Orphans Africa

We just received these new photos from our OA contact in Vwawa. These are the nursery school children that OA helps to care for. I just want to pinch their cheeks!! — Michele

Ever wonder how well charities manage your hard-earned donations? With OA, the answer is astounding. Over 93% of all expenditures in 2009 went to fund our programs in Tanzania. (This is compared to the industry average of 70-80%.) Yup –  OA is one lean, mean philanthropic machine and our 2009 Financial Report proves it.  Click here to read the full report.

The Year in Review

In July and August, 2009, we once again packed our bags and traveled to Tanzania where we spent several weeks visiting the projects sites and meeting with team leaders. We hiked the hills of Bujela, gathered around the cookfires at night, visited with orphan children, and sang and danced with the various communities. (Oh and by the way, did you know Tanzanians love to sing and dance? Click here for a video.)

Weary around the edges, we nevertheless returned home overjoyed with progress. Never before have we felt such hope for our projects in Tanzania. From new brick classrooms to children with books in arms, it was amazing to see. More than anything we were struck with the spirit of unity, with the passion and conviction in the hearts of those whose job it is to carry the projects to fruition.

Currently, we have three bricks-and-mortar projects, all schools, and one microlending project for widows, which is in the pilot stage. Here is a summary of our progress, our year in review:

Financial Overview

In 2009, 93% of OA’s expenditures went to funding programs in Tanzania. That’s an amazing figure, considering the average charity only spends between 70 and 80% on programs. Yes, we run a lean, mean philanthropic machine!

Click here to read the full financial report.

Mwaji Secondary School

Previous to 2009, the orphan students of the Mwaji Secondary School sat in a classroom made of bamboo, thatch, and bark. They crowded together on benches hewn from logs, their notebooks on their laps. When it rained, they had to use umbrellas. Their toilet was a hole in the ground, surrounded by walls of sticks and grasses woven together. When they asked Orphans Africa for help, we agreed to build them a more permanent structure.

At first things went well. But then, in April, 2009, progress abruptly came to a halt when the government closed the Mwaji Secondary School until a more permanent toilet facility could be built. The students were, literally, in tears. Thank goodness we had an OA volunteer on-site, Pablo Rodriguez, from Brazil. Pablo had volunteered to teach science, but when the school closed, he sprang into a different kind of action. With his own funds, Pablo built a two-hole toilet facility for the teachers, enough of a stop-gap so the school could temporarily reopen. In the meantime, the OA team in the USA was scrambling for emergency funding. And boy, did our donors ever come through! By the time we visited in August, we had gathered enough funds to witness the completion of two additional toilet facilities: an 8-hole toilet for girls, and an 8-hole toilet for boys. Our deepest thanks to Pablo for his capable action, and to our donors for responding to the emergency!

Other accomplishments for 2009 include:

Completion of one classroom to include brick walls plastered and painted, cement floor, 20-year tin roof, metal guards and screens on windows, a locking steel door, desks and chairs.

A second classroom ready for plastering and painting.

Form Two students sat for their National Exams (results are pending).

A fully operational water well, also open to the community.

Salaries for teachers.

130 orphan students in attendance, all with uniforms.

Donated school supplies and some textbooks, thanks to OA donors.

More textbooks on the way! (Thanks to Freedom Through Learning)

Click here to see a video of the students at the Mwaji Secondary School.

Marilynn Primary and Nursery School

As our OA volunteer, Connie Fishel, can attest, when one steps onto the campus of the Marilynn Primary and Nursery School in Majohe, Tanzania, children get pretty excited. They all want to hold your hand!

This school was the first of OA’s bricks-and-mortar projects and is, consequently, the most mature. While there remains much to be done, accomplishments in 2009 were significant:

No longer crammed three to a desk, each student has his or her desk with chair.

Unlike before when the shelves were almost bare, the library is now filled with books and supplies. Children can check out books to take home.

Students of Standard Four sat for their National Examinations in November. Not only did each student pass, but the Marilynn Primary and Nursery School scored the fourth best out of one hundred schools in the Ilala District!

Installation of a well pump and water tower. Water no longer has to be purchased and brought in from the outside. The well is open to the community during off-school hours.

All classrooms have been refurbished with plaster, paint, cement floors, and locking steel doors.

Two out of three dormitories have been completed, to include plaster, paint, cement floors, tin roofs, metal bars and screens for windows, and wiring for electricity.

Third dormitory has walls.

A second septic tank was installed for the toilet facilities. The 10-hole toilet facility was completed and is now in operation.

Received government inspection; school is scheduled to be officially registered and orphans can live on campus pending completion of kitchen and dining hall facilities, and pending the furnishing of the dormitories.

Textbooks on the way! (Thanks to Freedom Through Learning)

Click here to see a video showing the construction and progress at the Marilynn Primary and Nursery School.

Isandula Center

What can you do with eighty acres? If you’re in Tanzania, you can do a lot! For instance, you can build a school that will educate and house hundreds of orphans, teaching them agriculture and animal husbandry in addition to the “three R’s.” That’s exactly what OA is planning to do at the Isandula Center in Vwawa, located in Western Tanzania near the border of Zambia.

The most ambitious of OA’s projects, the Isandula Center will require approximately $200,000 over the course of the next five years. Although the project is still in its first phase, in 2009, OA accomplished the following:

Constructed a water well.

Erected two permanent signs indicating land ownership and intended purpose.

Began construction on a caretaker’s cottage, which is now ready for roofing.

Developed a master plan for the complex.

Donated school supplies. (Thanks to OA donors!)

Click here for a video regarding the Isandula Center.

Business Development for Widows

This year, OA began a pilot project in Tanzania to benefit the widows. Most widows in Tanzania have no means of earning a living, and yet they must somehow support their children, provide food and water, and pay the rent. Part of OA’s mission is to provide skills and resources to widows to enable them to become self-sustaining and to send their children to school.

Using money from a donor earmarked for this purpose, OA provided eighteen widows with microloans so they could begin their own businesses. All eighteen widows rely on one another for support and encouragement, and as a group, are financially responsible for the repayment of their loan on a monthly basis. This system of checks and balances, plus monthly monitoring by an OA employee, helps to ensure repayment of the loan and ultimate success of the project.

The businesses are varied– tailoring, piggeries, shopkeeping, and the selling of charcoal, to name a few. If this project proves successful, OA plans to use donations from the general funds to provide microloans to another group of widows. All funds received as repayment will also be funneled back into microloans, providing an ongoing, sustainable investment in the future of these women and their children.

Click here to see a video of one of the businesses OA helped to create for one of the widows.

We received an email from Wilfred, our OA employee in Tanzania. Besides sharing the news about the test results for our orphans, he had this to say, “We do appreciate the great work you are doing to make the future of orphans and widows have a defined destiny. The lost hope has been restored, the sun which was setting for them is now rising.”

Even in the midst of such tragedy in our world, with much suffering and grief, let us not forget that the sun is indeed rising. So take heart! Wherever there are people who still care, who love, who share the goodness they have received with others, hope is reborn.