“Faces of Tanzania” Missionary Work #1

Taking some time to visit underprivileged youths

(Please consider supporting these children, every dollar goes a long way. Here is the link.)

Hey folks what’s happening, this one is going to be quite a bit different from what is the norm.

But firstly, a bit of background, I’ve been living in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania for the past few months and joined a church where I’ve met a lot of great people which goes beyond the topic of this post. The point is that one of the groups of people I met were orphan children brought to the church to hopefully have a positive impact on their lives.

I had the chance to talk to some of the organizers and they told me about the problems facing Camp Caleb, the name of the orphanage. So in this post, I’d like to share a bit about Camp Caleb along with some stories of the children:

A few of the children in Camp Caleb. Aisha (5) on the left and Ramadhani (12) on the right.

What is Camp Caleb?

(Please consider supporting these children, even a dollar will help. Here is the link.)

Camp Caleb is the home of 20 disadvantaged children, most of whom are without their parents. Those that ran away from their parents/guardians did so for a number of reasons:

They would not be allowed to go to school and instead be sent to the streets to work or beg
The children (boys especially) would be beaten with broken bones not unheard of
Girls faced sexual harassment from their fathers and the threat of female genital mutilation
These untenable living conditions led to many of them running away living in the streets with no shelter and very little food.

This is where Camp Caleb steps in. They find these street kids, give them a bed, a roof over their head and food to eat just for starters. But it goes so much more beyond that.

These children, instead of starving in the streets, are given a chance to go to school and get an education. And beyond just the schooling, they are given a chance to learn some trades to earn a living when they grow into adulthood.

For some background, anyone that knows Tanzania and many African countries in general know that industry in this part of the world is much more limited when compared to other regions. Many of the goods those of us in the developed world take for granted such as many of the foodstuffs, cars, electronics and what not are imported with very high fees. The result of such lack of industry is that jobs are few and far between, making unemployment a major issue in Tanzania at the very least.

(Please consider supporting these children, even a dollar will help. Here is the link.)

As a result, it can’t be expected that these orphan children be able to find jobs when there are so few (many Tanzanian youth spend years after schooling looking for gainful employment). So what Camp Caleb does to provide for these children is more then just the food, shelter and schooling that is to be expected. They are also taught how to farm, make clothes and other crafted items to prepare then to know how to provide value to society so as they will not need to be reliant on one of the relatively scarce employers to support them.

Kids just want to have fun. Here they can learn some farming skills that may help them in the future.

The problem right now facing Camp Caleb is a lack of funding. As I’m sure you know, these NGO’s have a lot of upkeep costs to keep them running. The orphanage right now is having trouble paying their rent which is a priority obviously, but another immediate need is that there are a lack of beds for the kids to sleep on. There are 20 children right now, but there are countless still on the streets.

Now I know that the restrictions on the global economy has led to many people falling on hard times. But even 1 dollar would help. It will show that someone somewhere was willing to take the time of day and show support for these kids, these children where even their previous caregivers wouldn’t bother with them.

And if you happen to be wondering, I receive no monetary reward for putting my time into this work, it is the spirit of human generosity, if you believe in this spirit of giving as well, please consider supporting this noble cause.

For the future of Tanzania, the future of Africa and the future of the world.

(Please consider supporting these children, even a dollar will help. Here is the link.)