HOPE FOUNDATION TANZANIA

HOPE FOUNDATION TANZANIA

to bring hope to those who have none

Hope Foundation is a faith based charity which provides care for 41 orphaned or disadvantaged children who are staying at the HOPE Children Center and more 200 Children who are staying with their relatives, a pre & Primary school education for 150 Children from 3 -15 year olds and an outreach programme for up to 120 people who are sick or suffering from HIV/AIDS, Oldrers and Youth.

HISTORY

Hope Foundation began in 2002 when Pastor Mrina and his wife began the orphanage, taking in 5 children between the ages of 3 – 10, since then the orphanage has grown and they now care for 41 orphaned or disadvantaged children between the ages of 3 - 18.

Pastor Mrina & Mama The pre school class for 5-6 year olds

The Hope Foundation also began to run an outreach programme for widows of HIV/AIDS and those sick or suffering with other illnesses. When starting the outreach programme no one was aware of how to take care of HIV/AIDS sufferers. Mark, the Pastor and Mamas second son travelled to Arusha to speak to an Australian/Tanzanian charity that runs a training school there for medical volunteering. The charity visited Msae village to speak to the community and help with training the volunteers in taking care of the patients. Whilst in Msae they stayed at the orphanage with the family, this sparked an interest in helping Hope with educational projects and in 2005 the land was bought for the building of a school with the Hope Foundation committee in charge of the immediate running of it and the charity overseeing it.

A Pre School class for 3-6 year olds ran at the church until 2007 when Hope were able to rent a nearby building, it now has 45 children attending and has two paid teachers who were previously local volunteers.

During 2007-2008 two classrooms were built for Kindergarten 1+2 (ages 6-7) & Standard 1 (ages 7 - 8) and in 2008 Mwika Integrity Schooll opened! Teachers were able to be hired and paid, before this the children were taught in the church by local volunteers and some members of the Mrina family.

Mwika Integrity school building

In 2008 Hope Foundation were able to fund the building of a dormitory for the girls whilst the boys slept in the Kindergarten at night. In 2009 Hope Foundation had a visit from a volunteering group called Path to Africa who arrange volunteering projects in Moshi, PTA began to send volunteers to Hope early in the Summer and after a few months building work resumed when a couple of young volunteers from Ireland arrived via PTA and helped to fund and build a new toilet block and more importantly a dormitory for the boys; finally all the children could sleep within the orphanage at night!

Just after this building work took place, Government officials visited and the requirement of a dining room was highlighted as an urgent necessity; this prompted the Australian/Tanzanian charity to send a team to build a dining room and kitchen which would finally give Hope the orphanage status it required.

The dining room in progress and how it looks now!

In 2009 the Hope Foundation finally became a licensed orphanage! This meant that it met the requirements to be classed as an orphanage, prior to this it was allowed to have provisional status for a number of years until the required building work was finished.

2009 saw a number of volunteers continue to arrive offering experience in various areas incliding the setting up of a website to advertise Hope to the local community and the outside world. A more structured programme for volunteers and their roles was also produced.

In late 2010 the volunteer coordination moved from Path to Africa to Tembo Tamu a family run safari company and B&B based in Moshi who offer tailored support to volunteers and travellers in Tanzania. 2010 also saw the Tanzanian/Australian charity move on to other projects so buidling work on the school ceased. However, building breifly resumed in January 2011 when new volunteer Tarryn arrived with some money from fundraising and a further classroom was built taking the total up to three!

Since 2011 there has been very limited outside funding and assistance

Hope are currently looking for further funding and sponsor to continue building and secure funding for the teachers and sponsorship of the children. If you are interested in helping in this area please contact us.

ORPHANAGE

Staff & Family:
The Pastor and Mama have lived in Msae all their lives. They have seven children who are all involved in the running of the orphanage in some way; the project management of building work, cooking, cleaning and looking after the children, teaching vocational skills such as tailoring or masonry, as well as researching and sourcing new information to further the goals of the Hope Foundation as a whole.

There are also a number of local volunteers, some who have been helping at the orphanage for over 10 years and some who are just teenagers themselves; they help with teaching the younger children, cooking, cleaning and washing, visiting patients on the outreach programme and helping with the administration of the Hope Foundation.

Hope Foundation have just this year (2011) begun receiving independent volunteers who have helped with building projects, working at the school, playing with the children and working on a volunteer plan for the future.

Kids:
There are 41 children at the orphanage between the ages of 3-18. The children have different stories; some have been orphaned through parents dying of HIV/AIDS, and had only elderly or sick relatives who we're unable to care for them properly. Others we're abandoned or thrown out by their parents, some we're badly neglected or have had alcoholic or abusive parents. Now at Hope Foundation they are cared for and wanted and are given a bed, food, clothes and in most cases an education. Their future is looking much brighter!

