CURRENTLY SUPPORTED FAMILIES
5
Christina D.
Christina is living in Kambi ya fisi at Ngarenaro. Her husband died in 2012 and now she is alone with three children. Her oldest son Benda Juma is 25 years old. He finished primary school and received permission to continue with governmental secondary school, but the family could not afford the school fees. In order to be able to feed her children, Christina became a barmaid (which involves prostitution), although she feels ashamed of it in front of her community and her children. Benda remains jobless. He would like to get driving lessons and a driver’s license to become a hired driver.
Christina’s daughter Mariam is now 23. She also finished primary school and did not find a job. Her younger sister Mwajuma Juma (16) is going to secondary school (Meru school), but she hasn’t been able to attend school for one month because her mother could not afford the semester fees. Her mother currently owes 360,000 TSh.
We would like to send Mwajuma back to school by paying the debt and enable Benda to become a driver so that he can support the family. Christina also needs support finding a decent job.
Update: Christina has, according to her wish, started a small business of selling roasted fish and banana on the street. She is happy about not having to go back to her old job.
Update 2020/2021
Christina works in a bar again, but she wasn't always paid. There were very little sales this year. Therefore she cannot pay the rent for Mwajuma. Because of the bad location
Christina thinks about moving away from Arusha and going to her village near Tanga, where her relatives still live.
Mwajuma wanted to go to high school, but her grades weren't that good so we thought it didn't make a lot of sense (especially since it also costs a lot of money, money that we unfortunately don't have). She is now completing an apprenticeship in hotel management at Savanna Bridge College.
Benda has a driver's license and finished his training of car repairing in at the end of March 2017. As there is a law in Tanzania that people need 2 years of driving practice before extending their license to the one that allows bus and taxi driving, Benda has to wait. Most people actually get their license illegally, because the waiting time is too long. However, as an official organization, we need to act according to the laws, even if it's not fair.
6
Fatuma R.
Fatuma is a widow with four children. She was a casual worker in a godown concerned with sorting and packing quality maize and beans for export.
Prior to sorting and packing, maize and beans are treated with preservative chemicals which are poisonous and affected the health of Fatuma so much that she had been admitted in the hospital several times for treatment.
As a casual worker, Fatuma was not provided with protective facilities like gloves and masks and additionally, she was not employed on permanent and pensionable terms. As a consequence, she is not covered with health insurance and not entitled for other social support package.
Fatuma earned Tshs. 3,000 TSh (1.5 USD) per day for doing that dangerous work and spent a lot of the earned income for treatment. She could not quit this job because of having no alternative job.
Fatuma needed medical support, educational support for her children and economical support for herself. She has been supported with medicines, food and house rent by Widows and Watoto Empowerment Foundation until she was in better health conditions. The school debt for obtaining the school certificate of her daughter Hawa and the lunch at school for her son Rashid was also paid.
When we visited her in June 2016, Fatuma had her own food kiosk with the capital that she received from Widows and Watoto Empowerment Foundation. Her business went well, until the landlord increased the rent and her business was not profitable anymore. Luckily, she was hired by an indian entrepeneur as a housemate.
Fatuma's family still needs help in supporting the daughter Hawa with her vocational education.
Update February 2019: Fatuma is lucky to still have employment with a fixed monthly salary, but the salary is quite small and therefore sometimes she has difficulties in paying her rent. If Hawa can find a job soon and stand on her own feet, it would be a great help for her.
Update April 2020: Hawa is currently doing a stage in a tour company, but the situation in the tourism area is currently very difficult due to the corona crisis.
Update 2021:
Fatuma was employed by a wealthy Indian family as a housekeeper. Because of the
pandemic her employer went back to India and Fatuma lost her job.
Hawa worked for a small safari company. Glory, the owner, has no customers and cannot pay Hawa. She recommended that we give her start-up capital so that she can stand on her own feet.
Rashidi is in the 10th grade (form 3) of the state school. He already has a sponsor.
7
ASHA R.
