Emily Cowen

International Experience Country:
Tanzania
Cohort Year:
2010
Home Institution:

Duquesne University

Heinz Programming Area:
Children, Youth, and Families
International Experience Summary:

Emily Cowan had the opportunity to study and volunteer abroad this summer in rural Karagwe District, Tanzania with the organization Amizade Global Service Learning. While in Karagwe she spent her days working with 2 different nongovernmental organizations, on three different projects that addressed the needs of the community. First, she worked with a women’s rights organization called WOMEDA, where she conducted interviews with local women and learned about their hardships with issues such as land ownership rights, polygamy, and AIDS. The information learned was collected in order to construct a blog post for the WOMEDA’s website to raise awareness around the world regarding women’s rights in Africa. The second project she spent time working on was a tree farm with the organization called MUVANO. On the farm, she spent time working with local men clearing land, building fences and planting countless trees such as avocado, eucalyptus, and mango which will be given away to local farmers. Emily’s favorite and final project that she participated in was teaching English to 10 and 11 year old children in an afterschool program. She had so much fun teaching the classroom of 15 children how to count to 20 in English and even sing the hokie pokie! After spending 3 weeks in the Karagwe District, she traveled around Tanzania for a week going on a Safari and spending some time relaxing on the beaches of Zanzibar. Emily fell in love with Africa so much that she extended her trip for an extra 2 weeks and independently explored the countries of Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.  

Community Engagement Experience Summary:

CEE Title: Bridges to Africa