Mama Lucy’s oldest students, who have been dubbed the TwitterKids of Tanzania, recently graduated from the seventh grade, their final year of primary school.  With over 500 children now following in their footsteps, classrooms at Shepherds Junior are full - so more are needed for Mama Lucy to offer secondary education.  During Epic Thanks, we hope to build their secondary school out of pure gratitude so that they can continue their educations in Mama Lucy’s loving care until they grow up ready to transform our world.

Meet Leah Albert

Leah is just one of 20 students in Mama Lucy’s first graduating class.  Here she reflects on the most important lessons she’s learned at Shepherds Junior School.  When asked how her life would be different if she didn’t go to Shepherds Junior, she responded clearly & thoughtfully:

“I couldn’t have noticed what was in me - who really I was.  Shepherds has changed my entire life.  Shepherds has made me know who I am and who I can be.  It has made me see how important I am and how much the world needs me.”

We live in a world in which many smart, articulate, heartful young women like Leah don’t have the opportunity to go to school.  Imagine instead a world in which every girl like her grew up to realize her full potential, and in which every child could discover, as she has, just how much the world needs them.  By participating in Epic Thanks, and building this school from your gratitude, we’ll be one step closer to creating that world.  And Leah can go on to cure HIV as she plans, before she moves on to be elected the first woman president of Tanzania, of course.

Connect with Leah on Twitter or meet Leah in person as she takes her first trip out of Tanzania to visit a city near you.

Meet Gideon Gidori

Gideon is another recent graduate, who dreams of becoming Africa’s first astronaut.  There are no words to describe the hope & fervent sense of infinite possibility that lives inside that little boy.  When we first introduced him to twitter, he’d literally sneak out at night to the internet cafe & stay up to the wee hours of the morning attempting to connect with someone, anyone who might hear him.  When a recent visitor to Shepherds Junior met Gideon, he wrote us this note in which he called him:

“one of countless young genius children who should be given a chance to pursue their dreams and imagination, at whatever cost.”

Amen.

Connect with Gideon on twitter or meet Gideon in person as he takes his first trip out of Tanzania  to visit a city near you.

You can meet both Leah & Gideon in person when they make their first-ever trip out of their country. During November 2011, they’ll be touring the US with Mama Lucy to meet, inspire, teach, thank and learn from so many who have invested their love & gratitude to build Shepherds Junior School. 

Meet the Class of 2011 - the “TwitterKids of Tanzania”

In 2009, when they were in the fifth grade, these remarkable children were introduced to the world in the Huffington Post as the TwitterKids of Tanzania, when their classroom in Moivaro was connected to electricity - and the internet - on the very same day, and they were taught to use twitter & tumblr by Epic Change volunteers.

In their village, electricity is still very much a day-to-day struggle, but our most prolific tweeters, Leah Albert (@leah_albert) & Gideon Gidori (@gideon_gidori), are still online regularly.  When there’s electricity & they’re tweeting, you can connect with the recent graduates of Shepherds Junior by clicking their avatar photos below.