Ever year Sauti Moja Tanzania hosts a number of volunteer student researchers from University College Utrecht in the Netherlands. They spend several months addressing and researching important concepts within the projects and community to help the organization better understand the situations they face. Here are excerpts of some of the students’ time with SM-TZ and if you are interested you can read up on what their research brought to light!

Anne van Marwijk, The Netherlands

“Hey, my name is Anne and I am a student from the Netherlands. Together with Miriam, another Dutch student, I spent a few months working with Sauti Moja in 2012. Miriam and I worked on the Child Mother program and conducted research on the causes and consequences of teen pregnancy in the area to help this program with catering for the needs of the girls involved. Additionally, we carried out focus group discussions with students to raise awareness about the issue. The conversations with Maasai girls who had become pregnant at an early age were impressive, as they showed the immense strength of these girls, as well incredibly heartbreaking at times. It made Miriam and I decide to sponsor a girl through Sauti Moja as, luckily, they are there to help some of these girls. The SM team is great and is obviously very dedicated to improving conditions for their community. I really appreciated being able to spend time with them. I really enjoyed my stay, made many new friends and certainly learned a lot! Thank you SM Tz!”

If you would like to read Anne and Miriam’s research report click here!

Bram Dijkstra, The Netherlands

“In 2011 I interned with Sauti Moja for six months. During my stay I did research on the knowledge and awareness of HIV/AIDS and sexual behaviour among school-going youth in Engarenaibor. Looking back I can safely say that my internship and stay in Longido have been invaluable experiences. It allowed me at a relatively early stage in my academic and professional development to apply a number of key research skills in the field, and to gain the hands-on experience of working locally with an NGO at the ‘grassroots’. But perhaps it’s the more mundane, everyday moments—working closely together with our research assistants, going on field visits with the staff, the occasional mandazi and chai sessions at special or not-so-special events—that remain most memorable, and make me value and appreciate at a personal level the experience of being exposed to a radically different cultural environment like Longido”.

To read Bram and his colleagues’ research report click here!