When we met Asha in the hospital, she was suffering from stomach ulcer. Asha has 3 children born in 1999, 2001 and 2005. The two younger ones live with her in a single room. Asha was selling corn on the street, and had a very small income. Her dream was to have a business of catering/food supply, but she didn’t have the equipment necessary for cooking. She didn't have the money for paying her medical bills. We paid for her treatment, food for her family while she couldn't work and we bought her the equipment for her catering business as well as food as starting material.
Progress: In June 2016, we visited Asha and her family to find out how she is. She told us that she and her children are in good health and her catering service is going well.
With the money she earned, Asha was able to get a power connection for her house. This enables her to get work done even after 7pm, when it is dark outside. Additionally to her catering service she started a laundry service. Asha's son Daudi is continueing with secondary school. Yusta was sponsored to do an English short course together with Loveness at VETA college and now she will participate in the cooking lessons, that our local volunteer and experienced cook Khalid will start soon.
In March 2017 Asha became sick with pneumonia, but we were able to pay the costs of the hospital for her and now she is fine again and back to her work.
Asha's first born daughter Yusta would like to join the cooking class that our volunteer Khalid Mustafa will offer. We will need some support for buying the materials on the market and for the transport to the kitchen (the class will take place in the kitchen of our coordinator Saidi Walele for the beginning).
Update: Yusta became pregnant and is mother of little Letifa. She is still interested in learning how to cook.
Asha's second born son Daudi (16) finished primary school in 2015 and started secondary school in 2016. Widows and Watoto Empowerment Foundation provided transport and school materials for him because Asha could not not afford it at that time. Daudi would love to go to a boarding school, because he feels uncomfortable sharing a one-room-house with his mother and two sisters (and only one double bed for 4 persons). As boarding schools are quite expensive in Tanzania, we want at least to support Daudi with all the school materials for the day school.
Update 2018: Since January, Daudi is going to boarding school!
Update 2021
In Asha's family we continue to support Daudi. He's going on a private boarding school.
Grace is now also in the 11th grade (Form 4) with final exams.
She was sick and had no health insurance or money for the doctor. Mzee Saidi has called it severe flu with a cough. She received money for the doctor and we got her a health insurance (this costs less than € 25 for a year for students).
Yusta still lives with the father of her two children.
8
Maria
Maria and her family have joined our Foundation in 2018/2019. Maria was 34 years old at that time and she has three children. Her oldest son Dismas is currently attending secondary school, Form 2 (his 9th school year in total). His school fees for the upcoming year are secured.
The second born Caren has just started attending governmental primary school thanks to Erika, who pays for her school requirements.
The youngest child, Joshua, is approximately 2 years old. Maria doesn't remember his birthday, which happens sometimes in Tanzania. Not every child has a birth certificate. Her husband has left her and the family in 2015. Now, Maria is selling roasted fish on the street. She couldn't tell us her monthly, weekly or daily income (also this is not unusual here). In any case she spends all the money she earns and puts nothing aside. We have bought her some equipment to facilitate her work. What helped her most was a show case to store the roasted fish and prevent it from getting dusty. Here in Sanawari, where she lives and works, there is only a dirt road, which becomes muddy and slippery in the rainy season and dusty in the dry season.
Maria is very religious and spends long hours in church. She says she is preparing for the next life and she is already in another world. She seems to be quite happy with the few things she has. We had the impression that she doesn't really care about her current situation in life. According to her sister she has health issues, which she doesn't want to admit to herself and others. Her sister Elizabeth has to take care of many things. She takes over the fish business for the time that Maria spends in church. Elizabeth and her mum used to pay rent (25,000 TSh) for Maria. The current month is the first month she has to pay by herself. Unfortunately, she doesn't put money aside. When asked if she could save 1,000 TSh every day for her rent, she said that it's possible and she agreed to do it. Her sister will support her by controlling it.
We are a bit worried about the children. Maria seems to be incapable of proving for Joshua all by herself. We are afraid she might be so busy with herself and the afterlife that she forgets to take care of her children. That's why we put a special focus on ensuring the school education of them.
