Fiona is another friend of Tanzania School Trust, and also a former volunteer at Hill Crest, the school we support locally in Arusha, Tanzania.
Fiona was born and raised in Taiwan, but she has now been living in the USA for 10 years. Like many of Tanzania School Trust’s friends, Fiona works as a GKAM (Global Key Account Manager) in the consumer electronics industry. Unlike many professionals, she is taking on the challenge to pursue her MBA degree at UC Berkeley, which gives her quite a busy schedule!
The former volunteer has always felt passionate about helping others, achieving her first volunteering experience in the Philippines when studying in college. This had a huge impact on her, motivating her to do more, to be more conscious of how much she can do to help others! Unfortunately, life takes over and left a small space for her passion. In 2019, she decided it was time to do something meaningful. A few Google searches later, she ended up in Tanzania in Hill Crest, volunteering at the same time as Tiphaine Nilias, the now founder of Tanzania School Trust.
Volunteering in East Africa as a holiday isn’t for everyone, and it can also be complicated. Fiona explains: “I was preparing for grad school applications and standardized tests while having a busy full-time job. I told Tiphaine once that I could have picked a nice resort by the beach to spend some vacation days instead of volunteering. However, I knew I needed something completely different at that time to make myself more fulfilled. Traveling to Africa was always on my to do list, but to volunteer was a completely different thing.” It’s not just the trip to Africa that could discourage one to sign up, but also the amount of preparation needed! Fiona had to schedule appointments to get preventive medication and vaccines (e.g. pre-treatment against malaria, Hepatite B vaccines, etc.). These things need to happen during working hours and in the end Fiona had to take a lot of her holidays already before she even flew to Tanzania! She also mentions that even picking what type of volunteering took her a long time to consider, but she’s now glad she picked teaching/day care and met some incredible people and children during her time there.
We asked Fiona what she liked the most about her time at Hill Crest and her first thoughts go for how welcoming the environment was and how open-minded Elizabeth, founder of Hill Crest, was: “Not only by helping kids with their school work or play time, but also discussing the meal design, culture impact (I did a service at church in Arusha!). I even went to a market with Elizabeth to custom made a new cooking pot to help improve the kitchen equipment.” Fiona is right in saying that the scope of volunteering is so much more than just “childcare program”!
We tend to read and hear about stories of former volunteers, but we don’t often know about the connections the volunteers make with the children at the school. Fiona built a connection with a 3 years old called Talib, she called him “Talibu” and she still loves seeing pictures and videos of him now. Talib was the first child she met, and even if he was a little shy he always had a big smile on his face when seeing her! “He was gentle when he approached me, whether it was him asking for help to tie his shoelaces or wanted to play. He’d always patiently wait until it was his turn to have his food and stayed focused and quiet while having his meal. I appreciated some of the traits that he has when he was at such a young age.”
Fiona is now a big supporter of Tanzania School Trust, always with the school on her mind. As an example, Fiona used her last birthday as an occasion to fundraise via Facebook for the charity and help collect $170! “I felt lucky that I met the founder, Tiphaine, and got to spend the whole time we were there at Hill Crest. The school location wasn’t that convenient to get to, so we had to walk for almost an hour every day. That was one of the highlights of my trip too. Consider in the modern world, we’re all rushing to get on a train/subway or drive and get stuck in traffic. It was rarely a time I walked to work and talked to people about anything. Even though we came from very different backgrounds, we both wanted to give more and help Hill Crest to be better. It was great to see how much she has achieved, and I wanted to help whenever I can to help support the great work. To me it’s different than donating to any charity organization. It was a place I know the people and knowing that the money will be put into meaningful work.”
