The actions in Tanzania are managed by Julieth Kivuyo, head of the orphanage. This is her story:

“My name is Julieth. When I was a little girl I lost my father at the age of four and soon after I had to leave my mother who, due to poverty could not take care of me. I grew up with my grandmother and I spent most of my young years working. After finishing primary school I was not allowed to continue to secondary school. I had to work for my grandmother selling homemade alcohol and my uncle used me to sell marijuana. At the same time I almost did not get anything to eat at home and my cousins beat me. I came to a point where I couldn’t do it any longer. I ran away from home and stayed with friends. After a while my grandma asked me to move back and I agreed on one condition, that I did not have to keep selling alcohol and marijuana. We had an agreement.  Instead, I started selling fruit. I bought it cheap from one place, added a few schillings, sold it at a different place and made a profit. My fruit business did well and I was able to save some money every year. In 2004 I met a very nice professor and his wife. They decided to help me and sponsor my studies to become a teacher. For this, I am forever grateful. When I finished my studies in 2006, I knew exactly what I was going to do. I grew up with nothing, I didn’t have my parents, I barely had food or clothes. I just did not want any other children to grow up the way I did. This was my motivator to go through my decision to start an orphanage and a school.  I began with renting a small place with two rooms. I started off with three children. A few weeks later, we had seven children. We lived all together in one room. The other room was used as a classroom.  In 2007, I came in contact with ART Tanzania, a local volunteer organization. Two wonderful volunteers from the UK, Sal and Jen, helped me a lot during the first month. They also found our wonderful boy Amidiwe on the street and brought him to me. He has lived here for seven years now. Barbara and Louis were two other volunteers that also made a big difference and really helped me out. One of the amazing thing they did was to pay the rent for a whole year! With the help of my grandmother, we bought a piece of land and built what we today know as The Ebenezer Orphanage and Nursery – where Barbara and her husband later came back.. I  am forever grateful   for all the help that I have received from volunteers over the years. Food, clothes, shoes, schoolbooks, desks, chairs and much more. All this thanks to big hearted people around our planet. Without you, we would not have the orphanage and the school that we have today. We are still very much depending on your help and knowledge. We are entirely depending on donation to put our children through school and pay for books, clothes and medicines. Our dream is to move in the new Ebenezer Center Orphanage, a little ouf of town where the children will have more space and where they can grow up in a better environment.“

– Julieth Saiguran Kivuyo