Upendo Daima Tanzania
Mwanza is home to many street children. These children, sometimes as young as 5 years old, live in deplorable conditions on the streets. They survive by doing odd jobs, begging, stealing, or sometimes even prostituting themselves.
Upendo Daima regularly goes out onto the streets of Mwanza during the day, but especially in the evenings, to make contact with these children. We talk to them, listen to their stories, and try to convince them that a better future is in store for them.
If a child wants to, he is invited to come to the Back Home House. This house, close to the city center, is meant to help the new children get used to a safe environment again. They get food, a roof over their heads, basic education, and personal attention. At the same time, they receive therapy to process their traumatic experiences and we try to find out where they come from.
Goal: Reuniting street children with their families through counseling and various kinds of support, including providing shelter.
History
A sister from the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa started providing day care for street children in 1995. In 2000, Marga van Barschot, a lay missionary of the Society for African Missions, broadened the scope of activities by working on temporary care and reuniting street children with their families. Her love for children helped her to continue and improve the care for the children. Marga passed away in 2021, and since then the organisation in Mwanza has been entirely in Tanzanian hands. The team consists of social workers, counsellors, a teacher, cooks, security guards, two centre managers and a coordinator. Until mid-2013, Upendo Daima worked under the Archdiocese of Mwanza, but Upendo Daima is now an NGO. Christian principles are still followed, but all street children are welcome, regardless of religion or origin.
Activities
The street team regularly goes out onto the streets to make contacts with the children to gain their trust. Because Upendo Daima provides shelter in the Back Home House, a place where children receive love and care, a bond of trust can be established and from this contact, help is offered. The main objective is to reunite street children with their families and support them in their development wherever possible. The team therefore immediately starts looking for the family with the children and establishes contacts with the leaders of the community.
Not every child can be reunited with their parents or family in such a short period of time. That is why Malimbe Family provides shelter. Efforts to reunite all children with their families continue here. Here, the children can attend the local primary school and receive the attention that every child is entitled to. As long as children stay at Malimbe Family, they are guided towards greater independence. Some older children are given the opportunity to learn a trade so that they can earn their own living in the future. UDN is one of the first co-signatories of the Dutch NGO pledge “Every Child a Family”: the declaration that family is the place for a child to grow up, with a call to other NGOs, businesses, churches and schools to invest in family-oriented care. Recently, the Tanzanian government has also embraced Upendo Daima’s idea that every child has the right to grow up in a family environment. Legislation has been passed to ensure that orphanages are closed and that children are placed in foster families.
The safety of these vulnerable children is crucial in all of Upendo Daima’s activities. Upendo Daima works according to protocols for the resocialisation and safe reunification of the children. Two employees are specifically responsible for child protection and the safety of the children. In addition, there is a committee for the safety and protection of the children, consisting of UDO employees, employees of the municipal social services, neighbours and two children.
Want to know more?
Watch the 2018 film about the work of Upendo Daima.