DARE Tanzania Project 2009:
Tosamaganga, Iringa

Overview

Tanzania is home to Mount Kilimanjaro, part of the Serengeti National Park and the paradise island of Zanzibar. But as with many African nations, it suffers from the effects of poverty, disease and extreme weather conditions.

D.A.R.E.s Tanzania project takes place in the Kituo cha Watoto Yatima na Wenye Shida, (House for Orphaned and Troubled Children), situated near the village of Tosamaganga in Iringa region. It is home to around 200 children and the 10 Catholic Sisters who run it it and many of the workers too. The kids range from a day old to young adults, often staying on to work for the orphanage once they reach adulthood.

The orphanage is now largely self-sufficient, growing its own crops and keeping animals on its neighbouring farm, and employs local people to work where necessary.

Although the Watoto Yatima receives funding from the Catholic Church and various other Catholic groups around the world, only D.A.R.E. addresses the more personal and emotional needs of the children who find themselves there.

Activities

Most activities at the orphanage centre around the children:
Playing with the kids! The majority of your time will be spent with the children.
Painting: the kitchen, dining room, entrance corridor and front door, fencing beside the nuns dining room (needs sanded first!), entrance hallway to kids and babies rooms, bedrooms, classrooms at the school, playground markings and murals all need constant upkeep. Sometimes there are also jobs to do in the village of Tosamaganga, for example re-painting the village sign for the local hospital.
Teaching English: in kindergarten, to the older kids during their school holidays, to the nuns after dinner. A good knowledge of English is one of the only ways rural Tanzanians can escape the poverty cycle.
Childcare: This involves helping washing the kids clothes, feeding, bathing and changing the babies.
General Chores: This may involve helping prepare the corn or general clearing up around the orphanage.
Anything you can think of! Last years group spent time observing daily life at the orphanage, and managed to set up various activities where they felt they could be helpful. Most of these are outlined above, but there really is scope for lots more!

Accommodation

You will stay in a newly-built apartment-style building within the orphanage complex, which comprises of four bedrooms with 3, 3, 2 and 1 beds respectively, all with their own washing facilities. There is also a living room within the building.
Alternatively, depending on group numbers, you may stay in the block opposite which is slightly older. There are two rooms a 3 bed room and a 4 bed room, each with its own bathroom.

Food

You will be fed tremendously well in Tanzania. It is seen as a way of repaying us for all we give to the orphanage.
Breakfast - Usually consists of bread rolls with jam, butter, tea, coffee
Lunch Often pasta, rice, ugali (an African maize-based staple starchy food), spinach, potatoes, beans, plantain, carrots, various vegetables, fish, various meat and sometimes chips!
Dinner Usually the same foods as eaten at lunch but there is almost always a huge pot of soup and bread rolls to start.
Lots of fizzy juice available
An abundance of fresh fruit from the farm is always available.
A morning and afternoon tea break is also available with various fizzy drinks, popcorn, sweet cake, donuts etc

Dates

This D.A.R.E. project runs for around 4-6 weeks and takes place during the summer vacation. Dates will be provided by D.A.R.E. after consulting the orphanage to see when they foresee they will be most in need of volunteers. Depending on group numbers, two separate groups may go, each staying for 4 weeks. Volunteers may wish to spend some time travelling before or after their time at the orphanage.

Costs

Flights to Dar es Salaam cost approximately £500 - £750, depending how far in advance they are booked and where.
The orphanage provides free accommodation and food to D.A.R.E. volunteers, although donations for this are encouraged.

Volunteer Qualities

You must love children! Although a certain amount of time can be spent doing other activities such as painting, this can never be guaranteed. Any spare time is spent entertaining the children. The kids are so responsive to the extra attention that everyone needs to be able to accept the fact that at any given time they may have 5 or 6 kids on their knee hanging round their neck… and be comfortable with it.

The ability to work in a team is a must, as is the ability to compromise. You will have to be very pro-active as a team in order to achieve all you want to.

As the orphanage is run by Catholic nuns, there are aspects of religious life present each day. Grace is said at meals and the kids say their prayers and go to mass on Sunday. There is no requirement to attend mass, although many D.A.R.E. volunteers from different denominations have done so out of choice and in respect to the nuns. In reality, all that is needed are people who are able to respect the beliefs of others and are interested to get an insight to views, traditions and beliefs.

In addition, D.A.R.E. hopes to provide greatly-discounted T.E.F.L. (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) courses for all participating volunteers, in order to assist them with their teaching activities. The course would be strongly encouraged and beneficial, with dates being arranged with the successful applicants.

email daredundee@googlemail.com with any questions