OUR MISSION
Empower Tanzania works in partnership with rural Tanzanians to improve their quality of life. We address the underlying issues that hinder resiliency in rural areas, such as health care, education, agriculture practices, markets for products, and increasing water supply and quality.
Finding answers to rural development challenges requires working together with communities to create a vision and a long-term commitment beyond the life of a project. Empower Tanzania pursues this approach through all we do.
Empower Tanzania works with many different groups and organizations on projects in Tanzania. We partner with rural communities and other organziations to measurably and sustainably improve the lives of Tanzanians.
CULTURE
We promote a culture of excellence, diversity, openness, integrity, and innovation within our board, staff, and partners.
SOLUTIONS
Our programs strive to provide sustainable, resilient, and innovative solutions for rural communities through a participatory and holistic approach.
EMPOWERMENT
We actively seek to build local capacity in Tanzania and empower rural Tanzanian communities, including previously disadvantaged groups.
RESOURCES
We manage our resources with fiscal responsibility and efficiency to ensure maximum impact on investment with a minimum of overheads. We keep our overhead at 15% (or less), allowing the vast majority of funds to be used on projects.
WE BELIEVE THAT EDUCATION CHANGES EVERYTHING.
Empower Tanzania’s mission is to work with Tanzanians to develop models that sustainably improve the quality of life and resilience of rural areas through education, health improvements, and economic empowerment.
Empower Tanzania was created in 2008 by a group of Iowans with a passion to help raise the standard of living of people in rural Tanzania. We had been working there for some time in a church-to-church partnership doing a variety of small projects. Since 2008, Empower Tanzania has grown by incorporating existing projects and adding new ones.
From our small beginning, we've grown to over two dozen projects serving thousands of people in the rural communities of the Same and Mwanga Districts in the northeastern part of the country.
In our more than ten years of working in Tanzania, we have come to believe that education changes everything. We have also come to believe that the local people know the problems they face, and in most cases, know the answers. That is why our most dominant governing principle is that we listen, listen again, and listen a third time before offering a suggestion.
By respecting the ability of Tanzanians to identify their problems and set priorities, Empower Tanzania lives up to its name—we are empowering Tanzanians.
Empower Tanzania’s constituency is the people of rural Tanzania, with much of our work focused on improving the lives of women. We believe that people support that which they help to create. Thus we collaborate with the local people where the projects will be implemented and with organizations that share our mission of education, such as the local government, churches, and other non-profits.
At Empower Tanzania, we believe that we can achieve the greatest results by focusing our energy and resources. We work in rural Tanzania and confine our activities to removing the barriers that prevent development in rural communities. Our work falls into the three general areas of Health Care, Education, and Economic Development. We partner with local authorities and organizations that share our mission and we develop our specific programs by listening to the Tanzanians who help identify needs, as well as the methods for meeting those needs.
