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Westport’s Lila Wells Follows In Her Mother’s Footsteps In Supporting Tanzanians

This past spring, Lila Wells didn’t spend her time in quarantine watching Netflix like the rest of us. The 19-year-old Westport native, a 2019 Greens Farm Academy graduate who is preparing to start her sophomore year at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, this fall, initiated the Unite Youth Ambassador Program, mentoring fellow teens and young adults in Tanzania, all while finishing her semester online at home.

Tanzania, home of the Maasai in its north, has won the heart of Lila Wells much as it did her mother's decades before.

Tanzania, home of the Maasai in its north, has won the heart of Lila Wells much as it did her mother's decades before.

Photo Credit: Lila Wells

Lila is the oldest daughter (of three) of Anne Wells, founder of Unite the World With Africa Foundation, which she started as a foundation in 2008 and transitioned into a charity in 2014. The older Wells fell in love with Tanzania, home of Mt. Kilimanjaro and the Serengeti National Park — world-renown for its wildlife — as a college student studying there. The elder Wells ultimately started a foundation to benefit the country and has spent the last 30 years in and out of it.

“Unite’s mission is to support, educate and empower Tanzanians,” explained Lila, who has visited the East African country four times in the past seven years.

To that end, Unite, a 100 percent female-run organization, helps get donations to non-governmental organizations and groups that need it in the country, working with orphanages, scholarships, and organizations helping widows, among other activities.

"My mom is amazing," enthused Lila. "She constitutes the fundraising team, we’re trying to support [Tanzanians] as holistically as we can."

During COVID, Unite schools have received additional relief grants to start their own businesses, since for many it is very difficult for their families to support themselves.

“With the grants, they’ve been able to set up small businesses like charcoal and rabbit businesses,” added Lila. “We fill in gaps where needed. One scholar didn’t have a toilet, so we bought her family one. Another didn’t have a bed.

“We’ve been giving them additional $20 love grants during COVID. It’s not much, but, with it, they try to better their own communities by donating to street children, the elderly and others at risk.”

It was thinking about the students on scholarships that gave Lila an idea.

“I was home from school, on quarantine and was thinking about our scholars in Tanzania,” she recounted. “They aren’t in the best environments there, and the environment is not conducive to academic success.”

To help the scholars who range in age from 16 to 22, Lila started the Unite Youth Ambassador Program, which connects 12 U.S. college students (including four from Fairfield County) with 23 young Tanzanians hoping to make their academic dreams come true and attain a university education.

“The aim is to establish a mentorship relationship,” said Lila, “where they can work on their academic skills and work on pre-professional skills — we’ve worked on resumes, LinkedIn profiles, interview questions and more.”

During the three-month program (which ended in June since the official academic year picks up again in early July in Tanzania), Lila and her fellow ambassadors would have daily video chats with their mentees, often texting several times a day as well on topics as varied as academics, globalization, women’s rights and what’s happening in America. (All communication is in English.)

“We really want our ambassadors to do one academic challenge per week, where they assist their scholars,” Lila said. “A lot of the collaborative aspect is working toward a final creative project to be presented to the whole group; these are skits, original songs, news segments. It’s truly lovely.”

Lila, for instance, was mentoring three young Tanzanian women.

“We chatted about everything,” she said. “We worked on a skit; all three are incredibly dedicated. One of the young women, Maria, is herself mentoring 84 children in her community.”

Lila is proud of what her team accomplished and the relationships they’ve forged.

“We had an amazing team,” she enthused. “The college students threw themselves in wholeheartedly. We heard so many ‘I love yous’ in chats — and they really mean it! It’s been a whirlwind and incredibly rewarding.”

Visit Unite the World for Africa Foundation for more information and to donate.

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