Fifteen Years of Family
In March of 2003, we at Tanzanian Children’s Fund started chasing an ambitious dream – help a community of 10,000 find a path out of poverty.
Since our founding, we have built a village that is a loving home and forever family to 97 vulnerable children. Today, the Rift Valley Children’s Village embodies the very core of our mission – giving children and families in the Oldeani region the opportunities they so desperately deserve. Through RVCV, we have launched an early-childhood education initiative that currently serves 20 young children from our community; developed a Student Teacher Program that has supported over 75 students through their higher educations; and are providing employment opportunities to more than 120 hardworking Tanzanians.
But we didn’t stop there. Our impact now extends far beyond the Children’s Village.
In 2007, we partnered with the government to co-manage a primary school that is now the number one government school in the district, serving nearly 480 students. Four years ago, we did the same at Oldeani Secondary School.
Today, students like Naomi David, whose education likely would have ended after primary school, has now graduated from Form 4 at the top of her class and is filling out her college applications.
We opened a Rural Community Health Clinic to provide our community with free, accessible medical care. Last year, our clinic treated more than 6,400 patients.
We have helped more than 700 entrepreneurs put food on the table since the launch of our Microfinance Program in 2008. For the past decade, we have been empowering clients like Marietha to move from living in a mud hut to a brick house, giving her four children a safer home to grow up in.
It has been a busy fifteen years, but our work together is just getting started. Our dreams for the future are just as big and just as ambitious as they were on day one. As we head into our fifteenth year, we want to thank you for joining us on this wild ride and share our excitement as we prepare to take on the next fifteen. We know that our progress – past, present and future – wouldn’t be possible without you.
We are incredibly grateful to be celebrating fifteen years of creating change. Fifteen years of standing up to poverty. Fifteen years of believing in children and their boundless potential. But most importantly, we are grateful to be celebrating fifteen years of family.