The Tumaini Fund is an enthusiastic partner of World Aid Walk.
The Tumaini Fund was founded in Guernsey in 2003, to bring support to the Aids orphans of Kagera in NW Tanzania. All Tumaini workers love and follow Jesus Christ: our orphans are Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran, Pentecostal and AOG… local African religions and Moslem-believers… no child is discriminated against and they are such worthwhile, committed, brave children.
In 2013 no child should go to bed, as many orphans do in Kagera, with only a soup made from local leaves and dirty water in their stomachs; no child should fail to go to primary school for lack of uniform, books and pencils…easily costing less than £10; no child should try to sleep in a shelter of maize or banana leaves which cannot keep out the Rains, so that they get soaked and prone to pneumonia – a mud-brick house costs about £400 to build; no child should die from malaria (the main cause of children’s deaths in sub-Saharan Africa) for want of a £2 mosquito net; no child should drink dirty muddy, infected water that they have had to walk 6 kms or further to access – another cause of too many children’s deaths. Tumaini is seeking to address these injustices by getting ragged children into decent clothes, off to primary school, under mosquito nets to sleep, into decent local housing, with adult heads-of-family found for orphan-headed families headed by a child under 16 years of age, paying secondary school fees for those who pass into this level of education and arranging vocational training in tailoring and carpentry for those who don’t, assisting the really bright children into university and college education. We have sustainable Student Loan funds for orphans who want to train as Teachers and Dispensers, which enable us to send these students into education year on year, as previous students, now teachers, pay back their loans.
We are now taking previous clients into Tumaini and training them as social-workers, so that they can help other orphans. We have a Water Programme currently providing 14 water-points and are encouraging Saccos microfinance programmes for all our Tumaini families. In 2013 we begin with more than 20,000 orphans supported by Tumaini into independent decent lives – taking their education as far as they can… we hope to have at least 25,000 on our books by the end of 2013. Find out more about us at www.tumainifund.org.uk
As so many walkers in WAW are children, and their efforts are helping our children 5000 miles away – we find the connection very poignant and meaningful and so feel privileged to be part of World Aid Walk - we are so grateful and the Tumaini orphans of Kagera want to say “asanteni sana na tunapenda ninyi sana” – thank you so much and we love you very much (Swahili).