Update April 2020: Maria is doing much better nowadays. She has something similar to a bank account, but not with a bank but with her church. She deposits money every day and withdraws something every time when her rent is due. This helps her not to spend all her money immediately. Also compared to last time she was much more open to us during our visit in January 2020. We noticed a very positive influence on her son Joshua, too. Caren is going to the good private school around the corner since 2020, because there is a little group of people financing this for her.
Update 2020/2021
In January 2020 the situation looked better for Maria than at the beginning of the support. In contrast to many of our other women, her lifestyle had not improved much, but she was able to pay her rent herself and thereby relieve her sister Elizabeth. She had started putting something aside every day and dropping it off at the church and then withdrawing it from this type of "account" when the rent was due. In the current situation, however, she no longer sells enough to be able to deposit something. As a result, she is no longer able to pay her rent 6 months in advance, as it is common practice. The landlord allowed her to pay month after month.
Maria's eldest son Dismas is now 17 years old and is in the 11th grade (Form 4), in which national exams are written at the end.
Since the beginning of 2020, his sister Caren has been attending a good private school instead of the state school. This is a big improvement, but her mother doesn't understand the importance of it. Maria herself cannot read or write. Caren had very good grades in the state school and luckily a few people got together and covered all the costs for the Goodwill School for 2020 and 2021.
Joshua isn't going to school yet.
Beatrice
Beatrice was born in 1980 and her husband died recently. We have met her and her two children in January 2019. Her husband used to be a tourguide with a good income. Beatrice didn't work and took care about the household. She is originally from a poor family in Moshi and moved to Arusha in 1995, worked as a house maid first and then in a bar. The bar was where she met her husband who died in September 2018. She thinks that he was poisoned by colleagues. After his death, the relatives of the husband blocked the bank account.
She lives in an appartment with two rooms, TV, fridge, stereo system, and sofas in the living room. As the bank account is blocked, she can't pay for rent and needs to start a work urgently, but she is lacking the starting capital. She would like to start a small shop. The rent is 80,000 TSh per month. We are planning to give her a capital of 350,000 TSh. From this money she will not be able to buy many different things for her shop, but she will enlarge her product range with the time.
9
Her daughter Noela (9) went to a private school until end of 2018. She already speaks good English. Comparing her to other children of her age, the difference of governmental and private school education becomes very clear. The new school year has already started at the beginning of January, but Noela stays at home, because Beatrice is unable to pay the school fees of 800,000 TSh for Noela. Additionally to the fees, there are other costs for learning materials and school uniform so that the total costs for the year sum up to about 1,000,000 TSh. Noela was lucky to get Grace and Daniel as sponsors, so she can go back to school again this week.
When she is grown up, Noela wants to become a pilot.
Update 2020: Noela's little brother Daniel is going to an international governmental school now.
Beatrice had also inherited a very old car from her husband. In this car there seem to be more things that don't work than things that work. However, she managed to sell the car and invested the money into a shop with her brother
Update 2021:
The situation at home has turned out to be very difficult, especially for the children. Beatrice has let herself be deceived twice (once when selling the car, she didn't want to listen to our advice that the price that she asked for was way too high and sold it, but never got the money) and the second time was by her own brother who ran away with her money. The pandemic was not good for her business either. It has been difficult for us to help her, because she didn't keep us informed about her situation and doesn't seem to like taking advice. She is currently working as a barmaid, leaving her children very much alone at home. The children have started showing misbehaviour at school. We think it's best for them to go to a boarding school and get away from the bad environment they are currently in. We hope to find sponsors for them for 2022.
10
Elizabeth
Elizabeth is Maria's older sister. She is 37 years old and lives nearby Maria. She has a small stand where she sells fruit. Fortunately, she doesn't pay any rent for the stand. Her husband used to be a heavy smoker and drinker and died in 2013 due to liver failure. Since that day Elizabeth lives alone with her daughter Jenipha. Jenipha will turn 7 in February and visits the first grade on a governmental primary school. We have the impression that Elizabeth would actually be able to provide for her and Jenipha, but as she has to take care of Maria and her family additionally, she is running into trouble as well. Our strategy is to support Maria (or mainly her children) and reduce her financial burden in this way. Additionally, we would like to bear Jenipha's school costs and fortunately we have found a sponsor for her: Mario. We usualy ask our children what they want to become when they grow up. Jenipha wants to become an English teacher.
