What is Amani?

Amani Children's Home is a grassroots Tanzanian charity that rescues street children and orphans from homelessness and restores hope in their lives.

What does Amani do?

Due to one of the world's poorest economies, weakening family ties, and HIV/AIDS, the problem of street-children in Tanzania is growing daily. To learn more about street-children in Tanzania, click here. Amani tries to help these affected children by offering them a safe home, attempting to reunite them with their families, and offering them a variety of educational opportunities. Amani runs the following programs:

Street Education: Our full-time "street educator" meets children who are living on the streets of Moshi and the nearby city of Arusha, befriends them, and counsels them to come to Amani. All children come of their own free will, usually out of desires for safety, food, and education. The street-educator also provides health, hygiene, and life-skills lessons for older "hard-core" teenagers living on the street who don't want to give up their freedom by living at a home.

Social Work/Reunification: Once at Amani, one of our two trained social workers will take a child to visit their family of origin - the place they were living before they fled to the streets - to see whether or not there is the possibility of reunification. Sometimes even if the child is an orphan, we are able to locate a grandmother, uncle, or other family member who can welcome them into their home. If children have no relatives who are able to provide healthy, safe care for them, they are invited to stay at Amani on a longer-term basis. Although Amani is a happy and healthy place, our ultimate goal for each child is for them to eventually find a placement back with relatives or village members - to be brought up in a family context rather than an institutional one.

Education: The centre has a multi-faceted approach to education. All kids begin in our non-formal education program, where they are taught basic reading, writing, and math skills in-house every morning by Amani staff and volunteers. If, after a reunification visit, the social workers inform us that the child will live at Amani on a longer-term basis, and if the child is young enough to be mainstreamed into formal education, Amani pays for their tuition and other school expenses so that they can enter the local school system (there's no free public education in Tanzania). For children who are too old to be mainstreamed, they are given the opportunity to undergo vocational training, such as carpentry or mechanics.

Health: The children's health needs are taken care of by the Amani nurse. For simple illnesses and injuries they are treated at the home itself, and for more serious problems children are brought to local clinics and hospitals. Every week the children attend health lessons which are particularly focused on HIV/AIDS education, but also cover topics such as how to keep from getting sick, hygiene, and nutrition. The nurse, Rovina, also provides special health education lessons for the girls.

Upendo ("Love") Program: In order to ensure that the children receive intentional, personal talk time with the staff, every Saturday afternoon the children meet in their "Upendo" small groups, which consist of three or four children being led in discussion by a staff member. Each week they discuss a different topic such as honesty, treating each other well, cleanliness, or how to stay away from drugs. Each staff member also serves as the "special guardian" to the kids in their Upendo group, meeting one-on-one with each of the children to hear how they are doing and what they are thinking about. This is Amani's effort to make sure that each child gets personal attention and love, and that no child "falls through the cracks."

What does "amani" mean?

"Amani" is the Swahili word for peace. This word has been chosen because it characterizes our vision - to see each child flourish in an environment of peace and stability. We believe that all children should be given opportunities to develop intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually - as well as to play and have a fun and safe childhood!

How did Amani start?

Amani opened its doors on August 20, 2001. In front of the doors were two children, behind its doors was one mattress, one table, one chair, two pots, and three determined and dedicated Tanzanians: Nyaky, Godfrey, and Deus. Nyaky was experienced in teaching, money management and gardening from years of work at a similar centre for street-children. Godfrey had gained exposure to street-children through his mother, who provides medical care for street-kids, and wanted to make a difference himself. Deus is a trained social worker. They didn't know how they were going to do it, but they were determined to create a haven of safety and hope, where children could escape from the starvation and physical and sexual abuse encountered on the streets.

Children have flocked to the home, reaching a peak of eighty in one night. Some of these children are able to be reunited with their families, and the number of children at Amani usually varies between 70 and 90 children at any given time. That one table has become three, and the mattresses now lie on bunk-beds. The home is developing slowly through the gifts and donations of well-wishers and, as the staff call them, "good Samaritans."

How is Amani funded?

Amani depends entirely on donations from sponsors and supporters. For the entire first year, all staff worked as volunteers, without any pay, and slept and ate at the home with the children. Often the children had to sing in churches and ask for donations of food just so they could eat the following week. These days, the situation is somewhat better, thanks to the generosity of ordinary people from around the world who've heard about the Amani children and want to help. We're still at the stage that every donation makes a difference - your specific donation might provide for a table for children to eat on, or send a child to school for a year, or pay for first-aid supplies. To give you an idea of how your donation could be spent, click here. If you donate to Amani, you are free either to specify which need or program you would like your contribution to be used towards, or to leave it to the Amani staff to choose the most urgent need. Either way you will be informed specifically how your donation was used in a personal thank-you letter. We hope that the ways to help offered on this web-site (click here) will interest people who want to join with us to bring hope to some of the world's neediest children.

How can I get involved?

Please click here to learn how you can be a part of changing the lives of Tanzania's orphans and street-children.