Why Paying it Forward Starts with Education: Stories from Asante Africa
What’s special about a group of young, Ugandan female students cultivating banana plants in order to provide sanitary pads for their peers?
What’s unique about a nursing student who, in addition to her academic pursuits, spends time as a peer counselor to support fellow students in balancing their mental health?
The answer involves an ethos that’s tied to the age-old practice of education: learning something new is good, but teaching others what you’ve learned is exponentially more powerful.
April 28th is Global Pay It Forward Day: a day to not only celebrate the small kindnesses we receive, but to amplify them by passing them along to someone else.
Two different stories…but the same passion for learning
There are so many hurdles facing the children of rural East Africa, particularly for young girls. A lack of basic resources and nourishment often leads to children having to assume adult responsibilities before their time. It’s a cycle that leaves potential future leaders woefully undereducated and unprepared for a 21st century workforce.
But the seed of education is a mighty one. Once it gets planted, its roots grow deep and its branches wide.
That was the case for a handful of Ugandan school girls at Kyabakulungo Primary. They knew firsthand how a lack of hygiene education and sanitary pads could derail a girl’s school attendance and self esteem.
But after picking up lessons on health, hygiene, and leadership – and sensing how that knowledge can alter one’s future – the girls became adamant about spreading the word to help other girls in their school.
They set their plan in motion by:
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- Launching a project to generate income to provide sanitary pads for their peers.
- Purchasing suckers of bananas to plant in order to fund their initiative.
- Forming a club and working together as a team.
The result of the knowledge they received was the catalyst for their empowerment. Now that knowledge will create confidence within them and be amplified by altering the outcomes for their fellow students (and community members) as well.
Quite a different motivation was born out of trauma. When her mom fell ill during a nationwide doctors and nurses strike, Sharon found her calling, she wanted to be the person ‘to step in and help when no one else could’.
By gaining the immense knowledge, leadership and experience that accompanies a journey toward becoming a nurse, Sharon knew that the ability to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects in school for other young girls would be paramount for them and their communities.
As mentioned earlier, she’s now a peer counselor and is actively calling on communities to support girls (and programs) in STEM by providing resources and motivation.
How to Pay It Forward this spring
If you’re wondering about a good way to “pay it forward”, the answer is any way you can.
Whether that’s making someone’s day by offering them a smile as you pass by, or contributing a small amount of what you’ve got to an organization working to empower young people in Africa. What matters is making the effort so someone’s life is positively impacted. When we do that collectively, we actively make the world a better place.
In part, the young women highlighted earlier were empowered to achieve their goals by Asante Africa’s Wezesha Vijana and Foundation scholarship programs, respectively.
The idea of paying it forward resonates very deeply with us as it’s an important part of our philosophy of enabling young people to pass on the essential life skills they’ve learned.
Here are a few Pay it Forward Quotes to inspire you and others!
- A life lived for others is the only life worth living -Albert Einstein
- “It is important that we learn humility, which says there was someone else before me who paid for me. My responsibility is to prepare myself so that I can pay for someone else who is yet to come.” – Maya Angelou
- “Service to others is the rent to pay for your room here on earth.” – Muhammad Ali
Our work of providing educational opportunities to vulnerable youth in East Africa is possible by partnering with the schools and communities in those regions. Our strategic goal (by the end of 2025) is for our programs to empower a total of 1.6 Million young people in rural East Africa with the skills and knowledge necessary to become effective leaders in their communities.
In order to do this we rely on global partners and donors to fund this effort.
Join others who are paying it forward by supporting our efforts. Together we can amplify our impact and help underserved youth gain access to the educational resources they need to succeed in the classroom and beyond.
WRITTEN BY: Christopher Bass