Tanzanian Promises: Christine Lott’s Inspiring Work in East Africa from Stoughton

Christine Lott was bored and restless as a vice president at Goldman-Sachs, an investment bank on Wall Street. She had worked for 25 years.  

She would travel to the New York office to work during the day and see a Broadway show at night. In the 25 years, the firm had changed. She had changed and although she loved what she did, she had something inside her that pushed her to help people.

Her work on Wall Street would prepare her for what would come.

In 2006, she started to look for volunteer positions; she wanted to pay it forward. She would eventually volunteer in Sri Lanka the same year after the devastating tsunami. But, she realized she was not working to her full potential. The following year she found her way to Tanzania, to help women create jewelry.

Lott was in Tanzania on Easter Sunday and she had gone to a Catholic Mass.  It was held in a run down schoolroom. It was in bad shape. The roof was leaking; it smelt and was decaying under the climate of the East African sun.

This is when Lott made a promise that would change her entire life. She promised to help the congregation build a suitable church.

She did.

All the materials shipped (from Brockton, St. Casmir) to Tanzania. In 2009, St. Judas Thaddeus Catholic Church in the village of Ilboru, Arusha Tanzania, celebrated its first Mass. Lott has attended Mass there every Easter Sunday since.

When Lott lost her job on Wall Street in the chaos that was the financial crisis of 2008 she had just founded Chris Cares International, "Fighting poverty through education in Tanzania, one child at a time, one day at a time."

She soon founded The School of St. Nicholas in the Arusha region of Tanzania. Chris Cares’ has four full time employees in Tanzania. When asked about the name of the school, she said St. Nicholas would give gifts to children and she is giving the children of Tanzania the best possible gift - the gift of education.

In Tanzania only 69.4% percent of the population is literate, including only 62.2% percent of women, according to the CIA World Factbook. In fact, Tanzania has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world. The world literacy average is 84.1% percent. By comparison, the literacy rate in the U.S. is 99%.

To see what she had to work with, Lott went to government schools, private schools and international schools in Tanzania. The conditions at the (public) government schools were as mad and corrupted as the government itself.

As much as 150 children are crowded into a small, hot and creaky room, like cattle, and forced to sit erect and listen to the teacher who may or may not arrive that day, depending on whether they get paid, of course. The only other adult in the room holds a stick; their job is to beat the children who "misbehave" with it.

In Tanzania, survival and living comes first, education is not a priority.

To Lott however, education was a priority, and could save these people from the vicious cycle of poverty and corruption in Tanzania.

Lott's school is vastly different than the corrupt and cruel government schools of Tanzania. The children that go to St. Nicholas' have a four hour school day, that starts at 8:30 in the morning. The kids are taught the basics in math, English, music and art. The students at the School of St. Nicholas’ look forward to going on tour this June to Safari lodges in Arusha.

Chris Cares provides "a 100% free, quality education, uniforms, shoes, back packs, books, pencils, games, and creative learning tools," according to their website. "We feed [the students] breakfast daily, provide them with quarterly worm medication to keep those parasites away and daily vitamins.  We hire educated and trained teachers and staff." 

It has not always been easy for Lott. Once in Tanzania, a local told her to pull over and tried explaining in Swahili that her car was broken. It wasn’t. While she was distracted they stole her passport, debit cards and $4,200 dollars. She told the police; they didn’t help. But, that hasn’t stopped her.

Lott asked some of the children what they would like to be when they grew up. One student said they'd like to be an airplane pilot, one said a nurse and three of the students said they'd like to be a teacher. Lott is changing these children’s lives and futures.

Lott has won the national 2010 Classy Volunteer of the year award in San Diego, California. She walked the red carpet with her mother and two other board members. She won the award but she “took it on behalf of the volunteers.”

She advertises for volunteers on social networking and websites like mycommunityservice.org. Chris Cares International raises money through selling and marketing items like handmade Christmas ornaments and wood carvings from artisans in Saxtuba village Tanzania.

Lott runs the organization in Stoughton out of her house. She moved here in 1990 and substitutes at Stoughton High occasionally. She splits her time between Stoughton and Tanzania, spending about 6 months in each location.

Three of the board members live in Stoughton. They have one intern who volunteers for the organization and is a graduate of Cardinal Spellman but now lives in New Hampshire. A concession stand at Gillette Stadium is run regularly to help with funding. Gillette fundraising provides for more than 50% of Chris Cares International’s annual income.

There are other events as well - a first annual craft fair in the park on the 4th of July and one on the 6th. Tanzanian products made by the students and parents are sold at the African Festival in Boston City hall.

“This year we are running a 4th of July Craft Fair and Festival in Faxon Park and trying to raise awareness and funds," Lott said. "We still have crafter/vendor spaces available and are also looking for some volunteers."

Lott is writing a book about her experiences. It’s titled “The Promise: From Wall Street to the Foothills of Mt. Meru” (referring to the promise she made to make the villagers to build a suitable church) and is set in the present looking back on what lead her here.

She is working on it daily and her son Jonathan as agreed to do the editing. She muses, the Tanzanian people have been encouraging her to write and are helpful anyway they can be, after all the story is theirs, without them there is no story.

Sitting down with Ms. Lott made me think of a quote by a great human being, Mr. Fred Rogers, that I had read in an article about the Boston Marathon attacks. “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”

I have a strong belief that Christine Lott is one of those helpers and that she is a rare breed of people who light up the darkness.

For more information visit www.chriscares.org and For updates on the Chris Cares International's progress and photos of their students “like” CCI on Facebook by clicking here.