Author: Rebecca Garone

I’m writing this from Zanzibar, in between visits, shoots, and school days. Even without much time to slow down, I keep thinking about my time at Hovinais in Arusha. As a former teacher, watching what these teachers do every day with very limited materials and resources was amazing.

Learning here is part of daily life. School, home, and community are all very closely connected.

With next to no supplies, teachers rely on creativity, experience and strong relatioinships.

Their joy grows out of safety and connection.

As I continue my work here in Zanzibar, I find myself looking at new classrooms through the lens of what I learned at Hovinais.

That perspective is something I’m grateful to carry forward.

Bright truly lives up to her name!

Bright had complications at birth that led to a physical disability and her ultimately being abandoned at an early age. Today, she is cared for by a grandmother, an older woman who has taken on the daily work of loving and supporting her. A caregiver does live with them to help, but even with support, the challenges they face each day are enormous

Bright attends Hovinais Day Centre, where she is making steady progress both socially and emotionally. She sings beautifully. She laughs easily. She loves being around other children. Her joy is immediate and unmistakable.

The woman pictured helping Bright in some of these images is Madame Flora, the director of Hovinais. That morning, she stepped in to help while intentionally showing me the everyday realities Bright and her grandmother navigate at home.

At home, accessibility remains a major challenge. When obstacles make it difficult to move the wheelchair, caregivers have to improvise. Navigating the home safely often requires extra hands, which aren’t always available. A ramp would make an enormous difference, allowing Bright to move in and out of her home with greater ease and dignity and reducing the physical strain on those who care for her.

With support, Bright has received leg braces and a wheelchair, important steps forward. She is now able to be pushed to school each day because she has grown too big to be carried, a simple and unavoidable reality of growing up.

As Bright continues to grow, her braces are already becoming less effective, highlighting the need for updated, properly fitted mobility support.

What stands out most about Bright is not her disability. It is her joy, her curiosity, and the care surrounding her. With the right support, her world can expand in very real, practical ways.

Bright is ready for more of the world.
We just need to help the world meet her where she is.

She is the founder and director of Hovinais Daycare and Hovinais College in Arusha, Tanzania. But titles don’t really explain what she does.

Madame Flora has built a place where children are safe while their parents, many of them young, single mothers or women leaving forced marriages or violent situations, can work, study, and begin again. Parents pay little to nothing for the daycare and teachers volunteer their time, receiving only enough to cover transportation.

The college offers vocational training in hospitality, tourism, salon ownership, early childhood development, and other practical skills creating pathways toward independence and sustainable futures.

The needs here are ongoing and interconnected:
safe sleeping spaces,
clean and reliable water,
an improved kitchen,
daily food,
school uniforms,
learning materials,
and the basic infrastructure required to keep the doors open.

But what matters most here isn’t the scale of the need but the consistency of the care.

This is what it looks like when someone chooses, every single day, to show up for children and families who deserve stability, dignity, and a future.

If you’re in a place to give, please reach out and I can help! If you are not in a place to give, simply sharing this story helps spread their message!

Today was my last day with Savvy Brain Academy.

Before packing up and heading to Arusha tomorrow, I wanted to pause, not to summarize everything I saw or learned, but to sit with it for a moment.

Savvy Brain Academy is vibrant and colorful, full of movement and sound. But the moments that stayed with me most were quieter, the in-between moments. A child lost in thought at their desk. Laughter spilling out on the playground. Small hands gripping metal bars, faces lifted toward the sun. Focus. Curiosity, Joy and Childlike Innocence. Before the world has told them who to be, they are already everything.

I chose to share this chapter in black and white because it slows everything down. It strips away distraction and lets you see what’s really there: connection, resilience, and the everyday dignity of children who are simply being allowed to learn.

These are some of my personal favorite images from the week. They show what it looks like when education is present, even when resources are not guaranteed. When happiness is abundant, but access is fragile.

Savvy Brain Academy is doing something extraordinary in a place where it isn’t easy. And they do it every day, through meals, lessons, play, patience, and an unwavering belief in their students.

As I leave Mwanza and prepare for the next chapter of this journey, I carry these moments with me, reminders of what matters, and of how powerful quiet, consistent care can be.

Savvy Brain Academy relies on ongoing support to provide education, meals, and safe spaces for their students. If you’re able, a donation of any size makes a meaningful difference.

THANK YOU!

Every school day begins the same way.

The door opens.
Children arrive.
Learning begins.

What’s easy to miss is everything that happens alongside that moment.

While classes are underway, meals are being prepared. Cups are lined up. Supplies are gathered. Lessons are planned and corrected. Learning and care happen at the same time. Quiet, ordinary work unfolds in parallel to what happens inside the classroom.

A child who has eaten can focus. A child with the right supplies can participate. Consistency is built through these small, steady acts and keeping this rhythm going requires support.

Sponsoring one student for a school year can help support this daily rhythm.

For some students, access to education requires more than supplies and meals. It requires getting to school at all, which can take hours each day, time that could otherwise be spent learning, resting or playing.

If you’d like to take part in keeping these doors open, you can learn more about sponsoring a student here:
https://donorbox.org/savvybraintz

And if sponsorship isn’t possible right now, sharing this story helps too.

I’m writing this from Mwanza, Tanzania, where progress doesn’t arrive with the sound of heavy machinery or the flick of a light switch.

