History: In 1999 Flora Komba, here sister Fidea Kobayashi and their mother Regina Mathias, created a plan to care for orphaned children in the village of Songea in southern Tanzania. In cooperation with other local women’s organizations, such as SWACCO (Songea Women and Children Care Organization), an organization was established to provide orphans care in private and foster homes. Flora now lives in the USA, Fidea in Japan and Regina remains in Tanzania.
In 2002 Flora opened the Mwangaza Foundation in the United States with the goal of assuming financial responsibility for support of Songea’s orphans. A partnership was established with SWACCO for daily care of the children. Thirty- one acres were acquiredfor the orphanage project and local brickmaking was also initiated. Preliminary plans for a residential orphanage were drawn up by Seattle architects Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen.
As the Songea project developed, differences of opinions about the Foundations mission among the board of directors became a barrier to meeting the intended goals. Flora along with Fidea Kobayashi and Regina Mathias, decided to leave Mwangaza Foundation in order to continue to work to serve all children regardless of their religious background. Mwangaza Jitegemee Foundation was established in 2010 to continue the family’s work.
What We Do: Mwangaza Jitegemee means “self-reliance” in Swahili and stands for the principles of hard work and empowerment that Flora and he family consider to be central to this effort. The ongoing work of the foundation is to support the two principle projects:
1. Child Development Center: 76 Children are receiving support (shelter, clothing, food, medical care and education)
2. Women’s Social Development: 12 acres of land and fertilizer purchased to support agricultural activities.
Mwangaza Jitegemee has continued to work with SWACCO and the Seattle based architectural firm to house and care for the orphans of Songea and move forward with building a facility for them. Funds for school fees as well as seed money will enable the adult caregivers to support themselves and the children with top priorities.
Why We Do This Work: As parents die from HIV/AIDS, orphaned children have no place to go except to grandparents or relatives who often have no means to help them. These children are the focus of the MJF: their lives and futures depend on our success. The MJF provides the necessary elements that bring children stability, safety and nurturing care. MJF funds allow caregivers to feed and shelter the orphans and pay secondary school fees to enable students to continue their education
beyond the elementary school level.Funds have been raised to purchase land and support farming to provide foodstuffs both for the use of the community and to provide income through food sales. Finally, the MJF continues to support and plan for a new facility for the caregivers and orphans. This will be well-constructed and a safe compound. There will also be structures that will allow for communal as well as individual use. (kitchen, dining, meeting, etc.)
The Foundation is currently supported by donations from family and friends. An important base of support is the sponsorship of each child. Sponsors pledge monthly to sponsor an individual child, becoming a special friend in regular contact. It is a very warm feeling to know you have made a big difference in the life of a child that may have otherwise become a delinquent or faced an early death due to poverty and ignorance.
About Flora Komba: Flora grew up in Tanzania and with the rise of HIV/AIDS, often attended different communal mourning ceremonies. She observed that after communal mourning, children of the dead person were given to different people to be taken care of. This practice was often detrimental for the child. For example, in 1980 one of Flora’ friends, named Mwanaisha lost her parents and was taken in by her Aunt.
The Aunt, a witchdoctor, prevented Mwanaisha from going to school and ordered her to work as witchdoctor and to get married. Flora began to consider how the futures of Mwanaishaand other children from villages in Tanzania could be limited, particularly if they lost their parents. When Flora moved to the United States and found out what opportunity and freedom can mean for individual development, she realized that encouraging caregivers, an environment of love and support and education could help Tanzanian children regain some control over their futures and help them achieve their potential.
Mwangaza Jitegemee will keep the same ties they have had with SWACCO and the Seattle firm “sundberg architectural initiative”.
Facts about Tanzania: Tanzania (East Africa) covers an area of 945,166 square kilometers and is one of the largest countries in Sub - Sahara Africa. In an American context, it is one and one half the size of Texas. Tanzania has a population of 37,445,392 people comprised of more than 120 tribes, speaking as many languages. On the mainland, over 45% of the people are Christian, 35% are Muslim, and 20% hold indigenous beliefs. In Zanzibar, 99% are Muslim. In Tanzania approximately 60% of the children finish primary school, but only 5% finish secondary school, in part due to lack of teachers and funds to pay school fees. It estimated that between 7 and almost 9% of the population is infected with HIV/AIDS, which accounts for 6.5% of deaths, of which 55% are women. Malaria is an additional public health problem, especially for children.
For further information please contact Flora Komba, Co-Chair and President of Mwangaza Jitegemee Foundation. 13012 NE 21st Lane #J206, Kirkland, WA 98634. E-mail floraafrica@comcast.net
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