Orphans and Street Children in Tanzania - Introduction and description of the charitable projects where volunteering positions are possible 

In Tanzania, there are approximately 4 million children under 14 who are not appropriately cared for (with Tanzania having a total population of 38 million people!). A big proportion of these children are orphans, out of whom many have lost their parents through AIDS. Others have been rejected by unmarried mothers, as children born to single mothers are socially not accepted in Tanzania, or because the single mothers are just too poor to guarantee the basic care (nutrition) of their children. Even if the children still have both parents, they often left their homes because of extreme poverty of the parents, domestic violence which is often caused by the parents' alcoholism or drug abuse, or because of being victims of witchcraft.

Many of these children are faced to live a horrible life on the streets, trying to make a living through begging, thievery or prostitution. Street children can be seen wearing tattered cloth, walking alone or in small groups through the streets of cities such as Arusha or Moshi, sleeping in house entrances or other primitive shelters. 

Another category of children who have left their homes don't actually live on the streets, but they live with their relatives or other families as "children of second class", having to stand behind the host families' own children in terms of nutrition, accommodation and education. Whereas boys usually prefer to live on the streets, this is the typical option for girls. At their host families, they are often abused as "working slaves" and find themselves on the lowest position within society, often being the target of physical violence, humiliation and sexual abuse.

There are however several organizations who support these disadvantaged children and it is possible to volunteer with these organizations. 

All of the centres presented below have a real need for volunteers. They have been started by proactive locals who have put a lot of personal effort into their projects to make them grow to the standards they are offering today. The centres can provide acceptable basic supplies for the children and have gained – in most cases through World Unite! – first experiences with foreign volunteers whom they can introduce to their work and accompany in an appropriate way. However, still today, these centres are struggling with everyday financial issues. We do not cooperate with centres that are already saturated with funds and are not really in need of volunteers. The projects supported by WorldUnite! work closely with local communities and volunteers can get a true insight into the social reality of children in an African developing country.

A certain exception are the SOS Children Villages which offer almost European standards. They have fully equipped medical centers and schools which can also be used by many children and adults who don’t live at the Children’s Village. At the SOS Children’s Village we offer internships and volunteer positions of more specialized subject areas such as medicine, psychology, social work and psychology that would not be possible to such a degree at the smaller, more local centres for orphans. 

Presentations of the centres:

Yesu Anaweza Center Moshi

(Scroll up to see more pictures)

In 2003 priest Zacharias Donald Yona started every Saturday to provide porridge for free to street children and other children from the area “Njimpia”, a poor part of Moshi town, while listening to their life stories. Within a short time around 110 children showed up regularly.

As he achieved to raise funds, he could afford to have all the kids medically screened. The result of this screening was that only two children were found to be HIV positive and that most of them "only" had easier to solve health problems such as parasites or symptoms of nutritional deficiencies.

After this health check and the following treatments were completed, Zacharias and his wife started their education program: They founded a free pre-school for children from 3 to 7 and arranged financial support to pay the public school for older children. Although in Tanzania public school is free, there are costs associated to attending school such as paying for the school uniform, stationary, books and food. Additionally, Zacharias and his wife started a “Youth club” that offers entertainment and education for children aged 3-13 from Monday to Friday, and for 14-18 year olds on Saturday and Sundays.

The next step was the establishment of a small home for 15 orphans from Njimpia who didn’t have anywhere else to stay. Today, besides Zacharias and his wife, the staff of Yesu Anaweza includes three teachers, a social worker, two cooks, a gardener and a bookkeeper.

Yesu Anaweza is looking for volunteers from the following subject areas:

We have to mention that Yesu Anaweza does not really differentiate between these positions. Volunteers will have to do all of this, and the main part will be teaching (reading, writing, calculating, English) and playing with the kids. The months of June and December are holidays.

Msamaria Centre for Street Children and Orphans

Msamaria Centre has been founded in July 2007 by a group of social workers under the direction of Mr. Mapunda, who before was the director of a big, well-established centre for orphans in Moshi. The centre which is independent of religious denomination, is home to 50 orphan and street children (only boys) aged 7 to 15 years. A further 100 children who live in local communities are being supported by Msamaria. The aim is to provide the basic needs of children which are accommodation, nurtrition, medical care, clothing and education and to reintegrate them into society.

Msamaria employs 6 persons of staff besides Mr. Mapunda: Teacher Mr. Magafu, the educators Mr. Joel, Mr. Juma and Mama Machua, night supervisor Paolo Shimbi and the cook Beatrice. 

