About Upendo Family Orphanage
Upendo Family Orphanage is modeled on the African communal affinity
archetype, Tanzanian Ujamaa (brotherhood) tradition and the community based
extended family care of the destitute orphans and vulnerable children (ovc).
This resilient traditional orphan care system which has made Africans survive
against all odds of history like diseases, internecine wars, slavery and
famines is currently being overwhelmed by the massive production of AIDS
orphans and vulnerable children.
Currently more than 96 percent of the 12 million orphans in Africa are taken
care by the community based extended family system in which women and
especially grandmothers are the most important caregivers. The massive numbers
of the orphans and their needs, the age and health of most grandmothers and
their economic status have the cumulative effect of overstretching and
overburdening this longtime resilient traditional disaster safety net. It
stands in need of an overhaul, modernization and synergy to meet the new
challenges posed by HIV/AIDS patients and its resultant orphans and vulnerable
children.
The community based extended family must be energized to function to the
best of its capacity. The international community and the national governments
do not recognize and fund this system in Tanzania and Africa as a whole
although the system is the most appropriate psychologically and socially; and
the most cost effective economically. Upendo Family Orphanage is an effort in
rediscovering, empowering and capacity building of the extended family system
to help it play its role and make Tanzanian orphans and vulnerable children
survive the tsunamic social, psychological and emotional problems created by
the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
We request you, our honorable visitor to our website, consider helping us in saving
Africa's and
Tanzania's orphaned generations. Do your part as we are doing ours and together
we save
the World from the threat of the ticking time-bomb posed by the hopelessly
destitute. A checkered family background is the breeding ground for future
potential fatalistic suicide bombers and political dictators. Every child needs
a family not an orphanage, to bloom and prosper to respect and be
respected.
The Founders
Sr. Mathilde OSB is a Camaldoli Nun from Italy. She is totally blind but is
very empathic to the plight of the orphans and vulnerable children of Mafinga
area in Mufindi district. She has always helped to the best of her capacity in
financing the Upendo orphanage. Her advanced age and her health may finally
limit her capacity to function and help.
Fr Bruno D Mgaya is a diocesan priest from the catholic diocese of Njombe and
has been teaching at Mafinga Seminary for 15 years. He is a graduate of the
University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania [BA(Ed) Hons] and Fordham Jesuit
University in New York [MA-Pastoral Counseling and Spiritual Care)
His weekend farming hobby, teaching the youth economic survival skills made
him buy the plot on which the Upendo Family Orphanage today stands in both
Changarawe and Uwemba. The magnitude of the orphan situation in Tanzania is
what made him emphasize the project as a family orphanage to cater for the
rising needs the most destitute orphans.
Our future plans are to extend the Upendo Family Orphanages in most
villages. This will depend on availability of funds and volunteers to help the
children.
Objectives of the Upendo Family Orphanage
To facilitate the children's growth in an empathic family setting which they
need.
To meet the psychosocial needs of the orphans and vulnerable children by using
a community-based care in love and compassion.
To provide a secure base for the children's physical, mental, emotional and
psychological growth.
To facilitate their attending and finishing Primary school and whenever
possible helping them excel to higher standards for upward mobility in social
status.
To help them acquire economic survival skills necessary for adult productive
life.
To help the children experience a holistic community based care which support
them as they grow to become socially integrated adults in society.
The challenges
Integration of the caregivers family and the orphans
Financial needs to educate and train the adult orphans to start life on their
own.
Improving the living standards, i.e. food, clothing and
housing.
Recruiting, motivating and retaining the volunteers to help the
orphans.
Soliciting government funding of this form of orphans care.
Limited skills of the volunteers in childcare psychology.