At the end of May 2022, Lyra in Africa (or Lyra Finland) was launched at an event in Helsinki. This is an exciting step that will enable Lyra to expand its fundraising and awareness raising efforts in the Nordic region.
About 50 people attended the Finland launch event to learn about Lyra’s work and how they can support girls’ empowerment in Tanzania. Lyra’s founder Maria Spink, who is originally from Finland, shared the story of Lyra’s creation and its impressive growth over the past 10 years. Attendees also got to hear directly from the field through a video link to Lyra in Africa’s team in Iringa.
Following this introduction, Maria was joined for a panel discussion by Helena Nahi, a founding member of the board of the Eva Ahlström Foundation, Wende Luvinge, chair of the Finland-Tanzania Foundation and a project manager for NIRAS, and Humphrey Kalanje, a Tanzanian architect and board member of Lyra Finland. All the panellists noted the importance of Lyra’s work and the value of strengthening educational and employment opportunities for girls and young women.
Helena Nahi emphasised that “education is a very powerful investment that leads to systematic change – reducing inequality, cutting poverty rates, and contributing to more sustainable societies.” Wende Luvinge, who grew up in Iringa, reinforced this message. She pointed out that despite official support for education in Tanzania, the barriers facing young girls are extremely high. Among the girls she started school with, Wende was the only one to graduate and go on to university. She commented that the outcome would have likely been very different if there had been Lyra programmes providing safe accommodation and digital skills training at her school. Humphrey
Kalanje also noted the local skills training that occurs during the construction of Lyra hostels, which use an award-winning green design.
The launch event concluded with a performance of traditional Tanzanian singing, dance and drums by Cheza Ngoma, a Tampere-based artistic troupe. Attendees also enjoyed a display of Tanzanian baskets hand-woven by women in Lyra’s Imarika Kijana entrepreneurship programme.
Lyra Finland is governed by its own Board and will focus on developing funding opportunities and strategic partnerships in the Nordic region. Read about Lyra’s work in Finnish and keep an eye on Lyra’s news pages and social media channels for further updates.