Mr. Magafu is teaching all subjects which are needed to reintegrate the kids into the public school system such as reading, writing, calculating and general knowledge. Besides the 6 persons of staff there are a couple of local volunteers who come to the centre on a per-hour bases to teach certain vocational skills such as tayloring, cooking or basic business skills. 

For the case the parents of the children are still alive, Msamaria tries to contact them and tries to help them to develop possibilities how the children can return to their families, for instance by elaborating ways of income generation for impoverished families. Msamaria is looking for volunteers for the following tasks:

Kilicentre

Kilicentre has been founded in 2006 by social worker Michael Mpombo. At the moment there are 30 orphan and street children at Kilicentre, girls and boys, aged 4 to 13 years. The aim of the centre is to prepare disadvantages children for a successful start into life. The centre arranges accommodation, food, medical care, clothing, counselling and education.

The energetic director Mpombo successfully managed to set up partnerships with foreign help organisations. A modern building with toilets and showers could be built with the help of a Spanish organisation; the centre is currently constructing a new dormitory to accommodate a further 20 orphan and street children.

Huruma Women Group

Huruma Women Group consists of 25 women from various villages of the Tella Mande area outside of Moshi town on the foothills of Kilimanjaro. The group is not yet a registered NGO, but a community-based project (CBP). The women are supporting around 70 children and adolescents who at the moment live with other families as "second class children". Most of them are between 10 and 16 years old. The women have rented a simple house in the forest some 8 km outside of Moshi that they want to make a home for around 20 young orphans and street children. 

This is currently not yet possible because of a lack of funds. Huruma is looking for volunteers who have experience in setting up charitable organisations, who have fundraising skills and can initiate the necessary organisational steps.  

http://www.huruma.info 

Mwema Street Children Centre, Karatu

Mwema Street Children Centre Karatu is a community-based organisation (CBO), directed by Pastor Elisante since 2006. Mwema means in Swahili "second chance". 22 former street children (21 boys and 1 girl) live in the centre in three dormitories and besides of accommodation get good, clothing, education, medical care and personal and group counselling. Not far from the home, there is a small school building with three classes, where besides the children from the home 26 further children from the neighbourhood are being educated so they can pass the examination to enter into the public school system.

Mwema is looking for volunteers who can teach maths, ethics and general knowledge. Further Mwema is looking for football (soccer) coaches and volunteers with skills in acrobatics and all kind of handcrafts.

WODEF

WODEF stands for Women, Orphans and Disabled Foundation. The foundation is active in Moshi/Kilimanjaro and carries out outreach programs that look after people in need in their private homes. These are orphan children living with other families, sick patients (often suffering from HIV), widows and old aged. The organisation works out inidividual plans and tries to empower those in need to improve their life situation themselves.

This activity is best for volunteers from the area of nursing and social work.

•    Counselling of children, adolescents and families

SOS Outreach Programs

The SOS Children's Villages of Dar-es-Salaam, Arusha and Zanzibar carry out outreach "family strengthening" programs which are particularly interesting for professional volunteers from the area of social work.

In Arusha and Zanzibar these programs have been started several years ago. At both places around 600 families in need are supported to improve their life situation. This includes counselling and financial support for the education (school and professional training) of the children, income-generating support for the parents, health care and family planning. In Dar-es-Salaam this program was started in 2007, anyway there are already more than 200 families being supported. 

Volunteers from the subject area of social work can accompany the professionals of SOS and support them to identify families who are potential candidates for the family strengthening programs, to analyse their needs and to work out individual plans for supported families. Swahili language skills are of big help for this work.

In Zanzibar, it is possible to give psychological support to the orphans living at the children's village as well as to their replacement mothers. This is possible for students of psychology as well as for professional psychologists.

The following tasks can be done with SOS:

Initiatives for orphans in the Marangu and Siha District in Tanzania

The Siha District is a rural area at the Western slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. Marangu is a village around 30 km North-East of Moshi which for many tourists is the starting point for their Kilimanjaro climb. At both locations there are several initiatives which have been started by locals, caring for orphan children. After the parents of the children have died (in most of the cases because of HIV) those children move into the homes of relatives who however cannot provide proper care for the kids because they are either too old for the case they are the childrens' grandparents, because they don't have the necessary financial means, or because they don't feel responsible.

Volunteers are needed to support the members of these local initiatives. Volunteers will live with a family in the village themselves and will can fully immerse into the African reality. Such volunteering option can also be interesting for instance to students of African sciences.