Our Past and Future

Rise Africa, a registered 501 C3 non-profit organization, was created in 2007 by Marie Lehrer, a nurse who went to Tanzania to teach HIV/AIDS prevention. In response to the extreme poverty, Marie asked the women of the Manyire village what was their most urgent need. The answer was a milling machine for their corn so that they did not have to walk three hours to have it done.  Within three months, Rise Africa raised $9,000 and the milling machine was in place.  

Since that first milling machine was put in place, many other dreams have been fulfilled for the people of Manyire village:

• Computers, sewing machines, electric generators, scholarships, teacher’s allowances and a school for 187 orphans.
• 120 women have received $100 micro business loans.
• An old building was renovated and turned into a clinic.
• Ten acres of land has been cultivated to feed the orphans.

More than three million Africans die from AIDS every year, leaving orphans in the street who need to beg in order to survive.  Our next goal is to create Mapendo, a self-sufficient, sustainable, organic farming community that will support 108 teen age orphans.

The community will be built and sustained by young men and women who are 13 to 20 years old.  It will be modeled after successful farming communities from around the world.  The students will have all of their basic needs met.  Upon graduation, they will have the vocational skills needed to run an organic farming village.

Board of Directors

Marie Lehrer, Founder and President

Norbert Mbwiliza, President, Rise Africa Tanzania

Eric Vormanns, Adviser

Samira Abdelrahman, Secretary

Alexandra Warwick, Education Director

Surya Zeeb, Designer and Marketing Director

Ila Zeeb, Secretary

"Don't ever think that a small group of people can't change the world,
indeed it is the only thing that ever did"
-Margaret Mead