There are an estimated 1,300,000 orphans and 437,000 street children in Tanzania. As a result, legally registered orphanages and children’s homes are severely overcrowded and struggling to absorb the numbers. This has led to the proliferation of unregistered establishments where vulnerable children live in squalor and are sometimes subject to exploitation and abuse.
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Background
In April 2023, Halima Orphanage, based in Moshi Town, was forced to close, after bailiffs arrived to enforce a court order to vacate their property. The building occupied by the organisation for the last 10 years had been verbally bequeathed by a Tanzanian politician named Halima Selengia for use as a home for orphaned children. However, a dispute amongst her descendants, and the absence of a written will, led to the organisation being evicted.
To ensure that the children, aged from just 5 years, would not end up on the streets, our staff immediately requested transfer of legal guardianship and custody of the children to Kijana Kwanza. Since then, Halima Orphanage is under our management: we have rented new premises for the children, employed qualified staff and are supporting as many of the children into foster care, to enable us to rescue more children.
The Project: Halima Children’s Home
Inspired by the compassionate values of the eponymous founder of Halima Orphanage, we are now reinventing the welfare model for orphaned and abandoned children aged 5-12 years. In order to reach many more children, we have recently purchased a 1-acre plot in Shabaha District, and we will shortly start construction of a new children’s complex, renamed Halim Children’s Home.
The total cost of this ambitious project is £750,000/$995,000 and is expected to take up to 2 years to construct.
Why is this project different?
We believe that children aged 5-12 years should grow up in a loving family. Where a child has been abandoned due to poverty, we will prioritise family reunification, by supporting the family unit to stay together. Halima Children’s Home will operate as an emergency shelter – our intervention model will focus on rescue, followed by family reunification. If this is not possible, the child will be provided with a foster family, trained to look after children. Only in the most challenging circumstances will children be kept in long-term care on-site.
However, our support for children, after family reunification or foster placement does not stop! Families will receive financial and in-kind support, scheduled and surprise home visits from social workers and children will attend weekly activities on-site.
For more information, download our brochure here.