(Some of the children next to the cowshed and the old cooking area - Summer 2009)

About:
The orphanage is not just bed and breakfast for the children, it is their home and some have lived here for almost all of their lives. Many have grown up with the Mrina children and the younger ones play with the Mrina grandchildren; it is much like an extended family. The Pastor and Mama want to provide a safe home for the children who have had a difficult start in life but also a better future, this is why education is very important and most of the younger children go to the local school whilst some of the older ones learn vocational skills that can help them in their future. Even with very little resources the orphanage is a happy place and now that they have a dining room there is a central place for them to play games, do homework, sing and pray together and most importantly eat!

PRE - SCHOOL

There are 45 children between the ages of 3-6 at the Pre School. They are taught by two paid teachers (when funds are available) and currently 2 local volunteers. It is a free service and the youngest children at the orphanage attend as well as local children up to the age of 6. There is only one small room so it can be difficult to teach the class, this is why they are split into two groups and the 3-4 year olds are taught outside on benches (if it isn’t raining!) whilst the 5-6 year olds are taught inside on the floor.

    Local volunteers teaching the pre-school         Visiting a patient with HIV
              class for 3-4 year olds

OUTREACH

The outreach programme was begun to provide support to the widows and sufferers of HIV/AIDS, it has since grown to include those who are seriously ill and need treatment and support, Hope Foundation currently visits up to 120 people in the local and surrounding villages. The service is carried out by the Mrina family and also local volunteers who can walk for up to two hours to visit somebody who is sick. They can offer company, home care such as washing, treatment or food as well as arranging for a patient to be driven to hospital if necessary. They also offer prayer which can be comforting for those who are too sick to travel to their church. The volunteers are also looking out for where they can help children who may also be sick or living in poor conditions; with a parent who is ill the children can often be neglected. Hope Foundation also run ‘Hope Day’ on the last Sunday of each month where around 126 children from the orphanage and surrounding areas all get together at the school to play. If there is funding they will also get a meal but the main idea is to connect the children and encourage a community spirit amongst them.

MWIKA INTEGRITY SCHOOL

Mwika Integrity School is an English Medium Pre and Primary School started in 2008 under the hope foundation ministry. The original school was begun by Hope Foundation many years ago, it was held in the church and run by volunteers. Hope Foundation have a committee which oversees and coordinates the running of the school and the hiring of staff.

THE AIM: to help children from poor families and orphaned children to receive a good quality of education. The school was supported by the Imara Ministry Foundation, Australia until 2010. Since 2010, the school has been struggling to provide for the children due to a lack of permanent support. This is also because almost 50% of its pupils are unable to pay school fees.

EDUCATION: The Mwika Integrity School in terms of its results is one of the best primary schools in Tanzania. This is mostly due to the fact that all lessons are taught in English. In government schools at primary level the children receive all their lessons in Kiswahili. At secondary school in Tanzania all lessons are taught in English so the children from the government primary schools struggle and often fail due to an inability to access the language used. However, the children from Mwika Integrity School continue to progress well when entering government secondary schools.

THE SCHOOLS NEEDS: Currently, 17 pupils out of 110 pay full schools fees of 408, 000 tsh per year (170 pounds or 256 US dollars). 48 pupils of 110 are paying partial school fees of 108, 000 tsh per year (45 pounds or 68 US dollars). 45 of the 110 pupils do not pay anything because they are orphans at the hope foundation. Therefore, there are 93 children in need of sponsorship for their education.

Due to a lack of funds the school teachers currently are paid 40, 000 tsh a month (20 pounds or 30 US dollars). To have 3 meals a day in Tanzania costs a day 10, 000 tsh (4 pounds or 6 US dollars). As you can see the teachers make many sacrifices in their own lives in order to continue to provide these children with an education. In the last year many teachers have come and gone as a result of not being able to provide for their own families on the salaries received. The school provides its pupils with porridge for breakfast and a lunch of rice and beans, the hope foundation are always struggling to find the funds each week for this provision.

Additional resources the school needs include:

i) furniture (40 desks, 4 shelves, 5 tables and 5 chairs).

ii) 2 more classrooms need to be built so as to provide the children with the last two years of their primary education.

iii) 2 of the current classrooms need completing (flooring needs to be layed, windows, doors installed and walls plastered).

iv) school supplies-text books, chalk, blackboard erasers, glue, marker pens etc.

v) photocopying machine (currently it is costing the school a lot of money to print pupils monthly exams and office documents).

vi) sports items-balls, sports uniforms and equipment.

Any contributions will be much appreciated at the hope foundation and will make a difference to these children's lives.