Happy New Year

13.01.2015

Happy New Year help2kids volunteers, supporters and donors, we wish you all the best for 2015. It’s going to be an amazing year! There are a lot of new exciting projects this year to look forward to and we can’t wait to meet our new volunteers for this year that will be coming to Africa to care for children on the lake shores of Lake Malawi and the suburbs of Dar es Salaam. Let the loving times roll!

2014 was a record year in the amount of love and care that was given towards the children at the Children’s Home, Bajeviro Primary School and Kunduchi Nursery. We had highest amount of volunteers coming to Tanzania to tutor, coach, mentor and care for the children at our help2kids projects. We had uncountable donations given to the organization to support our projects and sustainability. We also had the most education sponsorships for our children thanks to former volunteers. In addition, we now have a health office, a larger international staff with many years of experience in childcare, education and development. With all the changes 2014, we have also rebranded our organization into a more colourful, youthful, interactive and exciting identity and logo. Last of all, the Rainbows were created last year as part of Bajeviro Primary School’s sport programme. The Rainbows consist of an U15 boys’ and U15 girls’ football team. The talent of the girls’ team has recently sparked some interest from the Tanzania Football Federation.

So What Can We Forward To In 2015?
Well, big, big news; help2kids is building a new state of the art Children’s Home and Campus that will accommodate up to 60 children.  It will be located between Africana and Kunduchi within Dar es Salaam. We begin construction this year. Thanks to generous donations from corporations and companies in Switzerland and Germany, help2kids will be constructing 5 buildings on an acre of land that looks over White Sands and the islands across from Mbezi Beach this year. The new Children’s Home and Campus will consist of:

• A boys’ dormitory house;
• A girls’ dormitory house;
• A building with a kitchen, dining hall and educational resource centre (library and a computer lab);
• A Children’s Clinic;
• An office building for management staff.

Each dormitory house will give each child their own space and we will place children in different rooms according to age. Furthermore, each house will have a mother’s room separate from the children’s dorms.  The educational resource centre will have classrooms for tutoring, a fully stocked library, a state-of-the-art computer lab with 20 laptops, wi-fi, and an entertainment area for activities and games. The Children’s Clinic will have rooms for examination, treatment and sick children. We will have a full-time health coordinator, nurse, doctors, and psychologists on call at the clinic. The clinic building will also have its own classrooms for education and hygiene classes. Last of all, the Children’s Home and Campus will have a safe but fun outside area between the buildings for the children to play. The outside area will have trees, a garden, a jungle gym and swings.

 

Why A New Children’s Home And Campus Is Needed
Our existing children’s home is located on rented property. The rental cost of the property is $ 12,000 per year and maintenance costs are high. Thus investment on the existing property makes little sense because it is rented. Furthermore, with 31 children, we have already exceeded the maximum capacity “in principle”. With the new Children’s Home and Campus, we can increase the capacity from 31 to 60 children. In addition, we currently have no capacity for offices or accommodation for international managers and staff.

• A custom built Children’s Home and Campus will cater to the specific needs of our children and staff by:
• Separating living quarters for boys and girls;
• Separating areas for staff;
• Improving sanitation;
• Separating areas for learning, eating, playing and retreat;
• Separating the older children from the younger children;
• Providing space for classrooms, a library, a computer lab and an entertainment area;
• And providing office space and living quarters for both local and international staff.

Therefore, creating such facilities on a property owned by the organization allows help2kids to maximize services in achieving their goals to provide a safe, healthy and family oriented space for children. The new home will be equipped with the resources and infrastructure to help the children excel in life and reach their full potential.

During the period of this year, we will be running fundraising campaigns to raise money for the additional cost to the new Children’s Home and Campus. For future notices and updates on the fundraising campaign and how you can donate, keep an eye on our website, Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/help2kids) and Twitter account (https://twitter.com/help2kidsorg)  for announcements.

New Faces
With a new year in swing, there will always be new faces and new beginnings. Karina Catlin, who has been the help2kidsDirector of Africa Programmes for the last two years, has sadly finished her contract will no longer be a part of the organization since the end of December. Karina has done an amazing job of growing help2kids in both Malawi and Tanzania. During her time at help2kids, the organization was able to sponsor 85% of children, establish the Kunduchi nursery and Bajeviro Primary school Educational projects, improved the quality of care for the kids and built a much more cohesive team of staff. Replacing Karina as the Tanzanian Field Manager is the wonderful Mari Yogi. Mari has work for help2kids for the last six months as the Children’s Home and Education Coordinator and has done an inspiring job in creating a loving, participatory and interactive environment at the children’s home. In addition, we have a new Children’s Home and Education Coordinator, Mathilde Simon, a new Health Officer, Editha Mziray, and a new Education Project Manager, Martin Küry, who will be taking over Bajeviro Primary School. All the new staff are experienced professionals and we wish them the best in their new adventure with us.

To you past, present and future volunteers, donors and supporters, let’s make this the most amazing year yet for the children of Tanzania and Malawi! Please continue to volunteer with us, share our story with your friends and family, fundraise to help our children and projects, and be the amazing people you are for supporting us.

Your help2kids team in Tanzania