Fundraising Kick-Off!

In the late 1980’s, people in Dar es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania, began noticing unattended children in the streets.  Where were they coming from?  A child uncared for was unheard of in TZ.  It didn’t take long to figure out this was a manifestation of the AIDS epidemic sweeping Africa.  A pastor from a Lutheran church brainstormed with a pastor from an Anglican church to decide what they could do to help.  Thus began the formation of Tuamoyo (aka St. Alban’s Street Children Society and the Mama Mkubwa program), an NGO that advocates for orphans of [usually] AIDS victims, in the district of Temeke.

Tuamoyo supports a child failing to receive basic necessities and therefore needing help: school fees, uniforms, shoes, books and other expenses so the kiddos can go to school; and organizes educational programs to help the child succeed in school and life.  Currently there are 123 children supported by the program.

Why am I bringing this to your attention?  My very own Aunt Nancy, born and raised in Washington State, has lived in Dar for 37 years and is on the Board of Governors for Tuamoyo.  She has devoted her life to the success of the program, and Jeff and I are going to visit for three weeks in Feb/Mar 2011!!!

We are hoping to help in any way we can, from tutoring the children in English, to doing manual labor, to providing computer equipment, to building a website for the program (they don’t even have a website!!!) and hopefully much more.

How can you help?  Jeff and I are running the Seattle half-marathon on Sunday, November 28, 2010, in support of Tuamoyo.  We would love your monetary support.  The money we raise will go towards school supplies for the kids, computer support for the board, and possibly the salary of the soon-to-be hired director of Tuamoyo: $10,000/yr (up to now, all the hard work has been done by volunteers).

As there is no official website to donate through, if you’d like to contribute please make out a check to Mary Brim or Jeff Cole.  If you need our addresses, please ask!  Check out our blog: tanzaniaadventures2011.blogspot.com.  Look here also for pictures in the future!

Thank you for your support!

Mary and Jeff