Africa School Assistance Project
Cause Area
- Advocacy & Human Rights
- Children & Youth
- Computers & Technology
- Education & Literacy
- International
Location
191 UNIVERSITY BLVD 285DENVER, CO 80206 United StatesOrganization Information
Mission Statement
The Africa School Assistance Project (ASAP) believes that educating children, particularly girls, is fundamental to a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable future for Africa. ASAP is increasing access to education for children in poor, remote areas of East Africa and is developing a Learning Improvement Initiative to enhance teaching quality and classroom learning. ASAP works in accordance with the UN Millennium Development Goals and our projects meet rigorous standards for sustainability and cultural appropriateness.
Additionally, ASAP leads groups of American volunteers to work on our school projects to create a cross-cultural understanding between Americans and Africans. We believe this will have long-lasting implications for the world.
Description
The Africa School Assistance Project (ASAP) is a Denver-based non-profit that works with villagers in rural Africa to help them build a better future for their children.
ASAP, formed in 2008, leverages the work and desires of rural Africans to build schools for their children while fostering among American volunteers an understanding of life in impoverished Africa.
Our first area of focus is a rural school district in Tanzania between mountains Meru and Kilimanjaro. Tanzania is a particularly good place to concentrate our efforts because the government is committed to increasing education in rural areas and will put teachers in villages where schools have been built.
The people in this district, who survive by subsistence farming, desperately want schools. Many villages have built simple, one-room structures but several are too small to accommodate all the children, are only half built, are in a terrible state of disrepair or simply need basic items like desks. That’s where we come in.
First, we require that a village has shown deep commitment to their school prior to our engagement--we view our job as helping those who have already begun the hard work of helping themselves. If there has been visible and measurable progress made by the villagers and they request our assistance, we then work with them to identify the needs of the school and to assess the commitment of the entire village to care for the school after our work is finished. Once a decision has been made to "adopt" a school, we then recruit volunteers and raise money to cover the costs of the project. Finally, we travel to the village for a week of hard work to help the locals finish their new school and to build memories that last a lifetime.
Those who travel to the village to work pay all of their own expenses. ASAP is a 501 c3 and all donations are tax deductible.