About us
What we stand for
Our Mission
Our mission is to empower the position of the most disadvantaged, vulnerable and needy communities in Africa so they can live a dignified life.
Our Vision
We want to give people the opportunity to take control of the factors and decisions that shape their lives by developing knowledge and skills.
Who we are
We are the changing agents for our communities.
Most of us grew up in the rural area of Tanzania, where we saw the challenges of our communities. We want to use our own experiences to empower the most marginalized groups to have a better life. Therefore, we are helping especially women and children in different ways.
Here you can find out how.
Below, some or our members give a statement of what Friends Heart Foundation means to them.
“When I lost both my parents to AIDS at a young age, I started living a homeless life. I had no education, no shelter and isolated myself from the world.
Based on my experience, my dream was to make a positive change in the community. I didn’t want people to face the same challenges I did. I started volunteering in several communities and with the help of a friend I could study and finish my diploma in community development.
Though the job market is very tough in this field and I only found a one year employment, I continued to volunteer in different organizations that educate about menstruation, AIDS, contraception and gender-based violence. Soon, I realized that I can have the biggest impact with my own organization and started to work towards this goal. Finally, with the help of my friends I was able to found the Friends Heart Foundation and I’m happy to dedicate the organization’s name to my supporters with their big hearts.”
“Due to my family background, a family of farmers, I feel very connected to nature. I am a coffee and vanilla farmer myself and therefore driven to protect the environment. I see the fertile soil of the Kilimanjaro region as a gift we have to value and preserve. Therefore, I teach my community about sustainable permaculture and organic farming but also about the impact on plastic waste. That’s why I also organized plastic collection campaigns in the past.
But I also see a lot of injustice in our community. Especially women and girls, who are the fundament of our society, experience many disadvantages. They struggle most from the high unemployment rate and poverty. My goal is to give them chances and provide education to create equity in our society. That’s why I am part of the Friends Heart Foundation.”
Our motivation
We have a lot of challenges to solve
The communities in Tanzania face various problems. We want to empower and support them to solve their challenges.
Unemployment and low income
One big challenge is the high unemployment rate in our country. Many people don’t have stable income and enough resources to fend for their lifes and their families. Due to the little amount of job opportunities, most people start their own small businesses to provide at least for the basic needs.
We support especially women by skill trainings, which give them new income opportunities, combined with financial education and starting capital. But preparation for the labour market has to start even earlier. That’s why we offer additional English and computer courses on schools giving our graduates better job opportunities.
Disadvantages of women and girls
Women are the backbone of our society and often take the mayor responsibilities within the families and communities. Still, women and girls belong to the most marginalized groups. Single mothers and widows usually face huge financial struggles, many women face gender-based violence but can’t break out of their situation due to dependent relationships. On average, girls drop out of school earlier for different reasons leaving them with a lack of education, life skill knowledge and no opportunity to build a self-reliant life.
We want to give girls a save space to communicate and exchange their worries and troubles, raise their confidence and the awareness of the importance of education. Additionally, we provide reusable sanitary pads to facilitate them to go to school regularly.
We also support the women of our community by skill trainings and microfinances.
Access to clean water
Many places in Tanzania have no access to clean water or water at all. Women have to walk 5km and more just to fetch water for their daily needs. Often, these water sources are surface water and not save to utilize. Unfortunately, there is no other option available.
We did not start this project yet, but we plan to provide ceramic water filters in these regions, especially in schools and other public institutions. Long-term we want to build save water sources to reduce the cases of Cholera, Typhoid and other diseases caused by contaminated water.
Lack of environmental education
Our environment is our greatest good. Unfortunately, in most places it it not treated sustainably. The land is exploited by using monoculture, trees are cut without replanting or new faring areas are created by illegal fire clearance. Monocultures are more sensitive to dry periods, which often causes shortages of food, hunger and death.
Another problem we recently started to face is the change of the climate making the yield of crops more unpredictable.
Additionally, there is a huge lack of awareness about the impact of waste in our environment.
Our initiatives are to educate our community about sustainable permaculture, organic farming and the impact of waste. We plan waste collection events on a regular basis.
We are aware that our home in Kilimanjaro, though there are many challenges to solve, has many advantages compared to other regions. We have fertile land and a good climate for farming all year, enough clean water available as well as tourism which brings wealth to our communities. Therefore, we also want to share our knowledge and resources and support other less fortunate communities in Tanzania.
Our beneficiaries
We concentrate our efforts on the most disadvantaged members of our society, to strengthen our communities. They are:
Our goal
Our goal is to maintain happiness and a positive mindset in the community by creating equal chances for everyone. We start in the Kilimanjaro region but want to expand our approaches to other regions.
Our actions
We want to transform challenges into opportunities. We want to use the given resources in the environment and our communities and help people to use them sustainably to create a better future.