Over 25 years ago, artist and educator Wendy Ewald developed the Literacy Through Photography program at the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University in partnership with Durham Public Schools. For more than 20 years, CDS has offered LTP workshops in Durham, North Carolina, attended by artists, photographers and educators from across the United States and other countries.
With sponsorship from Sister Cities of Durham, four teachers from Durham, England and Arusha, Tanzania (two of Durham’s Sister Cities) attended a Summer 2004 LTP workshop. As Pelle Shaibu and Margaret Matarimo learned how teaching with pictures enriches the lives and learning of students, they began envisioning how to use LTP in Tanzania. The 2004 workshop in Durham marked the start of a partnership and collaboration that continues to this day.
With funding from Duke University and Sister Cities of Durham, Wendy Ewald and Katie Hyde traveled to Arusha in 2007 to lead a workshop organized by Pelle Shaibu for 40 local elementary school teachers. As this workshop proved to be successful, Hyde, Ewald and Shaibu established the DukeEngage LTP in Tanzania program in 2008. DukeEngage provides support and funding for a small staff from CDS and a rotating group of Duke University students to spend the summer in Tanzania. The team trains local teachers in LTP’s methods and assists in the development and teaching of classroom-based LTP projects.
Thanks to this longstanding collaboration, LTP in Tanzania has grown remarkably in size. Over 5,000 Tanzanian students have received LTP instruction and hundreds of teachers have attended LTP workshops across the country. Pelle Shaibu works year-round to further expand LTP’s footprint in Tanzania. The program’s ultimate goal to to share the LTP methodology with as many Tanzanian teachers and students as possible.