Here, progress arrives one brick at a time.

At Savvy Brain Academy, new dormitory buildings are being constructed without modern construction equipment and without access to electricity. Each brick is placed by hand, through steady labor and shared effort.

These buildings aren’t an expansion for comfort, they’re a solution to a very real barrier standing between students and their education.

The Hidden Cost of Distance

Many students at Savvy Brain Academy currently travel multiple hours each day to attend school. That time isn’t just inconvenient, it’s exhausting. Hours spent commuting are hours taken from rest, study, and focus.

The goal of these dormitories is simple but transformative:
• To house students closer to school
• To give them their time back
• To allow them to focus on learning, not logistics

Time is one of the most valuable educational resources, and right now, these students are losing it daily.

The Work Here Is Steady

Dormitory walls are going up piece by piece, without modern construction equipment and without access to electricity. Progress depends on time, labor, and the people showing up each day to keep it moving forward.

It’s slow work, but it’s work that lasts.

Why Donations Matter

The vision is clear but the buildings are not yet finished.

Donations directly support:
• Completion of dormitory structures
• Construction materials and labor costs
• Safe, functional housing for students who currently travel hours each day

This isn’t about adding something extra. It’s about making education sustainable.

If you’d like to contribute, you can venmo me (@B-Garone). Every dollar raised will be passed directly to Savvy Brain Academy at the end of my time here.

What You’re Supporting

When students can live closer to school:
• Attendance improves
• Focus increases
• Energy is preserved for learning

When you donate, you’re not just funding buildings.
You’re funding time, rest, focus, and opportunity.

Brick by brick, this community is building more than dormitories.
They’re building a future where students can stay, learn, and thrive.

Why I’m going to Tanzania: Where Photography and Global Health Meet

Tomorrow, I’ll board a plane to Tanzania with a camera, a background in global health, and more questions than answers. For the next two months, I’ll be living and working at the intersection of my two deepest passions: photography and global health.

This trip isn’t a vacation, and it isn’t a single, clearly defined project. It’s an intentional period of immersion focused on learning, observing, volunteering, and documenting life as it unfolds. It’s about being present long enough for understanding to deepen, rather than rushing toward conclusions or outcomes.

A Longstanding Belief in the Power of Images

Years ago, when I completed my bachelor’s degree, my senior essay was titled Photojournalism and Social Reform. Even then, I believed deeply that images matter. That they can influence perception, shape policy, and spark change when words alone fall short.

That belief has only grown stronger.

More recently, I completed my master’s degree in global health, which gave me the language and framework to think critically about equity, systems, and the ethics of intervention. This trip is about bringing these two worlds together allowing each to inform the other.

Where I’ll Be and What I’ll Be Doing

I’ll be spending time in Mwanza, Arusha, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar.

In each of these locations, I’ll be working alongside a local NGO (Non-governmental organization) to provide photography that supports their mission. This may include documenting programs, daily operations, community engagement, or the people behind the work. The goal is to create imagery that organizations can use for outreach, education, advocacy, and long-term sustainability.

Rather than arriving with a fixed agenda, I’m approaching each collaboration with curiosity and flexibility, responding to what each organization actually needs rather than what I assume they should want.

Photography as Observation

A large part of this work requires doing something deceptively simple.

Listening more than I talk.

Observing before documenting.

Understanding context before pressing the shutter.

I’m deeply drawn to the idea of photographic ethnography, a practice that values staying, watching patterns emerge, and allowing daily life to reveal itself beyond first impressions. Some days I may photograph extensively. Other days, I may not lift my camera at all. Both are part of the process. Both matter.

Global Health, Grounded in Human Experience

My training in global health has shaped how I think about equity, access, and responsibility. Being physically present will allow me to engage with those ideas in a more human and grounded way, through observation, conversation, and lived experience rather than theory alone.

This time is about understanding health not just as an outcome, but as something shaped by environment, culture, history, and daily life. It’s about noticing how people move through the world, how communities support one another, and how resilience shows up in ordinary moments.

Photography is a way to hold those observations and to honor their complexity rather than simplify them.

What I Hope This Time Becomes

I don’t expect to come home with answers. I hope to return with sharper awareness, deeper humility, and a renewed sense of responsibility around how stories are told and shared.

This trip is about alignment.

Between education and instinct.

Between seeing and understanding.

Between being present and bearing witness.

I invite you to follow along as this journey unfolds. I’ll be sharing images and reflections along the way. Thank you for being here and for walking into this chapter with me.

https://www.instagram.com/garonephotography

https://www.tiktok.com/@becca_june1 

This couple! This wedding! This venue! Everything was on-point for Laura and Conor’s wedding in Salem, Ma. The day started at Immaculate Conception Church with a beautiful ceremony followed by a reception at Hamilton Hall. This was our first time at Hamilton Hall, and I fell in LOVE! I just adore the character of historic neighborhoods and could have spent hours walking the streets taking photos … but their guests wanted to see them too, so we stayed close by ?. The character of the building went perfectly with the neighborhood with it’s high ceilings and balcony overlooking the dance floor … and the mirror they have, just wow! Take a look for yourself!

Thank you to the other vendors who played a part in making sure their day was so perfect!

Venue:  Hamilton Hall
DJ:Dan Sky , Sky Music 
Bakery: Uldison , Cassis Bakery
Florist: Amy Parker , Parker Florist