But East Africa faces great challenges. The rapidly growing population is outstripping government resources and infrastructural requirements. With large proportions of the population living in poverty with little access to quality health care and information, diseases spread rapidly, including the AIDS epidemic. In the tumultuous history of the twentieth century, Africa, as elsewhere in the world, underwent great destabilizing changes, that brought about political violence in some cases. While Kenya and Tanzania remained generally peaceful, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi have faced horrific political violence, and are only slowly putting that trauma behind them.

But there is hope. Education levels continue to rise. Economies are improving. Uganda has been a world leader in combating the AIDS virus, successfully decreasing the infection rate in its population through concerted public education campaigns and preventative measures. Kenya has been called the first ‘East African tiger’ in praise of its economic growth which calls to mind the rapid growth of the ‘East Asian tigers’ in the 1990s. Tanzania’s political stability and peaceful history are a model for the region. Rwanda and Burundi, have faced the specter of horrific ethnic violence, and are seeking ways to establish harmonious relations between groups with a long and bitter history.

The Nyerere Educational Resource Center will operate as a clearing house for information, defining best practices, providing leadership in seeking new solutions, bridging village culture and international organizations. The Center will train leaders and provide them with the resources to understand the challenges, and use the lessons of history to envision a strategy for a future of peace, prosperity, and freedom.