Buthaina Karaman: Creates a New Partnership to Address Food Insecurity
Buthaina Karaman
Class 3, Create
What is your Vision for Impact Statement?
Establish an intentional service-learning partnership between Village Life Outreach Project and Cincinnati Public Schools’ (CPS) school and community garden programs in order to develop a global citizenship curriculum that addresses food insecurity (both locally and globally); incorporates themes of privilege, whiteness & saviorism; and promotes collaboration within CPS.
You don’t work directly in education, but you do work in the nonprofit sector and you are very involved in your community. How does your involvement with School Board School impact your work, either your day job or community work?
My School Board School peers completely inspire my work in the community. I’ve learned that you don’t need to have the perfect plan in place to start creating change. This family of champions, experts and go-getters has my back and they know I have theirs!
Participating in the fellowship made me a better connector of people. School Board School reinforced the lesson that sometimes putting my hands in my pockets to listen can be more impactful than getting my hands dirty.
How have you used your School Board School training/ learnings in your work?
Every fall and spring semester, I co-teach a class at the University of Cincinnati under the Service Learning Collaboratory where students from different disciplines come together to work on problem sets/ challenges presented by Village Life. We presented the school garden project to one group of future teachers, and they did research about what curriculum exists, and started creating lesson plans for us to develop further. I never expected students to be the ones to take this project to the next level. (The teachers reading this are shaking their heads at me right now for sure!) Their insights regarding how to talk to young students about privilege, whiteness, and saviorism have been invaluable to this specific project.
What impact are you (and/or your team) trying to make or making?
I have big dreams about de-colonizing the traditional international aid model. Changing the way we talk about service, no matter what community you're in, is a huge part of that. Our goal in Cincinnati is to increase global citizenship to expand perspectives to make our communities better.
We recently announced a partnership between Village Life, CPS, and the University of Cincinnati (UC) to launch the Marian Spencer Scholarship, awarding 10 CPS grads per year a full scholarship to UC, which includes a global service learning opportunity in Tanzania with Village Life. By 2023, the scholarship will include at least one student from each of the 18 high schools within CPS, ensuring underrepresented students have equal access to this incredible opportunity.
What do you love about your work?
I have the best job in the world because I get to see what happens when communities feel empowered to change their own circumstances and create opportunities for themselves - both here in Cincinnati and half-way around the world in rural Tanzania.
How can the School Board School community support you in this work?
If you’re involved with service learning within CPS, or would like to give a crash course in curriculum development, please reach out! buthainakaraman@gmail.com
What advice do you have for other School Board School members as they look to start a nonprofit, work in the nonprofit field, or get involved in their community?
Be patient. Make sure your mission is specific and unique. We have an incredible nonprofit community in Cincinnati. If someone is already doing similar work, look for points of collaboration before you look to start your own.