Kujali International

Vital Stats

Sydney S

Los Angeles, CA

people helped125
People Doing It 16

The Problem

UNICEF reports that there are 2.6 million orphaned children living in Tanzania today - a population that rivals the size of its largest city, Dar-es-Salaam. Many of these young people are left on the margins of society as house workers, sex workers, or street workers- lacking access to healthcare, quality education, or opportunities for skills-training and formal employment. Under these circumstances, how will orphaned children born into poverty ever be positioned to break the cycle of poverty and disease into which they were born?

Plan of Action

Kujali International partners with local communities to establish boarding schools for orphaned and vulnerable children that are financially sustained by local micro-businesses. Our pilot boarding school was launched in Mkuranga, Tanzania on 300 acres of land in 2007 in partnership with Hananasif Orphanage Center, and currently serves 76 students, employs 10 local staff, and features projects in agricultural farming, animal husbandry, music production, and fine arts. Kujali has also sponsored a study abroad program through which students in the school have the opportunity to travel to the US for a cultural exchange program, living with a host family and sponsored by a host school. Kujali also provides capacity-building support to our local partners and local teaching staff, and currently has three staff members in Tanzania implementing a teacher training program, school development initiative, staff development program, and business planning. Our current goals are to complete construction of dormitories and a science lab on campus; expand our school's pilot solar power system; establish a computer center at the school; and secure capital investors for our prospective business projects that based on our revenue projections, will fully fund school operations: a pizza shop in Dar-es-Salaam and a poultry production program on our school land.