Empowering Children and Widow Community in Tanzania
Tumaini Foundation is a registered NGO with the Mission of Creating Better Living Standard Life for Orphans and Widows. Since 2008, we have served 350+ children and 250+ widows in Dodoma, the capital of Tanzania. Founded by Tumaini Kivuyo, an orphan who lived a very difficult life situation as a young girl, we aimed to provide hope and equal education to Orphans, children with special needs and Widows.
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To mold, nurture and support Vulnerable Children and Widows to solve the challenges facing in the local communities, our team collaborate closely with government, international organizations, agencies and private sectors. We are dedicated to create better lives for Orphans, Disabled and Widows in Tanzania
How we Started
The Tumaini Foundation is a non-governmental organisation established 16 years ago with the mission to create a better standard of living for orphans and widows in the Dodoma community. Its founder, TUMAINI RAYMOND KIVUYO, is an orphan and experienced a very difficult life situation when she was young and came from a Maasai tribe. She has gone through various humiliations and abuses, so her mission now is to give hope to children going through the same situation through "TUMAINI FOUNDATION" an Organisation established by her name. It currently serves orphans, disabled and widows with passion and commitment. All this work is carried out without donors or sponsors, but she would be grateful to find support to carry out the project in a sustainable way by working with passion from her heart. "I never tire of supporting these beautiful children because I know and feel exactly what they are going through? I have the mark on my body, for example, I lost a tooth when I was almost killed by bad people who thought my blood would lead to wealth," Tumaini says.
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The Tumaini Foundation started in 2008 with 17 children sleeping on a rubbish dump near the local market in Babati Town in the Manyara region. The children called the place where they slept "Jumba la Dhahabu", which in Swahili means "The House of Gold". This name was given because there were many houses and people in the area, but no one thought of giving them shelter.
After this they mobilised foster families and some sick children were moved from the dump site to various homes because it was a wonderful experience for both parties. The children were employed to carry luggage and were paid 200 Tanzanian shillings or nothing at all. They didn't have time to go to school because they had to work to eat, so the foundation started giving them an education. They started teaching them to read and write under the banana trees as they had no money to pay for classes or to build one thanks to the "Shule ya Tumaini" programme, which means Tumaini School.
Three of them died while the other 14 continued their education. Unfortunately 4 of them were already affected by drugs and could not do anything to earn a living and move on. Rehabilitation centres were not accessible at that time, so they moved to Dar es Salaam and the rest continued with Vocational Training, some of them working as shoeshine boys, mechanics, drivers and others as shopkeepers.
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Now they continue to inspire the younger ones. After 10 years they take care of at least 350 children in the Orphanage Centre, and the Shelter House in the region of Dodoma - Tanzania. On the other hand they also have an early learning school that they have built under the name (BRAYS CROWN SCHOOLS) while they are still working to expand the programme to include a primary school.
Challenges
Poor Cultural Beliefs
Some families from the tribes in the community we are working with hold the belief that disabled children are a symbol of bad luck and misfortune. The impact of this belief is that children with disabilities are often hidden.
Inadequate Financial and Material
To cover the budget set up by our experts, based on the number of children and widows in need of support, we need sufficient land plots to build enough classrooms, dormitories/hostels to accommodate all children, learning facilities (especially for disabled children), transportation means such as a school bus and motorcycles, and sports and exercise facilities.
Insufficient Human Support
We require more people to join us in our efforts to support the community, especially through volunteering. More hands and hearts are needed to effectively provide the assistance and resources necessary to meet the community's needs, particularly on help with construction of school facilities, teaching, taking care of children, and art and craft projects with widows.
Volunteering Partnership
Tumaini Foundation works to accomplish its mission through PARTNERSHIP, from which knowledge, experience and skills are shared among individuals and Organizations, by working together through Volunteering in Helping and Supporting Vulnerable Children (Orphans & Disabled), under FOSTER CARE PLAN which includes Widows with loving hearts for the children. In this case, Our Organization is Currently Hosting Volunteers from International Organizations like WWOOF and Workaway. We sincerely invited cr editable Partners around the globe, who are interested and willing to join and Support our efforts of Helping and Supporting Orphans, Disabled, All vulnerable Street Children and Widows.
