The Tanna island Project!

  Hi! My Name is Shaina Leavitt. I am the founder of Painting for Poverty, a non-profit organization that helps put children through school on the small island of Tanna, in the country of Vanuatu (a small group of island’s in the middle of the South Pacific). Two years ago I lived on Tanna, teaching in the school and working in the hospital. After living there I went off to university but could not get the students I had worked with and the island people I had grown to love so much off my mind. Here I was at a great university with so many classes and opportunities open to me,  and yet there were people with just as much passion for learning as me that did not even have the means to go through primary school. It was sometime in my first semester at school I started thinking of the idea of Painting for Poverty.  That was about a year ago and now I am actually doing it.   I am going back to Tanna to start the program!

The mission of Painting for Poverty is two fold, to provide the means of education for children in developing countries and to help people in 1st world countries be able to see the diversity of the world. We are using art to raise awareness as well as money to fund the children's education. 

I presented this idea at the Empower your Dreams Business competition at my University and received 2nd place!  Since then I have wrote and rewrote this idea and am excited to go down to Tanna and put it into  action. I know from living there before that this adventure will be full of  stories and crazy things so stay tuned. I am not really a blog person but I have come to terms that blogging is probably the best way to document this project, so I have become  a blogger! So keep track of us, look at our pictures and artwork and pass this on to anyone else that will be interested in our project. If you want to help, contact me! And your ideas will be most welcome.

Mahalo!

shaina