Previous Recipients - Shannon Hatmaker (cont.)

One of the most unique aspects of the Roots & Shoots International Volunteer Program is its location. Dr. Jane Goodall’s landmark chimpanzee studies began in 1960 in western Tanzania and about 30 years later she started Roots & Shoots after a meeting with several concerned local students at her house in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. To this day, that same house still serves as the base for the Dar es Salaam Roots & Shoots groups and the international volunteers who travel to Tanzania to be a part of this amazing organization. With around 600 clubs across Tanzania, there is never a shortage of activities for volunteers to be involved with. Some of the typical responsibilities of the volunteers include creating educational presentations, helping design and implement projects, and teaching workshops to help develop a support system for local groups.

I was originally based in Dar es Salaam where I had the opportunity to meet and work with not only the Tanzanian Roots & Shoots staff, but also many Jane Goodall Institute staff. One of my first tasks was to participate in the International Day of Peace downtown march with several local Roots & Shoots groups who flew giant peace dove banners throughout the day. However, most of my time at this placement was dedicated to planning a huge World Animal Week event in conjunction with the World Society for the Protection of Animals. During the week, the activities included a march through downtown with 400 Roots & Shoots members from 20 different schools, a domestic animal vaccination clinic, birdwatching, and a visit to a cattle market. Many people from several organizations, including the local government and national and international non-profits, were needed to make the event successful, teaching me the importance of cooperation. Tanzanian Roots & Shoots groups have recently adopted the slogan “pamoja tunaweza” or “together we can,” and World Animal Week exposed many youth to the importance and truth of this statement.

Soon after World Animal Week, I was lucky enough to move to Mbeya, a small town in the mountains of southern Tanzania with few very active Roots & Shoots groups. I learned quickly that many of the students there had more to teach me than I had to teach them. Most students in Tanzania attend schools with no textbooks and no teachers with a science background, but a lifestyle of relying on the land has given students in more rural areas an innate ability to recognize important changes happening to the environment around them. Therefore, a few of the activities I helped coordinate were hikes, a national park trip, a grant writing session, and distributing information to the groups on how to plan tree nurseries and animal welfare projects. With each project, I tried to involve students from as many Roots & Shoots clubs as possible so that they could network and learn more about the importance of working together to make a change in their community.