Founder's Word.

PACE, like most other organizations, started as an itch - a growing discomfort with the status quo that became too big to ignore. I can still point to the exact moment when the PACE spark occurred for me.

 I was in rural Tanzania as part of a team of volunteers who taught the community about HIV/AIDS. That afternoon, we were working in a secondary school, where I noticed how young most of the teachers were. I was curious, so as we sat chatting, I asked them how they became teachers. They told me that right after they just finished their Form Four studies, the head teacher had invited them to teach to make up for the shortage of teachers in the school.

I wasn’t surprised. I’d heard about Form Four graduates teaching in under-resourced schools in Kenya, especially in the rural areas. Due to the lack of resources in these areas: piped water, electricity, public transportation and technology - most qualified teachers preferred not to teach in these rural schools. The lack of teachers would result in poor syllabus coverage, and eventually poor performance - that would make the schools even more unattractive to qualified teachers, continuing the vicious cycle. As I asked around, I found out that teacher shortage was not just a problem with schools in rural areas; public schools in slums in urban areas also experienced a similar shortfall.

As I thought about the young teachers in Tanzania, it hit me that they had the potential to alleviate the shortage of teachers. Informal teacher recruitment was already happening in many different schools on an individual level - but it could be improved upon.  However, we needed a different strategy: one that would take into consideration the capacity, ability, training and availability of the high school graduates. We needed a system that would consolidate and leverage the number of willing high school graduates, empower them and engage them at the right level of commitment and recognize their efforts. Thus, PACE was born.

We started our journey in August 2011 armed with only a dream on a sheet of paper. The dream is that willing volunteers from all over the continent could be trained, empowered, supported and rewarded as they strove to make a difference to students in under-resourced schools. As we spoke to more people about the vision, we received recognition from the Clinton Global Initiative University and joined the Harambe Entrepreneurial Alliance under the “Teach for Africa” project. Over time, the team behind the vision grew, and the vision became more refined. Eventually, we rebranded and chose the name PACE (Promoting Access to Community Education) as it was a better reflection of the identity and nature we wanted the organization to represent.

PACE has come a long way from the days when it was a fuzzy idea in my head.  We know why we exist: to empower today’s youth so we can impact tomorrow’s Africa by touching education today. We have a growing community of 50 high school graduates who have applied to join the program as volunteers, and an expanding network of mentors and advisors. Based on the responses we receive as we implement the initial stages of our pilot, we are improving on the quality of the volunteer program’s future iterations.

The promise that PACE makes is that we will continue to:

1) listen to the communities we are involved in,

2) learn from their feedback and support,

3) lead through service and engagement

4) live out the positive influence that we seek to be within our society.

For our volunteers and supporters, we thank you for joining us as we strive to create enriching and rewarding service experiences as well as a nurturing community. PACE is bound to be an adventure filled journey, but one that will make a significant difference to the lives  of all those walking with us. We look forward to working with you on this one. Thank you for journeying with us.

For PACE Team,
Peggy Mativo


Please see the CGIU video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQzjc9g9PYU&feature=share