BY Isaiah Frizzell
Helping Young Adults from Idaho to Tanzania
Make a Difference Now (MAD) is a transitional, learning and development organization that began in the mind of Theresa Grant-Narasimhan. Born and raised in Hailey, Theresa was on the board of the Environmental Resource Center here in high school and started Students for the Earth. After serving the Latino community with St. Luke’s Women’s Resource Center, she developed an idea that would become a global force.
MAD was founded by Grant-Narasimhan in 2008. She’d been working briefly in Silicon Valley and, after a trip to the United Republic of Tanzania in East Africa, she found her calling. While there, she learned Swahili and ended up running an orphanage that helped put the kids all the way through college. “I started this program as the kids would talk to me and they were so elated if they went through college because they’re the first people in their families to even finish high school, much less college, figuring a job would just be there. So I’d explain, no, you have to apply and apply like five times a day for different jobs. I mean, really, it’s a job in itself just to apply for jobs!”
“So it was an awakening for them and for me. And I started taking notes. I didn’t realize this was going to be the next part of the journey. You know, you don’t want to just say, okay, we’ve sent you through college, carry on. We want to try to get them to the next level. So we realized there’s that big gap and that’s what we’ve been fulfilling.”
MAD’s ultimate goal is getting kids out of poverty. MAD’s Business Empowerment (BE) program, through a combination of online learning, workbooks, and practical training, teaches participants job readiness, leadership, and entrepreneurial skills. They leave the program with a polished résumé, cover letter, professional LinkedIn account and even a business plan. MAD puts around 30 students in Tanzania alone, every month, through the program, with programs in Latin America while currently seeking partners to do so in Idaho.
Bringing it Back Home
“Now we’re forming partnerships here in Idaho. We’re trying to empower organizations to deliver these programs to the kids who need it right here. So we’re starting by training the future trainers, as they know their constituents more than we do, and they’ve got relationships with them already.” MAD is expanding rapidly as people who want to not only help but grow personally involved themselves.
“We have many people come over from the Valley to travel through and do our learning program. We do educational trips where they learn about the culture, the challenges there and can then give back, as well.”
Vacation with Action
“We have a package where they stay at our guest house and go on safari. The goal is to educate as many people about transitional challenges as well as show the beauty of Tanzania, that it’s not just some sad place. People find joy when they come over, a deep joy.
“We frame it as learning-educational trips instead of just volunteering. It’s absolutely a give and take. So the alumni from our programs there will teach Swahili to the visitors and the visitors will teach English. It’s not just like, oh, you poor thing, I’m here to help you. No. We create partnerships.”
“So with the Hailey, Idaho, approach, we’re inviting locals to come over, people who are on their gap year, trying to find direction. We invite families to connect. There’s a big dinner table and communal dinners, pure connection. We get out games, we journal and with as little technology as possible. No TVs in the guest houses! We live in a village and it’s, you know, we do have security and we have solar hot water, but it’s going back to the basics and getting grounded again coming together. People want to talk, to connect. These trips are all about human connection and finding deeper meaning.”
Amanda Nagy
Grant-Narasimhan’s first and continuing partner, a Hailey photographer, Amanda Nagy, of Amanda Rene Photography, found the group through social media in 2023. “I just happened to post on our local Facebook group, does anybody know how I can do volunteer work in Africa? And Theresa happened to reach out and say, I am the owner of this nonprofit! Once I knew the mission of MAD, that hit home to me. I grew up with poor, uneducated parents. I got involved and was able to make it out there.”
She learned Swahili, which Nagy exclaims “is easier than French!” She began teaching English, helping with CVs, résumés, work ethics and all things to help kids find employment.
Nagy traveled with Make A Difference Now (MAD Now) to Tanzania, where she shared her photography skills with youth in the organization’s programs. Combined with MAD Now’s technology loan program — which provides laptops and cameras to students in need — that simple exchange opened the door for one graduate to pursue his passion. Today, he works as a photographer with the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam.
“I thought I was just teaching a few photography tips,” she recalls. “But seeing a young person take that skill and turn it into a profession has been life-changing — for him, and for me.” Nagy beams.
Grant-Narasimhan and Nagy both spend time between Hailey, Boise and Tanzania, helping kids and bringing more into the fold with the current goal to use the systems they’ve created to help kids move through their transitional phases in Idaho.
Visit MAD’s site at https://www.gomadnow.org/ where you can reach out to Theresa Grant-Narasimhan to get involved in local or African educational ventures.
Nagy can be regularly found in Stanley, Sun Valley, or Boise, making memories with her camera. Visit Nagy’s site at: https://www.amandarene.com
