Meet Masha Balovlenkov of Stand Tall International

Today we’d like to introduce you to Masha Balovlenkov.

Stand Tall unofficially began in 2013 when the founders Masha 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 she noticed in Moshi was that many people she met needed more advanced treatments. Those treatments were unavailable either because they were too costly or they needed procedures that did not exist in Tanzania. One of these patients was 11-year-old Benson Mushi. When Masha met Benson, he was almost paralyzed by 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. Masha was able to raise enough money to send him to boarding school. Boarding school provided Benson a chance for education and a pathway to achieve his dreams. Through this journey, Masha and Jason learned how changing the life of one child impacts the health of an entire community.

Masha and Jason returned to Tanzania in 2015 with the plan of helping another child with surgery. Sixteen children came to them needing help. From this tremendous need, Stand Tall International was born!

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
This has honestly been a very challenging and twisted road to get to this point. I am also a professional dancer and singer. Founding and running a charity was never my goal. But once Stand Tall began, there really was no turning back.

One of our biggest challenges has also been one of our biggest blessings and that is I really have no clue what I’m doing. I don’t have a degree in non-profit management or business so there’s been a lot of learning by doing and trial by fire. Some of the things we try work and some of them truly have failed.

But this is also one of our greatest gifts because it means we really have found our own way of doing things. I have also had some amazing mentors around me to help steer the course.

Stand Tall International – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Stand Tall International is a 501c3 non-profit that arranges and funds life-saving spinal surgeries for children in East Africa.

I am the co-founder and executive director of the organization.

What I love about us… there are a lot of organizations that do surgery and all of them really are important. But, we go one step further. Surgery is just phase 1. Phase 2, we work with the social worker and the families to give these kids any and everything they need at a successful life.

First and foremost is the education for every child. But it doesn’t help them at school if they can’t eat or don’t have books. Taking care of all these needs from food, clothes, safe housing, etc is why we have a 100% success rate for our children.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Our very first patient who received surgery in 2013 went back for his two years follow up and the doctors told him that not only was he healthy, he could play soccer! I have a video. This child literally went from partial paralysis to being a fierce athlete.

Contact Info:

• Address: 1733 S Mansfield Ave Los Angeles, CA 90019
• Website: www.standtallinternational.org
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @standtallinternational
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/StandTallInternational/
• Twitter: @StandTallIntl

Image Credit:
Eric Branco

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