Furahia Mtoto Foundation

The Furahia Mtoto Foundation is a day care centre and preschool for children up to 6 years of age and was founded in 2018 by Cosmas William Ngira. Families who come from difficult backgrounds, such as single and/or unemployed parents, have the opportunity to bring their children to Furahia Mtoto Foundation. The day care centre offers a safe and family-friendly alternative where the children are cared for while the families have the opportunity to go to work and earn income. In addition, the children learn social behaviour among their peers, receive regular meals (which are not always provided at home) and are taught English. Also, attendance at the institution is free of charge, parents do not have to pay fees. As Furahia Mtoto is a non-governmental organisation, it relies on donations to pay for food, teachers’ salaries, teaching materials, etc.

Currently, 35 children are taught by three teachers in separate classrooms. Children up to the age of 4 attend the baby class, while the other children aged four to six go to the preparatory class. The pre-school classes prepare the children for primary school by teaching them how to write and count.

Gily’s Daycare

Gily’s Daycare is a kindergarten / preschool founded in 2019 for children aged 9 months to 6 years. The aim of the facility is to offer age-appropriate care for children who live in difficult economic and personal circumstances. The parents or guardians of the children pay a minimal monthly contribution to the facility to ensure childcare and meals, so children whose families cannot afford the contributions at all can come for free. While their children are being looked after, parents have the opportunity to work or study. There are no public childcare facilities in Tanzania for children under the age of 6. Many parents are therefore forced to leave their children alone or with neighbors while they are working or trying to find work. In the worst case, children run the risk of being brought to orphanages by their desperate families for lack of other perspectives, which the family hopes will improve the future prospects for the children. However, such a separation should be avoided at all costs, since it can result in long-term damage for the children such as attachment and anxiety issues.

Home of Malaika

HOME OF MALAIKA is a project house, which was founded by former STEP
volunteers together with the German association TAKE A MALAIKA E.V. in April
2022.
The aim is to support women and children living in economic and social difficult
circumstances in the district Mianzini, Arusha. At the moment the association is
working together with the local NGO Kukua Pamoja, but is in the process of founding
its own international NGO.
The Team in Mianzini is very happy about the support of volunteers. The project
house is still developing,so there is a lot of things to do! Volunteers can help to teach
and play with the children during the remedial classes in the afternoon, help to
embellish and renovate the classrooms and of course support all the different
projects!
You can find the following projects at the HOME OF MALAIKA house:

• The Sewing and Creative Project where women produce various gifts sold in Tanzania and Europe providing the women with a stable income
• The project “Ulinzi wa kike” (“Protection for women”) which teaches girls in local schools to sew their own reusable sanitary pads
• The sponsorship program – Kukua Pamoja (“grow together”) which provides daycare and after school support for over 200 children in need.
• The Family Friends project which supports families in need through initial funding and business training.

Joyhub

The Joyhub Center is a small day care facility in Njiro, Arusha that specializes in the care and therapy of children with special needs. Children with various physical or intellectual disabilities visit the facility, which was founded in 2020 by Grace, an experienced occupational therapist. The aim of the facility is to offer every child individual therapy and education and to prepare them towards a life fully integrated into their community.

People with disabilities in Tanzania are exposed to many prejudices, superstitions and stigmata, which is why institutions like Joyhub not only make a major contribution to the lives of individual children, but also create a new awareness of inclusion and equality in the public through their work.

Regular excursions and activities with the children are organized. Some of the children who are cared for in Joyhub also attend regular kindergartens and schools or are being prepared for entry into such a school.

Grace and her team are warmly welcoming the support of volunteers and interns who come from the fields of special education, occupational and physiotherapy and related fields. However, specialist knowledge is not a must. Much more important is a high level of motivation and commitment, as well as empathy, in order to be able to respond individually to the children and their very different needs. As a new facility, the center is still in the beginning stage so volunteers can also participate in the construction of play equipment and the planning and purchase of new therapy equipment.

Cradle of Love Baby Home

The Cradle of Love Baby Home is a children’s home founded in 2004, which exclusively cares for babies and toddlers aged 0 – 3 years. Around 30 children are currently being looked after in the children’s home. Most of the children living there were either abandoned by their biological family or lost their mothers due to complications during childbirth.

