ZARA Tanzania Adventures Blog

Support a child in need! 

My name is MICHAEL MUSA. I am 5 years old. My mother was raped, so I don’t know who my father is. My stepfather is a Chagga; their traditions don’t allow him to accept me, that’s why he treated me unhumanly.		My name is REGAN FREDRICK. I’m 13 years old. I am an orphan. My father was burned by angry mobs suspecting him to be a thief. Because the new husband of my mother didn’t like me, I decided to live on the street where I stayed for 2 years. I slept on shop verandas, had nothing to eat… I felt like rubbish.		My name is ZAWADI JACOB. I am 13 years old. I still have got both parents, but I decided to run away from home because my family has a high level of poverty being caused by the high age of my father who is roughly 70 years old. He is not able to do any income generating activity anymore.
My name is YUSUFU ALLY. I am 13 years old. At the age of 2 my father died of AIDS. My mother who is unemployed failed to pay my school fees. I lived on the street for 2 years collecting and selling scrap metals to earn my daily bread.		My name is RIZIKI STANLEY. I am an orphan since the age of 10. My father died in a car accident. My mother was killed by robbers at our home. Our relatives took all our home belongings and left me and my brothers with nothing.		My name is AMRAN MWILIMA. I am 13. I lived in the streets of Arusha for more than one year. An experience I hate to remember. Also my 2 brothers stay in the streets because at home we had no food and no sleeping place. Our house had holes at every corner, once it rained the water came in.

There are many reasons why children become street children and there are great individuals like Mr. Mapunda from the “Msamaria Home for Street Children” (all the boys presented above live at his home) or Mary Saria from the “Huruma Women Group” who under difficult financial conditions try to provide street children with shelter, food, cloth, education and counselling. We want to encourage you to financially support their work and help the children in need.

The Msamaria Center for street children is a non-governmental, philantrophic organisation providing support and care to street children, orphans, families and communities. Msamaria is a new Center in Moshi for boys only which has a capacity of accommodating 50 children. Their age ranges from 5 to 16 years. The children were collected from the streets where they were forced to live because of cruelty, poverty-stricken homes and parental irresponsibility. The direct of Msamaria is Mr. Folkward Mapunda.

The Huruma Women Project is a community-based project consisting of 25 women who support around 70 children between 4 and 16 who currently live in host families. Directed by Mary Saria, it is the women’s aim to start a home for street children outside Moshi town. They have already acquired a house but financial resources to actually make it habitable for the children are missing.

10 US$ per month can provide a child with cloths and shelter; 20 US$ per month will provide cloths, shelter and health care, for 40 US$ a child can get cloths, shelter, health care and food, 60 US$ per month will guarantee shelter, cloths, health care, food and education. Also one-time donations and material support are highly appreciated.

When you come to Moshi, you can also visit the two places to see what a difference your contribution makes, or you can spend some time with the kids as an international volunteer.

If you can support any of the two organisations please contact us and we are happy to assist you! You can also contact Msamaria directly writing to infomsamariakids@gmail.com.