Mosaic Fellowship Offers Opportunity in Tanzania
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Newlyweds John Striebel and Melissa Theesen have begun a one-year fellowship in Tanzania to focus on poverty alleviation strategies for families who participate in Mosaic's Building a Caring Community (BCC) program.
Mosaic began BCC in 2007 through an international alliance of Lutheran service organization and the Northern Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania. It serves more than 230 children with disabilities through 11 neighborhood day centers and in-home supports that give mothers and caregivers the time they need to seek employment. The services are provided at no cost to the families.
Striebel and Theesen are sponsored by Mosaic's International Fellowship Program. Working with BCC families, they will help identify small business opportunities, provide business skills training, help establish small-business peer support groups, and evaluate the effectiveness of the micro-credit loan program on alleviating poverty.
"(We) are not going to Tanzania expecting to change the world," Striebel said. "However, we are going to Tanzania with the understanding that we have the potential to create the foundation of a program that could be a building block."
Both Striebel and Theesen have previous international volunteer experience. While in college, both spent time in Latin America doing volunteer work. After graduation, Striebel volunteered in Romania for Motivation Romania, a Mosaic partner organization that serves children with disabilities.
"I do not know where this experience will lead me, but I do know that it will change me in ways that I cannot yet imagine," Theesen said.
The Fellowship is made possible through a $5,000 grant from an anonymous foundation, a $5,000 personnel grant from the ELCA World Hunger Program, and charitable donations from many of the couple's friends, family and supporters. In-kind support was also given from the ELCA Global Mission program and ELCT-Northern Diocese.