Cradle of Love is a temporary place to stay for the kids. The aim of the children’s home is to either reunite the children with living family members or to find responsible adoptive families for those children who don’t have family members. The children are divided into a total of three age groups, the nursery (0-6 months), the crawlers (6-12 months) and the toddlers (1-3 years). Volunteers can help in all groups, usually specializing in one group and spending a lot of time there. The main tasks of volunteers include helping with the care of babies and toddlers as well as meaningful and age-appropriate play activities. Please note that the Cradle of Love is the only one of our projects where volunteers work in shifts. These include day and night shifts all 7 days of the week, as helping hands are needed around the clock at the children’s home. Volunteers who want to work full time attend 5-6 shifts a week, a part time assignment consists of 2-3 shifts respectively and can be combined with another project. 

Miles of Smile Daycare

“We aim to put an unexpected smile on a face by caring for, loving, supporting, trusting, teaching the value of sharing and educating our children!”

Miles of Smile Daycare is a small daycare centre established in September 2020 and officially registered in 2022. The director Isaya Kiriama is 26 years old and a doctor by profession. He employs two educators, a cook and a deaf-mute person who plays with and cares for the children.
Currently, 33 children attend the day care centre, but only 16 children pay a minimum monthly fee. The children get porridge every day and on some days a cooked meal. The centre cannot currently afford a daily lunch. The children are between 2 and 6 years old, and when they are 7 years old, they are enrolled in a government primary school.

Mwanzo Daycare

Mwanzo Daycare is a small daycare facility close to the big Kilombero market in Arusha City Centre. The daycare is run by Nancy Nashilu our very trusted partner in our Community Outreach Group. She is the founder of three schools in remote villages and now has also taken over Mwanzo Daycare. Nancy is doing an incredible job and we are happy to support her with this new project.

Right now there are 23 kids between 1 and 5 years attending the daycare. Their mothers are working at the market and drop the kids at Mwanzo before going to work. They are not allowed to take their kids with them to the market – a new law that was introduced by the government a few years back, that’s why a daycare like Mwanzo is so important for the families in this area. Rather than leaving the children unattended at home their families know that their children have a save and loving space to stay during the day. The future plan is to more kids a safe place during daytime while the mothers are at the market.

Sport- and Holiday Programs

Volunteers who want to get involved in sports programs should show a high level of initiative and be able to plan and carry out their projects independently. For this, it is necessary to plan a schedule in advance of the trip and to bring any equipment that may be required along to Tanzania. 

Especially during the school holidays (April, August and December), volunteers can organize holiday activities and sports programs aimed at the children of our partner projects. But even during the year, volunteers at schools and day care centers are more than welcome to fill in the afternoon childcare with clubs and courses. The children are usually very happy about such offers, which are not only fun, but also promote fitness and team spirit.

Step Africa Community Outreach

The idea of the STEP Africa Community Outreach Program is to reach and support different groups (especially women and children). We focus on groups that are disadvantaged due to their family situation (e.g. single parents), economic situation or housing situation (especially in the rural areas of northern Tanzania) and do not have regular access to information services, medical care, counselling and further education as well as sports and team-building activities.

The aim of the outreach program is to mentor, educate, support, empower and initiate intercultural exchange. Our outreach programme actively involves international volunteers and is led by a team of qualified educators and social workers.

The aim is to focus on different groups and institutions that can benefit from the variety of topics we offer through our community outreach programs. Among others, we support the Amazing Grace Widows and Orphans Project in Monduli, the Ndoto School in Moita village, the Sunshine Nursery School in Nduruma village, Gily’s Children Foundation and several women’s groups and public primary schools in the Arusha and Manyara regions.
As we continue to develop our programmes and themes, we plan to reach even more groups within the community.

The outreach program is open to all our volunteers and can be supported full time or on a day-to-day basis alongside another main project.

