SAY Foundation
SAY Foundation
Embedded Files
Bridging the Knowledge Gap
Our Vision: World-Class Education, No Matter Where You’re Born
At SAY, we believe that a child’s zip code shouldn’t define their potential. Our mission is simple yet bold: to create a borderless network of volunteers dedicated to educational equity. We start at the grassroots—empowering teachers in the most remote villages of Zanzibar with AI and modern tools—so that every child can stand on the shoulders of giants and dream without limits.
Watch the full Interview ：A conversation with the founder of SAY Foundation about her work in education and local communities in Tanzania.
Meet Our Founder
Meet Our Founder
A Grassroots Change-Maker & Global Education Advocate
13 Years on the Ground: Yaya has spent over a decade living and working alongside communities in East Africa, building a sustainable ecosystem for learning from the scratch.
A Strategic Bridge-Builder: She successfully advocated for Mandarin to be included in Zanzibar’s national curriculum and secured permanent land for the foundation's education hubs through years of trust-building with local authorities.
The "International Volunteer Medal" Recipient: Recognized by the Zanzibar government for her "strategic patience" and unwavering commitment to orphans, girls, and rural teachers.
Future Vision: Currently pursuing a PhD at a world-class institution (Harvard/Yale aspirant) to transform her field experience into scalable global education policies.
Our Story
Our Story
We don’t just build classrooms; we ignite minds. We’ve learned that the fastest way to bridge the "knowledge gap" is by supporting those at the heart of the classroom: the teachers. By providing rural educators with AI literacy and cutting-edge resources, we create a ripple effect. One empowered teacher can change the lives of hundreds of students. We are here to break the cycle of educational inequality, one lesson at a time.
2025 Highlights
2025 Highlights
The AI Education Center: Completed our 2,300m² hub in Matemwe, powered by a 10kW off-grid solar system. Even in the most remote areas, our lights—and our laptops—stay on.
Teacher Empowerment: 87 local teachers trained across three intensive programs, with 32 becoming our first cohort of certified cross-cultural educators.
Closing the Tech Gap: Deployed high-performance RTX 5060 laptops and tablets, ensuring that children in rural Zanzibar have access to the same computing power as their peers in New York or Beijing.
Radical Transparency: Every dollar of the $67,190 raised this year went directly into bricks, solar panels, and training modules.
2026 Action Plan
2026 Action Plan
Advanced AI Training: We are currently training 50 rural teachers to become "AI-Assisted Teaching Experts," focusing on lesson prep and personalized student feedback.
Going Official: We are working with the Ministry of Education to certify our AI training program, creating the first-ever "AI+Teacher" model in the region.
Staying Offline, Staying Smart: Developing "Offline AI" solutions (like Phi-3 models) so teachers can access world-class knowledge even without an internet connection.
Scaling Up: We are expanding our Zanzibar base to 21,700m², adding a dedicated dining hall for orphans and a multi-functional community space.
Crossing Borders: We are officially registering our NGO in mainland Tanzania and signing MOUs with the Ministry to bring the "Zanzibar Model" of AI education to the entire country.
Our Ultimate Goal: To end "Digital Privilege" and ensure that the next generation of African leaders starts on an equal playing field.
Practice & Training Links:
Current Project
Current Project
On April 4, 2026, SAY Foundation completed a key phase of its Zanzibar Teacher AI Empowerment Project. A total of 23 teachers from 20 secondary schools participated in hands-on training, learning to use AI as a practical teaching support tool in low-resource environments.
Each teacher deployed a personal GitHub-based teacher hub and used structured prompting to simulate a "generalist education expert," expanding subject coverage without additional materials.
The project focuses on building a distributed education network, transforming isolated classrooms into connected teaching nodes through low-cost digital infrastructure.
Contact Us
Contact Us
We've spent 13 years in Africa not to 'help' in the traditional sense, but to learn how resilience and technology can combine to break the oldest barriers in the world. Join us, and let’s make education truly borderless.
We’d love to hear from you
WhatsApp: +255 778 655 330
Phone Number: +8613765223777
Mailing address: P.O. Box 3718 Shangani, Zanzibar Tanzania
WeChat: liyayazanzibarNew
Email: volunteer@say.ngo
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