The Huruma Centre has a simple mission: To give children a home and a future.
Huruma Centre children enjoy their Christmas Day celebration meal
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The Basics: Give Children a Home and a Future Since its founding, the Huruma Centre has raised more than 900 children. The government charter provided to the Huruma Centre allows the Centre to house up to 60 children from birth through age 17. The staff of the Huruma Centre nurture, provide for basic needs, and care for the children. |
Huruma Centre children and a few staff on the steps of the Centre multipurpose building
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Children, from infants up through about age 6, are cared for during the day at the day care facility of the Huruma Centre. The day care facility provides care for the neighborhood children as well, providing additional income for the Huruma Centre. The day care also serves as a kindergarten for older preschool children. |
Education: Give a Future
School age children who live at the Centre attend local primary schools for Standards 1 through 7 (equivalent to elementary and middle schools). These schools are government-funded and take the students through about age 13. Friends of Huruma ensures that the students have all needed supplies and pays other fees. Centre staff check on student progress and, like parents everywhere, make sure homework is completed.
Ester (front, third from left) and Debister (fourth from right) grew up at the Huruma Centre and are now Form 2 students at the Image Secondary School. Debister wants to be an accountant; Ester hopes to become a primary school teacher.
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When it was founded, Friends of Huruma committed to providing resources for scholarships for Huruma Centre students who finish primary school and qualify to attend secondary boarding schools of the Iringa Diocese. These schools provide a good education and give the students a solid foundation for the future. |
Currently, Friends of Huruma, with additional support from our partners in Berlin, Germany, provides scholarships to 24 students in secondary boarding schools. It costs about $500 USD for one student to attend a secondary boarding school for one year.
Huruma Centre Chaplain Harrison with Nursing Student Ombi
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For students who excel in the first four Forms (grades) of secondary school, Friends of Huruma provides resources for them to continue in Forms 5 and 6. This additional education often provides the basis for entry into diploma or degree programs. Friends of Huruma is supporting one post-secondary student who will graduate in October as a qualified nurse.
Friends of Huruma also provides support for students who do not qualify to attend secondary boarding schools by funding scholarships in vocational programs. This year, three students are learning in vocational programs. |
For the year 2021, Friends of Huruma has the goal of raising $17,000 to support secondary, post-secondary, and vocational scholarships for Huruma Centre children.
The Backstory: How Children Come to the Huruma Centre
Homeless children in Tanzania face great obstacles. It is estimated that there are more than 800 homeless children in the town of Iringa alone. Homeless children get along by scrounging and begging but are at great risk of being exploited, trafficked and dying on the streets.
Children become homeless and arrive at the Huruma Centre for a variety of reasons:
* Both parents die and no other relative is immediately found to care for the orphaned children.
* A child is abandoned by family or other caregivers.
* A child has been abused and must leave their home and village. Family and others may not be helpful to children who
are abused. In dire cases, an abused child who speaks up may be threatened. Such children need a safe place of refuge.
* One parent dies and the other is unable to parent. The remaining parent may have challenges with chemical dependency,
be in carcerated, or have other concerns.
* A caregiver who has taken in a child is unable to continue caring for the child. Sometimes a local "Bibi" (grandmother)
may care for children with no other family from a local area. After a time, the number of children may become
overwhelming or she may have insufficient resources to continue offering care.
The Centre supports children in two ways. First, while a child is placed at the Centre, authorities continue to look for other family who can offer care. When other willing family are located, the child is returned to them. There the child can grow and thrive.
Second, children who have no other family make the Huruma Centre their home. There they receive care, nourishing meals, housing and essential health care, and attend primary school. Above all, children at the Centre find a place to belong where they are loved, nurtured, and valued. Friends of Huruma supports these efforts so that the children eventually find a path to meaningful employment and a good future.
Homeless children in Tanzania face great obstacles. It is estimated that there are more than 800 homeless children in the town of Iringa alone. Homeless children get along by scrounging and begging but are at great risk of being exploited, trafficked and dying on the streets.
Children become homeless and arrive at the Huruma Centre for a variety of reasons:
* Both parents die and no other relative is immediately found to care for the orphaned children.
* A child is abandoned by family or other caregivers.
* A child has been abused and must leave their home and village. Family and others may not be helpful to children who
are abused. In dire cases, an abused child who speaks up may be threatened. Such children need a safe place of refuge.
* One parent dies and the other is unable to parent. The remaining parent may have challenges with chemical dependency,
be in carcerated, or have other concerns.
* A caregiver who has taken in a child is unable to continue caring for the child. Sometimes a local "Bibi" (grandmother)
may care for children with no other family from a local area. After a time, the number of children may become
overwhelming or she may have insufficient resources to continue offering care.
The Centre supports children in two ways. First, while a child is placed at the Centre, authorities continue to look for other family who can offer care. When other willing family are located, the child is returned to them. There the child can grow and thrive.
Second, children who have no other family make the Huruma Centre their home. There they receive care, nourishing meals, housing and essential health care, and attend primary school. Above all, children at the Centre find a place to belong where they are loved, nurtured, and valued. Friends of Huruma supports these efforts so that the children eventually find a path to meaningful employment and a good future.