Professor leads students to work in Tanzania

A team of 11 students and professors led by Marilyn Kaff, associate professor of special education, is raising funds to travel to Lushoto, Tanzania, from July 24 to Aug. 8. Their mission is to work with children with autism, develop a sustainable community garden and implement a family literacy program.

Kaff's vision for the project was sparked in 2007, when she attended an International Association of Special Education conference in Hong Kong.

"One of their missions was to create a group of sites across the world where special education professors could go and volunteer their time, something similar to Doctors or Teachers Without Borders," Kaff said.

In response, Kaff began investing time training teachers to work with children with special needs, particularly autism, at the Sebastian Kolowa University College and the surrounding community. This is the fifth trip Kaff has led to Tanzania, a country located on the east coast of Africa.

This team will lead workshops to equip parents and teachers who work and live with children with autism. Team members will also conduct screenings in the community to identify children with special needs.

Kaff said she hopes the trip will benefit not only the community of Lushoto, but also the students traveling with her.

"I want them to open up their worldview and realize that in a small way, they can make a big difference," Kaff said.

Some of the students will focus on developing a sustainable garden for the older students at the Mabughai School. The idea is to give the children a project to invest time in when school is not in session and to teach them practical gardening.

The group will also implement a family literacy project called Books-in-a-Bag. By collecting stories, songs and poems from the community in order to develop books for distribution, Kaff said she hopes local kids will be able to see themselves in the literature.

"We also hope to have as part of this process the inaugural Lushoto story-telling festival, in which we would recruit people to come and tell their stories," Kaff said.

The stories will be recorded and then transcribed into English and Kiswahili, the official language of Tanzania. The stories will contain illustrations by a local artist and will be printed by a local publishing company and circulated in cloth bags made by local women.

"Everything would be locally produced," Kaff said. "The idea is to provide sustainability for community and help us get the books into the hands of the kiddos."

Brighid O'Toole, senior in elementary education, said she hopes to work with autistic children in the U.S. after she graduates and said she sees this trip as a rare opportunity to put her skills to use in an environment with huge needs.

"Not only do I get to work with the students that I have a huge desire and passion to work with, but it's over in Africa," O'Toole said. "It's the best of both worlds for me. I love traveling and I love students who have autism."

Nicole Maupin, special education teacher at Lee Elementary School, traveled to Tanzania with Kaff on her last two trips.

Maupin said that the way Kaff has continued to return with groups has helped the Tanzanian people believe that these Americans sincerely want to help them.

"The neatest thing for me was to see that autism in Tanzania is exactly the same as autism in the United States," Maupin said. "It's half a world away and it was just heart-wrenching to see that these teachers and families were dealing with the same quirks of autism."

Taylor Phillippi, sophomore in pre-occupational therapy, has committed two months of his summer to work with children with special needs in Lushoto, arriving by himself on June 1 and then departing with the group on Aug. 8.

Phillippi said he hopes to develop relationships with the Tanzanian people and to prepare for the community projects before the team arrives.

"God's given me the ability and the patience to work with kids that have the capability to do the things that we do, but need to be taught it at a slower rate," Phillippi said. "I think that we give up on people really easily, and we give up on people who don't exactly fit the mold that we think people need to fill."

Each member of the team needs to raise $4,500 to pay for plane tickets and lodging. The trip is completely on a volunteer basis and is not funded by K-State.

"Everybody has the ability to help and be a part of these things," Phillipi said. "The people that are fundraising for me and getting me over there are playing just as much of a role as I am in helping these kids. If I couldn't get there, I couldn't help them either."

The group held a fundraiser at Orange Leaf in January and they hope to host an event at Radina's Coffeehouse and Roastery in Aggieville and other local businesses in the coming weeks. All donations go directly to the students.

On March 1, a video communicating the team's vision for this summer will go live on indiegogo.com, a site dedicated to fundraising campaigns for nonprofits. People who donate to help send students to Tanzania can receive colorful, paper bead jewelry made by people with disabilities in Tanzania or a "Humanity Looks Good on Everyone" T-shirt.

To stay up-to-date on the progress of the campaign and donation information, visit the group's Facebook page, entitled "Humanity Looks Good on Everyone."