(June 06, 2008 – San Diego, CA) – Sandy Dhuyvetter, Executive Producer and Host of TravelTalkMEDIA, RADIO and TV, announced today that TTM has adopted a school in central Tanzania and has started a fundraising campaign to help supply the school with much needed writing desks.

The school, located in the rural village of Mto Wa Mbu near Arusha, Tanzania, is near Lake Manyara National Park and was visited by Ms. Dhuyvetter and the TravelTalkMEDIA film crew during a recent trip to Tanzania. While there, Ms. Dhuyvetter answered questions about life in the United States and about TravelTalkMEDIA that some of the 1,400 students at the school asked her.

At the school, students are taught English as well as several other subjects in their native tongue of Swahili. In their Environment Club, an outreach program of the Tanzania National Parks, students grow trees and plants and sell them to support the club. Many of the students said they would like to work within the Tanzania National Park (TANAPA) system someday.

“They like wildlife, they like our national parks and they want to save our wildlife,” said the school’s Headmaster, Felicity Temba.

Not all the children at the school have adequate supplies such as paper, writing utensils and desks. After talking with Ms. Temba, Ms. Dhuyvetter learned that a contribution of only $25 would allow a local carpenter to build one desk and provide it to the school.

“Some of [the children] come from very poor families,” said Temba. “Others come from far away from this area. Some of them do come from nearby villages, so they walk very far. And they get tired when they come to school.”

Ms. Temba added, “The children are happy though they have [too few] desks. We have a lot of problems facing us, but we are working hard to make things better..”

Besides helping the students, the production of each desk will bolster the economies of the local villages.

“Not only are we helping the students become more comfortable, we are promoting a sustainable cause that will trickle down through the village from production of the desk by local carpenters, to delivery of the desk, and to the final use of the desk by the student,” said Ms. Dhuyvetter. “Interested parties in providing $25 for one desk should note, TravelTalkMEDIA will match funds for each desk ordered. Together we can make a difference for these students who are living in a rural area of the Lake Maynera National Parks in Tanzania.”