Two Whittier College students returned from a sponsored trip to Tanzania with much greater insights and experience in how to make a real, community-driven difference.
Piper Lowinger ’20 and Harrison Fuller ’21 were the recipients of the Brethren Community Foundation (BCF) Fellowship—a partnership between BCF, Global Partners for Development (GPD), and Whittier. Lowinger majors in Global Cooperation Strategies, which she designed herself through the Whittier Scholars Program, and minors in French. Fuller is working toward a double major in applied philosophy and political science, with a concentration in international relations. The fellowship is designed as an elite opportunity for participants to team with Global Partners, a non-profit that works with East African communities to find sustainable solutions to critical needs such as health care, education, and access to clean water.
After some professional training stateside, the students flew to Tanzania, a country of 55 million and the home of famed Mount Kilimanjaro. When Fuller and Lowinger stepped off the plane, the air was tinged the unmistakable scent of smoke. From their first breath, they began to understand in a real way that they were entering a world removed from the one they knew.
“Families in the area were preparing their dinners over wood fires, not over gas or electric stoves,” Lowinger said. “I realized in that first breath that the journey before me would be a state of constant questioning and comparing life between the United States and Tanzania.”
As they traveled through the rural areas of the country, they passed crammed market stalls and women walking with firewood and bananas bunches balanced on their heads. Children chased toy rolling discs around their villages, comprised of humble homes and schools. From village to village, Lowinger and Fuller were greeted with generous offers of refreshments, or dinner and a place to stay.
“People were kind and curious, and smiles were never in short supply,” Lowinger said.
It wasn’t long, though, before they experienced first-hand the differences in the standards of living. Water often had to be boiled before taking a shower. Generators were sometimes needed to have electricity at night. Village schools were overcrowded. But they also saw improvements, such as many successful solar energy projects to provide families, schools, and businesses with the extra power they need, Fuller said. Development was in motion, and he and Lowinger had come to get involved in other ways for communities to be empowered to continue to help themselves.
Every morning, the students set out along rural roads to visit the development sites established by Global Partners, in villages like Arusha, Bangata, and Singida. There, they introduced themselves in beginner-level Swahili and toured the village, learning more about their water distribution, how far along school construction had come, and ways that women could earn money, such as through tailoring and contributing to schools. These surveys help the Brethren Community Foundation and Global Partners evaluate the sustainability of their projects and determine how best to distribute aid in the future.
“It is my hope to continue to broaden my background on issues such as these, so that I may become an agent of positive change in the international community,” Fuller said. He had applied for the fellowship because of his keen interest in humanitarian assistance. He wants to encourage and nurture those who may not have a platform to voice their needs. “My goal is to provide the education, healthcare, and other sustainable development necessary for communities across the globe to become self-sufficient, productive, and most of all, violence-free.”
Lowinger had come to Tanzania wanting to further develop her professional and interpersonal skills, so that she can better serve impoverished communities. She got that, and more. By listening, she realized that community development must, at its core, involve the community in every stage of the process.
“The fellowship became more than a research project on sustainable community development, and for that I am incredibly grateful,” she said. “I am proud to share that the formative learning I experienced through the Brethren Community Foundation Fellowship introduced me to a new process of humanitarian assistance that prioritizes communication and community ownership. It is because of the Brethren Community Foundation Fellowship that I have come to understand that aid is more than simply making a donation, it is a personal investment of one’s self.”
Tanzania wasn’t Lowinger and Fuller’s last stop around the world. With the fellowship concluded, both are studying abroad this semester: Lowinger in France, Fuller in England. Every student has an opportunity to take their academics around the world through the Global Poet Scholarship: $2,000 available to all students who go abroad through Whittier College’s Office of International Programs.
