Stand Tall International unofficially began in 2013 when the founders Marissa (Masha) Balovlenkov and Jason Smith traveled to Africa to volunteer in the small town of Moshi, Tanzania. Masha volunteered with a local organization called Jipe Moyo, a program that provides services for women with chronic health conditions and a nursery school for their children. The biggest problem that she noticed th
ere was that many people she met needed more advanced treatments that were unavailable either because they were too costly or they needed procedures that didn’t exist in Tanzania. When Masha met Benson, he was almost paralyzed with spinal tuberculosis. He had visited every hospital in his region and no one could provide a diagnosis, much less perform his complicated spinal surgery. Masha traveled with him to Ghana where he received the life saving procedure he desperately needed. After his extensive recovery, Benson returned to Tanzania and Masha was able to raise enough money to send him to boarding school in order to provide a chance for education and a pathway to reach his dreams. Through this journey, Masha and Jason learned how changing the life of one child impacts the health of the entire community. They returned to Tanzania in 2015 with the plan of helping another child with surgery. 16 children came to them needing help.