Home of Malaika

HOME OF MALAIKA is a project house, which was founded by former STEP
volunteers together with the German association TAKE A MALAIKA E.V. in April
2022.
The aim is to support women and children living in economic and social difficult
circumstances in the district Mianzini, Arusha. At the moment the association is
working together with the local NGO Kukua Pamoja, but is in the process of founding
its own international NGO.
The Team in Mianzini is very happy about the support of volunteers. The project
house is still developing,so there is a lot of things to do! Volunteers can help to teach
and play with the children during the remedial classes in the afternoon, help to
embellish and renovate the classrooms and of course support all the different
projects!
You can find the following projects at the HOME OF MALAIKA house:

• The Sewing and Creative Project where women produce various gifts sold in Tanzania and Europe providing the women with a stable income
• The project “Ulinzi wa kike” (“Protection for women”) which teaches girls in local schools to sew their own reusable sanitary pads
• The sponsorship program – Kukua Pamoja (“grow together”) which provides daycare and after school support for over 200 children in need.
• The Family Friends project which supports families in need through initial funding and business training.

School Girl Essentials (SGE)

School Girls Essentials (SGE) has been running since 2014 and operates in Tanzania, where it works to advocate for Menstrual Health & Hygiene Management, Sexual, Reproductive Health & Character Education as well as provision of sanitary kits to school going adolescents who menstruate. SGE is dedicated towards ensuring that female pupils do not miss any learning days and opportunities due to lack of adequate menstrual products and knowledge according to their motto: “Education all month, every month”. The vision is to see empowered girls, women and gender-nonconforming people become agents of their own socio-economic development.

Since the official registration in 2020, there have been formed ongoing partnerships with local governments and 11 rural public schools in the Arusha region, including a secondary school for students with disabilities.

Bethlehem Star School

Bethlehem Star Pre- and Primary School was founded in 2017 and the school has a capacity of 540 students from Nursery School to Year 7. Right now there are 290 students enrolled into the school. Seven of these are sponsored by the school and 10 kids are sponsored by outside sponsors. Bethelehem Star also has boarding facilities and currently 31 students are attending the boarding school. The biggest goal of Bethlehem Star is to find sponsors for at least 10% of the children as the school currently struggles financially due to many families not being able to pay the school fees. Many of the children’s families lost their jobs in the tourism sector during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The school also takes in kids with disabilities and right now there are three children with special needs attending the school. The management would be happy to develop their special needs offers in order to support more SEN children in the future. The aim of Bethlehem Star is to support underprivileged students. The students are coming from USA river, Maji ya chai, Nkoanenkoli, kikatiti, Shangarai, Nshupu, Momela, Nkoaranga, Poli and villages around Arusha National in the southern part.

Ikirwa Pre- and Primary School

The Ikirwa School is an English-language, non-profit private school teaching children from pre-school age (3 years) to 7th grade (approx. 14 years). A boarding school is connected to the school in which many of the students live during school times. The students mainly come from farmers families, many children at Ikirwa come from very poor backgrounds and are supported by international school sponsors. The school was founded in 2013 and has since been able to provide many children in the Ngulelo area with a better education.

Private schools in Tanzania cannot be compared to the rather elitist character of European private schools. Since over 100 children are usually taught in one class in public schools and teacher training is very poor, families try to place their children in a private school whereever possible so that they can learn and grow in a more quiet environment. The Ikirwa School is a non-profit school, so no profits are made from the school fees of parents and sponsors, but these are only used to cover running costs and the further development of the school.

Teaching at a Secondary School

Please not that an internship in a Tanzanian secondary school is only possible for teaching students or trained teachers. 

Sakura Girls Secondary School

Sakura Girls Secondary School was founded in 2016 by Frida Tomito, who is also the director of the school. The school is a boarding school currently attended by 150 girls, mainly from Arusha and Babati and some of them from Dodoma or Dar es Salam. The school starts with grade 8 and goes up to grade 12. In addition to the large school building and dormitory, the school has its own school farm, garden, laboratories and library. Although it is a girls’ school, there are male and female teachers.
Students live at the school for three months, but after those three months they go home for two weeks, and parents are also always welcome to visit their children whenever they want. Many of the girls come from difficult backgrounds and attend the school thanks to a sponsorship program set up by the Japanese partner NGO “Jakei”.

