Kids Helping Kids - Teewashea

Kids Helping Kids - Teewashea [together] is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to empowering kids in the United States to make a difference in the lives of children in developing nations. We are a small organization, almost 4 years old, whose goal it is to teach American kids that they can choose to make their world better. We help them evaluate how much money goes through their hands and to understand that they have choices of how to use that money.

Currently, our work is in Tanzania, East Africa. We purposely chose to establish the African side of our program in the remote, mountainous area of northern Tanzania. We wanted to reach children who do not already enjoy the benefits of western volunteers and outside resources. Most of the kids there had never seen a white person before we arrived.

Our goals are to help with the orphan African children (about 25% of most elementary schools), and to improve the infrastructure of their schools. We have adopted 5 elementary schools. Three of these schools have been matched with 3 schools in the Seattle area as sister schools so the kids can feel directly connected.

The director of our organization is Salie Rossen, a retired social worker and consultant in organization development. The board includes Kathleen Mayhle (retired elementary school teacher), Ray Gwinn (financial expert), and Stanislaus Baruti (community organizer and overall coordinator in Africa).