PBH's Project Tanganyika has successfully raised the $33,000 necessary to finance its African teaching project. As arrangements now stand, the student group will send 20 Harvard and Radcliffe volunteers--the largest College group--to Africa this summer.
Selected from over 100 applicants, the students began preparing for the trip early this term. Since Swahili is an official language of Tanganyika, the group has studied it intensively under the direction of a British anthropologist teaching at Boston University.
The group divided into several committees to plan the venture. The fund raising committee was able to collect the necessary money without University assistance. Corporations, outside foundations, and parents provided the funds.
A reading and research committee compiled reading lists on the politics, economy, and tribal cultures of Africa. The group will discuss this material and learn the newest techniques of language instruction in a week of intensive training before the departure on June 27.
Will Teach In Cooperatives
When-they-arrive in Tanganyika, most of the group will teach English in cooperative schools, adult education center, and a business college. Several members have received assignments to the "sticks," though, and will be engaged primarily in famine relief.
In addition to teaching English, students in the urban areas will provide instruction in other languages, economics, American history, and international affairs on an informal basis. They will live on the cooperatives.
One member of the group stressed that "we're not going over to live like the people in the sense of trying to collect as many diseases of the country as possible." Defending the policy of treating the natives as equals, he maintained that the "white man's burden" attitude has brought only conspicuous failure.
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