Deer Hill alumni and field leader Anna Taft works on intake for a medical clinic in Ecuador’s remote highlands with the Tandana Foundation

Anna Taft, an alumni and longtime Deer Hill leader on our adventure summer camps, wrote this piece about how her Deer Hill experiences shaped the development of a non-profit organization, The Tandana Foundation, which works with indigenous peoples in Ecuador and Mali.

“In 1993, as a shy, skinny 14-year-old, I first arrived at Deer Hill, full of nervousness and excitement.  Through my amazing experiences on that Multi-Environment course and my later Wilderness Leadership course, I gained a deep appreciation for the power of authentic leadership to craft an inspiring group culture, a love for the magic of Deer Hill’s Circle, and a soulful connection to wild places.  The growth that I experienced on those two courses motivated me to become a Deer Hill leader myself, which I did in 1999.  Through the summers at Deer Hill, I became more confident in my leadership ability, more aware of the power of simple cross-cultural friendships to teach us about what it means to be human, and even more appreciative of the wonderful lessons that emerge when groups are taken out of their comfort zones, set up with a safe and positive atmosphere for sharing, and then allowed to experience new things and reflect on those experiences. All of those lessons are essential to the work I’m doing today with The Tandana Foundation.

The Tandana Foundation is a non-profit organization I founded that offers cross-cultural volunteer opportunities, scholarships, and funding for small community projects in highland Ecuador and Mali’s Dogon Country.  Tandana coordinates service projects and volunteer vacations that offer visitors to Ecuador or Mali the unique opportunity to be guests rather than tourists, to form cross-cultural friendships, to experience a rich indigenous culture, and to make a difference in the lives of new friends.  These programs, focused on health care, education, or community infrastructure projects, are open to all willing volunteers. Our scholarship program allows rural Ecuadorian students to continue their secondary education as well as to participate in experiential education programs.  Our grants help villagers in Mali and Ecuador realize their dreams of improving their communities.

In fact, not only does Tandana share many Deer Hill values, but Tandana started off in close connection with Deer Hill.  When I developed a program for Deer Hill in Ecuador in 2005, I wanted to include young people from the community where we would be doing our service project in the group, so that they could travel to parts of their country they had never seen, have new experiences, and make friends with the North American kids in the group.  I raised money for scholarships for two indigenous Ecuadorian girls through the Deer Hill Foundation, beginning an on-going project that evolved into Tandana.

I’m also excited to have another Deer Hill alumna on board at Tandana.  Molly Klarman (Canyon Country ‘00) has just signed on as our 2010 intern.  She will spend eight months in Ecuador, helping to coordinate our volunteer programs, following up with patients from our health care work, and teaching English to local students.  I’d love to have more Deer Hill folks get involved–maybe you’d like to join us on our Summer Volunteer Program to help teach and lead activities for our scholarship students, or bring basic health care to rural villagers with our Health Care Volunteer Vacation during spring break. Check out the opportunities at www.tandanafoundation.org“