Update 2020/2021
Elizabeth had not yet received any financial support from us for her business, but we did cover her daughter Jenipher's school costs for the state school (there are no school fees, but there are still costs for electricity, security guard, water, food, school uniform, books and Notebooks). When we were in Arusha in January 2020, she was still in the process of paying off a loan (with interest), but now she has already done it. Since she had to support her sister Maria less, it had become easier for her. But business has also been less good for her lately. She currently has TSh 90,000 in rental debt. We would like to give her an interest-free loan and continue to pay Jenipher's school costs, So that she doesn't have to take out another loan and pay interest.
11
To be continued...
PREVIOUSLY SUPPORTED FAMILIES
1
MARIAM U.
When we met Mariam, she was in the hospital because she had typhus. She has born 4 children, from who two are still alive. Mariam is living with her daughter Loveness (16) and the baby girl of her sister who passed away. Loveness couldn't go to secondary school, although she would love to. Mariam was selling fruit and vegetable in a small shop nearby her home, but after being sick she didn't have the capital to buy the materials for selling. We paid for her medication, supported her with her rent, provided food for her and the family while she was sick and after she was cured, she got the starting goods for her shop.
Progress: Approximately half a year later, we visited Mariam. She was able to rent a place where she recently opened her own small outdoor restaurant.
Her business is going well and she is planning to build a new small house. She already bought the first 200 of 700 stones that she will need for it. Loveness is still interested in learing English and is trying to figure out what she would like to become in her future.
Update December 2017:
Mariam's house is almost finished, only the roof is missing. Loveness is going to college and will become a hotelier.
Update April 2020: Loveness lives with her mother again. She has had a baby girl to take care of. It is still unclear when she will work in the hotel again. Her hotel had told her when she left that she could come back anytime. We hope that tourism will have recovered from the crisis as soon as she is ready to work again.
2
Evaline L.
Evaline’s husband died in 2006 from HIV. In 2007, Evaline went to the hospital and found out that she was HIV positive as well. She had tuberculosis and still today has problems because she is living in a small house without windows, which is made of cow dung. The roof is not tight, it is humid inside and it has a smell of mold. The house is on the land of the father of her husband. As common for Waarusha, the elder father is controlling what Evaline is doing and she has to provide food for him because she is living in his so called “boma”.
Evaline is selling vegetables on the central market in Arusha city. She has to get up very early in the morning and walk a long way carrying heavy weight, although many times she is not feeling well. She earns approximately 2000 TSh per day and so she cannot afford the bus fare for daladala, because it costs 500 TSh and therefore she would lose half of her profit.
Her oldest son Benjamin (19) completed primary school and is now selling clothes. He lives in the city center and is not supporting the family because he is building up his own life. The second born daughter, Happiness (16) is studying in Form 1 of secondary school. She is being sponsored for a boarding school. Daniel (14) was involved in gangs very early and refused to go to school after Standard 2 (primary school). Daniel is in good hands now at a center in Moshi. Evaline’s youngest daughter Anita is visiting the second class of primary school.
We would like to rebuild Evaline’s house with real stones instead of cow dung so that her health will become better and also the quality of life for Anita, who also sleeps in the house, improves. But as a house of stone would cost more than 1000€, we will not be able to afford it and at least repair her old house. Additionaly, we would like to build a stall for her and give her a goat and some chicken, because she can't do hard work, and, as she is living on the country side, has a lot of space.
Update July 2017:
During a fundraising event at MPIP in Mainz, money was raised for Evaline and Flora.
From this money we were able to build a barn for Evaline and buy her a goat and 4 chicken.
Now we are working on the house repair, which is also covered in the donations of people from MPIP.
Unfortunately, Evaline is in a bad medical condition at the moment, so we will provide food for her and pay her medical expenses.
