Malaika Kids Tanzania aims to help some of the 2 million orphans and most vulnerable children in Tanzania. Volunteers in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the USA support Malaika Kids Tanzania. Our aim is to improve the education and health of as many of the orphans and most vulnerable children as we can and prepare them for a self-supporting future.
Malaika Kids is a local initiative run by a Tanzanian, Najma Manji, who was striving to help local orphans long before the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the USAbecame involved. Together with her, qualified volunteers from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the USAdeveloped and implemented a model for all those underprivileged children brought to Malaika Kids Tanzania by the local Welfare office.
Malaika Kids Tanzania gives these children a ‘family’ and an education. For this we run two programs:
- With priority: the Relatives Support Program where Malaika Kids Tanzania support poor relatives to take care of their young family member brought to Malaika Kids Tanzania by Welfare, and
- Regrettably, for certain children it is not possible to find relatives who can take the child into their care and support. The children for whom Malaika Kids Tanzania cannot find relatives, are welcomed into our purpose-built Children’s Village, where they live in small family houses, looked after by loving house mothers.
Some orphanages in Africa, India and Southeast Asia have been rightly condemned for taking children away from their very poor families and have used the children to raise money for the people running the orphanage. Malaika Kids Tanzania does the opposite. When the local Welfare office brings a child to us asking for our help, our first action is to seek to find a family member to look after the child. We talk to the child for clues and take them to areas they may remember; we use local television to advertise in the ‘lost children’ slot. Sometimes, a child has become lost and cannot find their way home.
If we know of someone who needs help to care for a child (typically a disabled mother or a grandmother), our first priority is to provide monthly food packages, medical insurance and education support so that the family unit can stay together.
Only if we and the Welfare authorities agree that nobody can be found to support the child, do we transfer the child to the Children’s Village. Our aim is to look after all of our children and educate them appropriately for their ability, so that they can survive in the troubled Tanzanian job market.
Where possible, Malaika Kids Tanzania runs its organisation in a sustainable way, using solar energy, pumping our own drinking water, growing our own vegetables, and collecting rainwater to irrigate them. Malaika Kids Tanzania raises funds locally by selling some crops, offering places in our nursery class for fees and appealing for local donors.
Mission:
To provide a safe home, a caring and loving family and education to orphans and most vulnerable children.
Vision:
To give these orphans and most vulnerable children a worthwhile, fulfilling future.
Objectives:
- To provide care for the orphans and most vulnerable children in a stable and safe living environment.
- To protect and promote the health and welfare of children and nurture their overall growth and development, including their physical, social, emotional and intellectual needs, allowing them to grow and develop to their full potential.
- To encourage the development of responsibility and self-esteem of the children in our care.
- To ensure children are protected from any form of abuse, discrimination, slavery and cruel punishment. Malaika Kids does not condone any form of corporal punishment.
- To enable children to grow within a caring family environment and have access to essential services such as health and education.
Values:
- Independent: Malaika Kids Tanzania is an independent charity, supported by affiliated charities in The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
- Non-religious: Malaika Kids is a non-religious charity. Employees and the children in care are totally free to profess the beliefs of their choice.
- Transparent: Malaika Kids is transparent in the way that the operations are organised and financed.
- Equal opportunities: Malaika Kids offers equal opportunities, irrespective of gender, age, disability and sexual orientation.
