The Seeds of Africa Foundation helps talented Zimbabwean students find empowerment through primary and secondary education. In this interview, Martin Ganda, one of the founders of Seeds of Africa, talks about SOAF's goals and projects, including an exciting Knowledge Center currently in the works.
Interview by Annie Reading
Why did you decide to found the Seeds of Africa Foundation? How did it get started?
We grew up in abject poverty in Zimbabwe, but education changed our lives. Strangers we had never met believed in us by sponsoring us to go to school, and we want to do the same to children in Zimbabwe – we want to give them the passport to success and empowerment, which is Education!
Our goal through Seeds of Africa is transforming lives through education, empowering children that wouldn’t have got a chance to go to school due to family financial constraints. At Seeds of Africa, we believe that education is a powerful tool to eradicate poverty, in the long term, and we mobilize people globally to help us raise funds to invest in student’s education.
What services does Seeds of Africa provide for children in Zimbabwe?
We provide school fees, mentorship and money to buy books to the students.
How has Seeds of Africa affected the community as a whole? In what ways does it hope to extend its influence in the next few years?
We have transformed many lives through the support we provide to the students. We are very happy that our friends, fans and supporters have helped us change the future of the students we support for the better. We hope these students, which are our seeds of Africa, will grow and blossom into great citizens and we hope they will also help others and hence build a better community.
We are working on the Seeds of Africa Knowledge center and we hope that once that project is complete, we will be able to leverage technology to help bridge the education gap between the developing world and the developed countries.
Are there any projects currently in the works that you’d like to tell people about?
We are working on the Seeds of Africa Knowledge Center, which is a solar powered Computer Library that will be introducing modern technology as a mean of education to students in Mutare, Zimbabwe. The Knowledge Center is a great facility to connect to the world, communities in Mutare that do not have access to computers or internet. Students, from elementary level, will learn how to use computers, appreciate the power of technology in education and our main goal of the project is to empower the community through technology. We are very excited and thankful for the support we are getting for the project.
We are running a campaign to raise more funds for the project. The campaign is called “Buy A Brick for $1” and we are asking every person out there to make a difference by buying ONE brick for ONE dollar towards building the Seeds of Africa Knowledge Center. Our lives were changed, not because Bill Gates or some other billionaire sponsored our education, but it was regular people like you or your neighbors, that committed a few dollars towards supporting our education by paying our school fees. It is the same concept that we are leveraging through the “Buy A Brick for $1” campaign.
If everyone can donate a dollar towards the center, we can have a HUGE impact in transforming lives in Africa through education. Just a dollar, that is all it takes. To participate, you can go to our website www.seedsofafricafoundation.org and buy 1 brick or more and tell your friends to do the same and together we can change the world, $1 at a time and 1 brick at a time!
Do you have any inspiring student stories you'd like to share?
We have many touching stories of the students we support. You can see these at our website. You can also read about the founders’ bios on the site to see how we got to where we are, through generosity of our friends!
For more information about Seeds of Africa, click here.
19 SEP 2011