The natural progression of things.

I leave in just a couple weeks to head back to Moshi. This time it is not with any organization other than the one Jennifer, Chelsea, and I are attempting to assemble. We have high hopes for this trip, and I don't think that there is anything that can completely stop us from achieving our goals of setting up a fund to cover the educational expenses of the children at the Upendo orphanage.

A little about Upendo:
Upendo is one of the more fortunate orphanages in Moshi. With that said, there is still a need for our help.
There are approximately 60 children ages newborn to 5 years old that are cared for at the orphanage. Some of these children do have a surviving family member, such as a father, who is unable to take care of them. After they reach the age of five the children are no longer able to stay at Upendo. This means that either they are transferred to another orphanage, returned to a family member (if one can be found), or they are sent to live basically out on their own with a strong possibility of landing in a home for street-kids.

Our main goal on this trip is to work out a way to pay for the 20 children at Upendo who are attending school. We are going to figure out a way to distribute funds without them being misplaced or misused ,as well as searching out trustworthy contacts for future years. If it turns out that one of us must return every year to make a payment, I wouldn't be entirely disappointed.
Second to all of this we are going to do some research of the local schools to get a feel for what a year of schooling should cost so that we pay a fair price. We will be looking into some of the secondary schools in the area so that in the future we may be able to provide scholarships to qualified children. I also hope that we will be able to connect with some of the boarding schools as a possible means of schooling for children who would otherwise end up on the street.


I sent out an email a couple of months ago saying that I would be collecting childrens clothing to take with me to the Orphanage. The response was great, and I find that I may be shipping a couple of boxes of clothing in addition to the bags of luggage that I will have stuffed full. Many people had asked about other donations, and here is my reply:

We will be providing the orphanage/students with as many material donations as possible for the school supplies. The only supplies that I feel would be beneficial to bring from the US are pencils, as the pencils that are available in Moshi are poorly made. Otherwise, I think it is best to support the people in Tanzania by spending our money there.
They will need:
Pencils
Erasers........................................0.05 cents. Yes, CENTS. Way less than a penny.
Workbooks.................................10 cents
Uniforms....................................Approx $10.00
Shoes.................................?
1 year of tuition + Books per (child)..........Approx $110.00

We are accepting donations to put into a pot to be distributed while we are in Moshi. Jennifer, Chelsea, and I will be personally overseeing the distribution of supplies and fees to the children and sisters. Unfortunately because we are new at this and just starting out we can not provide any tax-deductions, but hope that down the road this will be possible. We will offer you our word that 100% of any funds donated will be spent for the children. If we raise more funds than we will need on this trip, the money will be set aside to use for 2010.


Included in this post is a link to my paypal donation site, so that you may bypass stamps and envelopes. You will be surprised at the difference you can make with just one dollar.

Please feel free to bombard me with any questions you may have. You may leave them in the comments section below, or send me an email at meghannicolle at gmail dot com.

It would also be amazing if you wanted to pass this site onto your friends. Let's see what a difference we can make.