Update:
Sadly, Evaline was very sick and died in hospital in September 2017. Her daughters Anita and Happiness are now with the organization "Youth with a mission", Daniel is still at Angels Gate. Evaline's adult sons are still living in the village.
3
Ana M.
Ana is 36 years old and currently lives in Sanawari. She used to be a housewife and her husband worked in a bank. After he got promoted, he was poisoned because of jealousy. After that, her husband’s relatives took away all the properties and she struggled living alone with her only son. Nevertheless, her son completed school and even went to University in Moshi. In 2013, he died in an accident on the way back from University. Since then Ana is completely left alone and lost hope. From the stress she got high blood pressure and is depending on medication. She started drinking. She is just selling used clothes on the street to survive.
She promised to stop drinking if she had a business that went well. She would like to continue selling used clothes, but in a bigger scale therefore asked for a barrel of clothes as starting capital to sustain herself.
Estimated costs: 600,000 TSh for a whole barrel, or
300,000 TSh for half a barrel
Update:
In March 2017 we met Ana and found out that she was robbed and stubbed with a knife for 7 times on New Year's Eve. The old man that tried to kill her was caught by the police, however it is not clear why he did that. According to our coordinator Saidi Walele, it is most probable that the court will not send him to prison because Ana doesn't have the money to pay a good lawyer. She was left with a hospital bill of 250,000 TSh. Her relatives collected 50,000 TSh for her and the rest was now paid by us. Since Ana stopped drinking, we would like to help her now and buy her half a barrel of used clothes to enable her to start her business.
Update: Ana received her half barrel of clothes and is happy that she could start a new life with that.
Update January 2018:
The man who attacked Ana one year ago was sentenced to jail for 15 years by the court.
Ana moved to another place out of the city because she is afraid of members of the family of that man might try to hurt her because they are angry.
She had to go to the court process several times and spent hours there. Due to that she lost time to do her work and had additional expenses on the transport to go to town. So she couldn't create enough income to buy the next barrel of clothes. Before the court process, her business went well and she had already purchased 2 new half barrels with the income that she made with the first one. That's why we would like to help her with one last half barrel and we believe that she will do fine after that, and be independent of us.
Update February 2019: Anna is able to live without our support now.
4
Flora J.
Flora’s husband died from HIV in 2004. That was when Flora found out that she was also HIV positive. Her youngest son Gerald (13) has HIV as well. Gerald is in the first class of secondary school now, but Flora was unable to pay the second part of the school fee of 220,000 TSh. Due to Gerald’s weakened immune system he is having many problems with his ears and the doctors in the Arusha hospitals do not know how to treat him. They suggested that he should go to KCMC (Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Ventre in Moshi), but Flora cannot afford it. She is preparing Massai arts and selling them on the street, which does not bring in enough income. Flora has asthma which negatively affects her ability to work. Fortunately, she owns her house and does not need to pay rent. She also has 3 chickens and a goat. Her house is made of soil and cow dung and needs to be repaired often. Due to her illness and limited income she has difficulty making necessary repairs. Her house is outside of Arusha and it takes her a long time to get to town. Even by bus and motorbike taxi it takes between one and two hours, but she does not have the money to pay the transport and usually walks. She needs to go there regularly to pick up her medication for HIV.
Flora’s two daughters are not affected by HIV. The older one, Raphia, is 21 years old. She completed form 4, but she was not admitted to high school. Julita (15) will have her form 4 exams this year to determine if she will be admitted to high school.
We supported Flora’s family by paying her debt of 220,000 TSh for Gerald’s school. Flora said that for her it would be helpful to enlarge her stall and get another goat and chicken (similar to Evaline). Her house is also in need of being repaired.
Expected costs:
repair of Flora’s house: ca. 500,000 TSH
Goat: 75 USD
Chicken: 10 USD each
Stall: ca. 150 USD
Update July 2017:
The donations for the above plans were already given to us, and we will start the works soon (after Evaline's house repair is finished).
Flora's daughter Raphia told us in March 2017 that she would like to become a driver and therefore would like to get a driver's license.
Update July 2017: Raphia is currently getting driving lessons.
Flora is not part of the project anymore. Gerald is still under our support.