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Jean Pruitt

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This individual is not a direct affiliate of the Berkley Center. They have contributed to one or more of our events, publications, or projects. Please contact the individual at their home institution.

Sister Jean Pruitt, M.M., is a member of the Maryknoll Sisters who has lived in Tanzania since 1968, where her work has focused on the poor, and children in particular. She worked at first with Catholic Relief Services in Dar es Salaam, then on a range of initiatives. In 1971, she and several youths pooled their resources to open Nyumba Ya Sanaa (House of Art), a small artists’ shop that became Tanzania’s first modern art center; this later evolved into the Vijana Vipaji Foundation. Around the same time she started Vijana, a carpentry and metal workshop that offered architectural and printing services where young boys and adolescents could learn a income-generating trade, and the Dogodogo Centre, which offered Tanzania’s street children a place to live and to learn through education and community. In 1983 she received a national award from the president of Tanzania for her contribution to the development of small-scale industry in the country. She was a founding member of Amnesty International of Tanzania and is part of the Global Network of Religions for Children. A member of the Maryknoll Sisters since 1958, Pruitt earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Mary Rogers College in Maryknoll, New York, and a bachelor's degree in social work from the University of Buffalo.

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