About

Tumaini is the Swahili word for Hope and it is a Guernsey-based charity, seeking to alleviate the terrible suffering of the Aids widows and orphans in Kagera, the North-West province of Tanzania. Figures are unreliable, but average life expectancy there is 43 years, HIV carriage is thought to be 28% with, perhaps, 1 in 3 Mother’s delivering babies being HIV positive, a subsistence farmer will earn in the region of £55 each year, with which to support 6-8 family members. They may be 200,000 orphans in this region.

Tanzania is one of the 10 poorest countries in the world as measured by most poverty indices. Most of the wealth is concentrated around Dar es Salaam, the capital, in the SE of the country…the province of Kagera, being in the far North-West,
(bordering Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Lake Victoria, with Congo close by), is furthest from the source of wealth, so is one of its poorest regions and the Aids widows and orphans are the poorest section of this community…. the poorest of the poor.

Subsistence farming is not a good way to survive, especially with climate change and unpredictable Rains. Education is the only way to get out of this hand-to-mouth existence. Primary schooling is free in Tanzania, but children cannot enrol unless they have school uniforms, books and pencils, which prices education out for a lot of subsistence farmers’ children and makes it impossible for sick widows’ children, or children in child-headed families.

Children are called Aid’s orphans if one parent has died from Aids, as the other parent will, by definition, be becoming ill themselves. Tumaini tries to lengthen their time with their children, by improving their health and life circumstances…the children just want to have their Mum or Dad with them for a bit longer and, as Tumaini works with the family, the parent will come to know that, after their death, their children will be supported… at the death of the parent we promote the children’s rights to their parents’ small-holding and support the family as a child-headed unit.
We supply each Aids orphans with school uniform, books and pencils for getting to school and everyone in the household gets 2 sets of clothes and a mosquito net (Malaria is the biggest childhood killer in Sub-Saharan Africa, while repeated episodes of malaria threatens the lives of immuno-compromised parents.)

20,000 orphans are now supported by the Tumaini Fund and receiving this help, we employ 12 local workers in Kagera to carry out the project…monitored by the Anglican Diocese… with 120 local parish-workers, working in pairs – Kagera is about the size of Northern Ireland. We aim to find support for all the estimated 200,000 orphans.