In 2016, while traveling through Tanzania with a group of artists, we taught theater to young children, helping them understand the power of storytelling to bring about social change.

Throughout our time there, we listened to the people in the region as they shared their needs. One story in particular touched us deeply: Asha, a mother who had lost one of her children during childbirth, communicated the village’s urgent need for a labor clinic. We developed a strong connection with Asha, linked by our common understanding of humanity (Ubinadamu), and we recognized this as an opportunity to carry out our mission: using storytelling to create positive change in our communities.

We brought Asha’s story back to the U.S. and produced a play that raised awareness of the issues facing her community in Tanzania, while at the same time communicating a universal story of love, loss, and healing. Over the course of three months, we returned to Tanzania and worked closely with the people and government of Mloka to successfully complete the construction of the Ubinadamu Labor Clinic. There is now a safe place in the village for women to give birth, the first building on the property of what has now become a larger health center. The clinic has been licensed by the Government of Tanzania and is registered as an official health center. The District Medical Office has since sent staff and equipment, and babies have been born safely at the clinic! We realized throughout our time in Mloka that this was only the beginning. The needs of the village extend far beyond the labor clinic, and the strong connection we all feel with the people there is too important to ignore.

Ubinadamu Kazi was born.

Since the project's genesis, we have completed the Labor Clinic, along with a hospital, 4 wells, a market for people to buy and sell their wares, and created a partnership between a school in the U.S. and one in Tanzania. We are currently in the process of building an Arts and Cultural center for the community, installing new toilets in a school, and building an irrigation system.

Want to join a trip? Every summer we take a group of artists to Tanzania for a three-week life-changing trip. The trip can be (and often is) used for undergraduate/graduate internship credit, or it can simply be a cool thing you do to gain experience in Theater for Global Action, devised theater, and community engagement!