Amani Chidren’s Home

CHARITY: Amani Chidren’s Home

CAUSE: Education (Children)

COUNTRY: Tanzania

AT A GLANCE:
Amani Children’s Home is dedicated to the protection of Tanzania’s most vulnerable population: street children and AIDS orphans. It is estimated that there are 2.5 million orphaned children in Tanzania.

Since its founding by Tanzanians in 2001, Amani has rescued hundreds of children from the perils of life on the streets, where they face a high risk of HIV transmission, malnutrition, and abuse.

Amani, which means “peace” in Swahili, provides healthy food, education, counseling and medical care for every child who turns to them for help.

TCRP FIELD NOTES:
TCRP spent 3 days at Amani Children’s Home in 2011 and were extremely impressed by how well the centre was run. While there, we learnt that many of the children were not ‘true orphans’ in the sense that they had parents but due to extreme poverty or abuse had chosen instead to make a life for themselves on the streets.

Amani in turn takes these street children in, and aside from enrolling them in school, and taking care of their health and psychological needs, also spends a significant amount of time and resources on reuniting these children with their families.

The centre has strict regulations when it comes to visiting volunteers, so as to ensure that the children are not given ‘handouts’ nor are they subject to an endless stream of gawking tourists.

We came away from our time at Amani not only having learned more about the irrepressible spirit of the kids at the centre, but more importantly how pivotal a role well-run organizations like Amani play in offering hope and a future for children who would otherwise be subject to a lifetime of poverty and abuse on the streets.

QUOTE:
TCRP Catalyst Aparna recounts her experience at Amani and summiting Mt Kilimanjaro:

There was a kid at Amani actually and I told him I was climbing Mt Kilimajaro. He asked, are you going to make it to the top? And I replied, for you I will. And somehow that kept ringing in my head. So every time I wanted to turn back, I kept saying maybe for him, I’ll just try, I’ll just try. And that pushed me, I know it sounds cheesy, but for me it played a role in getting to the top.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO DONATE:
http://amanikids.org/donate

Amani Children’s Home is also registered on UK based fundraising platform http://www.justgiving.com/amanichildren