05:22 PM on 10/24/2009

This activity is the brain child of Stacey Monk and I not only know where Tanzania is, I have been there and her effort to help these kids is very admirable.

[despike]

03:57 PM on 10/24/2009

Only 4 comments on this story? What a shame.

[despike]

04:16 PM on 10/24/2009

If this story is about the mountain Gorilla, the reactions would have been different. People would have paid attention.

[ImissBush]

06:24 PM on 10/24/2009

amazing isnt it??

all the so called libs

2 busy bashin others

[Ashlee Monk]

03:28 PM on 10/24/2009

I think you guys bring up a good point about many Americans, kids and adults, being unable to identify Tanzania on a map. I think that it is difficult for people to care about things, people, place that they don't relate to, things that don't have any relevance to them.

I also thing that projects like this are gigantic steps toward creating relevance and instilling connection­. Brilliant!

[amazinggrace]

01:46 PM on 10/24/2009

Oh, so true about finding Tanzania on a map but it is not just school kids. We are headed there in less than a month. and when I told a friend (age 55), she asked where in the heck was Tanzania. I thought at first that she was kidding.

I am excited about going there and thrilled to know about this school. We will be visiting three schools during our safari and hopefully, this is one of them.

[voltage356]

12:11 PM on 10/24/2009

I'm sure Bill Clinton would be sending over his check real soon.

[Tunghoy]

11:44 AM on 10/24/2009

Now if American school kids could only find Tanzania on a map, it would be so much better.

Oh heck, forget about school kids. How about adults?

[ImissBush]

07:51 AM on 10/25/2009

im sure u can locate every country 2