Our Team - Partners Overseas – Board of Directors
Students for Education Empowerment and Development (SEED) is a student-based organization that came into existence in July 2005. SEED was established by 9 students following their return from an overseas volunteer trip to Lusaka, Zambia. While in Zambia, the group organized and facilitated many different volunteer programs that focused on improving the conditions within the community. The group spent the majority of their time volunteering in the Kondwa Day Center, a pre-school for HIV/AIDS orphans. There they met many students who were graduating from preschool and struggling to continue on to primary school due to the many financial barriers in the way. SEED was thus born of the desire to continue helping the students at Kondwa by providing scholarships that cover the supplemental costs that pose a barrier to primary education for the students.
The following year, two SEED interns traveled to Kenya and charted some new territory for the organization. While volunteering with the Community Support Group, the interns came across children in Kenya who were similar to those in Zambia – affected by HIV/AIDS, and struggling to go to school. These two settings and their lessons are the inspiration for the programs and ideologies of the SEED organization that exists today.