Meru District Hospital (TEngeru)

Meru District Hospital is a public hospital in Tengeru and a branch of the public Mount Meru Hospital in Arusha City. The specialties and stations at Tengeru Hospital include a general medical ambulance, emergency room, maternity ward and gynecological clinic, tuberculosis and malaria testing and treatment, HIV / AIDS counseling as well as diagnosis and therapy. There is also a wide-ranging surgical clinic. Dental and eye treatments, physiotherapy and psychotherapeutic support are also offered. The hospital further manages another small medical dispensary in Leganga, Usa River, where volunteers can also work.

The hospital is publicly funded, and numerous treatments and preventive examinations are free. Many other services are free of charge for patients who are voluntarily insured in the very affordable statutory health insurance or through their employer. The clinic is also supported by numerous local and international donors. The hospital has 110 beds, although these often have to be occupied by two patients at the same time due to lack of space. Around 1000 operations are performed each year and an average of 200 patients are treated each day.

Prior experience in the medical field should be proven in order to work at Tengeru Hospital. Medical students, trainees in the medical field as well as trained doctors of all disciplines, nurses, physiotherapists and people from related professions in the medical field are very welcome at Tengeru Hospital.

St. Elizabeth Hospital

St. Elizabeth Hospital is a large clinic in the centre of Arusha with a total of 100 beds. The hospital looks back on a history of almost 40 years and has grown more and more over the years. In addition to general medical treatment and routine inpatient operations, which take up a large part of the hospital’s daily routine, there is also an eye clinic, an HIV and tuberculosis clinic and a children’s and women’s clinic, among others. St. Elizabeth Hospital also runs outreach programs to remote areas of Tanzania.

St. Elizabeth Hospital is largely funded by donations and patients’ treatment fees, with expectant mothers, children and the elderly being treated free of charge. The core working hours for volunteers at the hospital are between 8am and 4pm. Nursing interns are welcome, as well as students in the medical field and medical professionals. Volunteers are trained accordingly by local staff and are allowed to participate in all areas of the hospital depending on their interests, previous experience and qualifications.

Mbwa wa Africa Animal Rescue & Clinic

Mbwa wa Africa (“African Dog”) is an animal shelter with an attached veterinary clinic in the village of Sanganano, Usa River, surrounded by forests and located in the immediate vicinity of Arusha National Park. The shelter was founded in 2012 by two Germans (Sandra and Jens), initially in their own garden. Since then, the organisation has grown massively and is a permanent contact point for animal owners and animal welfare activists in Arusha.

The shelter takes in injured and abused street dogs, treats them and then places them in responsible hands. Cats and other animals are also repeatedly taken in at the shelter. In addition, Mbwa wa Africa carries out systematic spay and neuter and rabies vaccination campaigns to put a stop to the government’s current practice of regularly shooting street dogs indiscriminately.

Many of the dogs are traumatised and need special attention and care. Among others, numerous paralysed dogs also live permanently at Mbwa wa Africa. All dogs are walked daily, and helping hands are always needed. Taking care of sick and injured dogs, as well as teaching basic commands are also part of the volunteers’ tasks. Since the shelter is located a bit outside and can only be reached by piki piki (motorbike taxi), you should plan on paying about 25 euros per person per week as travel costs.

Sandra and Jens are passionate about their work and have given many former street dogs a home themselves. If you have just such a heart for animals, you are in good hands as a volunteer here! Qualified volunteers are also welcome to help in the veterinary clinic.

As volunteers at Mbwa wa Africa are firmly integrated into the work schedule, a full-time stay of at least four weeks is mandatory (5 days in shifts, including weekends). Travel and visits to other projects should not take place during this time.

Construction Project

Would you like to volunteer, support various projects and prefer manual work? Maybe the building and renovation group is the right place for you.
Some of our projects are being established or are looking to expand their facilities, so there is always some building or renovation work that needs to be done and your help is very welcome.

There are two ways to support this project. People with specific experience are always needed. So if you are a bricklayer, carpenter, electrician, engineer, plumber, tiler or any other skilled trade, you can work hand in hand with our craftsmen here in Arusha. This way, mutual learning is possible for both sides. But even if you have not worked in such a field, it is possible to support this project by helping with simple tasks and/or starting a fundraising campaign.

If you are interested in the building project, please contact us and let us know if you have any previous experience or special skills, so that we can find a project where your labour is most needed.