6/22/2017 0 Comments Tupendane OrphanageMt. Meru Uhru Vulnerable Foundation and Tupendane Orphanage Center located in Usa River Tanzania serves over 70 underprivileged boys and girls living within the community. We traveled there on Wednesday and Thursday to get a better sense of the support system various community resources offer these orphaned kids. The founders of the center live on site with all the children who are in their care. They have one room for boys and another for girls, both filled with six beds (stacked three high) in which about 25 boys or girls shared a night. They had a nice kitchen and an eating area from which they served the kids meals. Outback there was a long building that contained two classrooms in which some of the children were taught.
We sat down with the founder and his wife, Emmanuel and Margaret, and discussed why the opened their facility. Emmanuel explained that when he was a child, his family was very very poor and could not afford to send him to school. However, another family took him in, fed him, and paid to allow him to go to school. The influence this family had on his life inspired him to do the same for other children. Now he owns and runs a facility that not only gives a home to orphans within the community, but allows children living in poverty to have a chance at an education. Through sponsorships he provides funds for the majority of the kids who come to the center to attend school. Those he cannot afford to send stay at the center and learn in the two classrooms that Emmanuel built and staffed. He explained that while he was meeting the needs of these children in the best way he could, government regulations was demanding he expand his facilities. They were working on fundraising to purchase a piece of land on so they could later rebuild their school and house where the children stay. He also told us that at least eight children on the premises suffered from aids, and it was his responsibility to get them help. Because they are orphaned, they receive their healthcare and antiretrovirals for free. Not everyone in the country suffering from aids receives this same luxury however, and because the antiretrovirals are expensive, often times when Emmanuel goes to get them for the children the pharmacy says they are out of the medication so that they may sell them to someone else instead of giving them away for free. While there seemed to be a lack of resources for a lot of these children, and even come corruption surrounding their health, they seemed healthy and genuinely happy that we were there to spend time with them. We met them all in one of the classrooms at the back of the facility, and they sang us songs and danced for us before we went outside to play. The yard was small but contained a jungle gym which the kids really enjoyed playing on. Most of the younger children really wanted to be held and swung around in all different directions. They would argue who got to sit on our laps until we put one on either knee. All of them have really short haircuts, so most of the girls enjoyed playing with and braiding our hair. Many of them told me all about what they wanted to be when they grew up, lots of the little girls wanted to be teachers, some even said they wanted to be doctors! We played games together, sat together, and even sang together. The simple kindness of spending two short afternoons with them brought them unending joy, which made it very hard to leave. It seemed like the facility offered the community an approach to dealing with sending children living in poverty to school. At the end of the two days, lots of the children would be picked up by a parent to go back to his or her home, while many of them also stayed at the orphanage. However, no matter where the children lived, they all received at least some sort of education funded by outside donations and sponsors. The orphanage offered the children within the community a healthy and happier future, along with the chance to fulfill their goals and dreams. If you’re interested in learning more about the facility, please visit their website at www.tupendanechildren.org.
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AuthorJess Zavadak is a rising senior studying biochemistry and pre-medicine at Juniata College located in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. Through Juniata College she has traveled to The Gambia in West Africa where she had her first experience with health care systems in underdeveloped areas. Since her time in the Gambia, she has become passionate about creating better health care systems through gaining a combined medical degree and masters in public health. This summer, she travels to Tanzania with Child Family Health International to shadow doctors, learn about the health care system, and gain insight into how she can further make an impact. ArchivesCategories |