200,000 AIDS orphans struggle each day to survive. We work to keep AIDS widows and their children together and we support small families made up of orphan siblings. The Tumaini Fund supplies necessities for life such as food, blankets, mosquito nets and grain. We also rebuild derelict shelters and houses, strengthening families and communities so they can take care of their children.
The Tumaini Fund supplies those in need with school supplies as well as two sets of clothes to orphan students. Currently the Tumaini Fund provides the means of education to 15,000 deserving children. Only the top 10% of children finishing elementary school are eligible for Secondary School and the Tumaini Fund provides the annual fees and school supplies for all orphans in Kagera who achieve this level; 8,200 students in 2011.
To better protect orphans from diseases like malaria, our program provides mosquito nets. The Tumaini Fund also drills fresh water wells to provide small villages and families with clean water. It is our goal not to only strengthen orphan families but also the communities in which they are living.
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 Mom 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.)
13,000 orphans are now supported by the Tumaini Fund and receiving this help, we employ 7 local workers in Kagera to carry out the project…monitored by the Anglican Diocese… with 70 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.