Songea's Kids

Our VISION is that the people of Songea, Tanzania, will meet basic, health, and educational needs of their children. Our MISSION is to collaborate with Tanzanian partners to support orphans and other vulnerable children, and build self-sustaining infrastructure in Hope Village. Founded in December 2007, Songea's Kids operates with an all-volunteer Board of Directors and project teams. We contract with Jirani Mwema, our Tanzania NGO partner, to care for orphan children identified by Songea Child Welfare. We also partner with Tanzania NGO Hope Village Organization to construct a major complex to benefit area orphans and local villagers. We provide monthly grants to our NGO partners based on a budget they submit and which is approved by our BOD. Each month they provide detailed retirements accounting for all funds sent. We listen carefully to the needs of the people being served, and require transparency and accountability in our partnerships. Through mentoring and start-up grants, we work with our partners so assist them to become self-supporting.

We work in in the much under-served southern region of Tanzania characterized by subsistence farming and low incomes. The effects of AIDS and malaria have overwhelmed the nuclear family and extended family systems leaving thousands of children orphaned or at-risk. With the help of local partner NGO Jirani Mwema and our US child sponsors we provide up to 65 children in Songea Municipal's Mshangano Village with basic needs of shelter, food and water, clothing, bedding and mosquito nets, basic medical care, education and job training. In partnership with Tanzania NGO Hope Village Organization, Hope Village is being built in Madaba District's Lutukira Village, beginning with two wells drilled in 2016 to provide the first clean water. USA partners include experienced engineers in the Seattle area and Sundberg Architecture Initiatives, all of whom provide pro bono services. It will house 160 most vulnerable children, along with schools and a health clinic. Income-producing projects such as a chicken-raising will help the village become self-sustaining. The buildings will be constructed through an innovative apprenticeship vocational program on-site.