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Empowering Tuleeni: Sustainable Building in Rural Tanzania

The Tuleeni Orphanage extension project is a sustainable and innovative approach to empowering our children and community in Uru,Tanzania

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Empowering Tuleeni: Sustainable Building in Rural Tanzania

Empowering Tuleeni: Sustainable Building in Rural Tanzania

Empowering Tuleeni: Sustainable Building in Rural Tanzania

Empowering Tuleeni: Sustainable Building in Rural Tanzania

Empowering Tuleeni: Sustainable Building in Rural Tanzania

The Tuleeni Orphanage extension project is a sustainable and innovative approach to empowering our children and community in Uru,Tanzania

The Tuleeni Orphanage extension project is a sustainable and innovative approach to empowering our children and community in Uru,Tanzania

The Tuleeni Orphanage extension project is a sustainable and innovative approach to empowering our children and community in Uru,Tanzania

The Tuleeni Orphanage extension project is a sustainable and innovative approach to empowering our children and community in Uru,Tanzania

Mandy Stein
Mandy Stein
Mandy Stein
Mandy Stein
1 Campaign |
Moshi, Tanzania, United Republic of
$3,875 USD 45 backers
7% of $50,000 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal
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My name is Mandy Stein and I am 22 years old. I am the Founder and Executive Director of Neema International, a non-profit organization that is committed to bettering the lives of orphans in East Africa. I currently live in a remote village in Tanzania with the 84 Tuleeni Orphans and the orphanage mother, Mama Faraji. From the time that I started volunteering here in 2011, I have been fundraising to build them a new facility in the nearby village of Uru. I have been working cooperatively with another volunteer, Jackie Weiss, who is now my official partner in this project. Jackie had come to Tanzania to volunteer back in 2008 and was actually the one who had purchased the land for the new orphanage in 2010.  

[Photo: Mama Faraji and me standing in front of the plot of land where the new orphanage would be built. (June, 2011) ]

Before I go on, I want to tell you that I have never been one to explain my work by telling depressing stories about poverty that will guilt trip our readers. However, I am often asked what it is about this project that makes it different from others or why people should donate to this initiative opposed to another one. I feel that in order to answer these questions properly, I must first share the following with you.

The region that I am living in here in Tanzania is far from the worst of the worst. But at the same time, every single person that I come in contact with is fighting a battle that I have known so little to nothing about in my lifetime. My children here have encountered more hardships in their short lives than I could ever imagine. I have too many orphaned children who are products of rape; other children who will not live the life they deserve to be able to live because they were born with HIV and are fighting to survive every day; girls who were sold into marriage before the age of 10, and then forced to have children with their new husbands, some who were at least 50 years older than them and had countless other wives. These same girls were denied an education. They are now in their late teenage years and do not know how to read or write. There are children in our village who are unable to go to school because they cannot afford to pay for both their HIV medication as well as their education. These children didn’t have any control over their current situation. They didn’t have some lapse in judgment or make a poor decision that resulted in major consequences. They were simply born into this world and dealt this hand of cards. They are stuck in a vicious cycle of poverty that will continue on for generations to come unless someone does something to stop it. 

[Photo: Here is one picture of the living situation at the current orphanage, where the young children often sleep 4-6 per bed.]

When Mama Faraji first told me about her dream for this orphanage extension, she simply imagined a self-sustainable home that would have enough space for all our children to live comfortably. However, since we broke ground on the project in February 2012, it has become so much more.

With the village of Uru being home to about 10,000 Africans, we saw an incredible opportunity to aid a much larger population than just the Tuleeni children. This was our chance to try to break the cycle of poverty in our village by empowering as many individuals as possible. We altered the original blueprints, which solely featured a large one-story home for the children, to now include a second floor complete with classrooms, a library and a computer lab that will serve as an interactive community center for the entire village. We will be able to offer a wide variety of outreach programs to help promote a self-sustainable lifestyle through creativity and education, and most importantly, work together to build for a better and brighter future for our children for generations to come.

Many of the older Tuleeni Orphans have attended vocational colleges and have developed certain skill sets that they are eager to teach others. For example, two of our oldest boys received degrees in Information Technology and want to use the computer lab to teach members of the community a variety of different computer skills, such as how to create a resume, use the internet, and compose documents. Others have expressed an interest in helping us teach construction, sewing and art classes—all of which will encourage individuals to start their own business or go out and find work in a field that they are interested in. We also plan to offer free tutoring for all of the village children and first aid and mothering classes for the young mothers as well. Lastly, we hope to purchase an adjacent plot of land that will be used as Tuleeni’s farmland as well as for teaching self-sustainable farming skills to the community.


[Photo: The orphans and me sewing, cooking, building, studying, and farming--by sharing our knowledge of different skills with one another, we've provided each other with new opportunities & have grown as individuals.]

We have employed local members of the community to aid us in construction, so that they will feel a sense of accomplishment when we finish this project together. With their help, we have completed the first floor, which makes up the orphanage portion of the center, filled will bedrooms, bathrooms, the kitchen and the administrative office. We have completed half of the formwork for the second floor slab and will begin pouring in the cement soon!


[Photo: Me knealing on top of the second floor formwork at the new facility in Uru. (September 2013) ]

Neema International has recently gained fiscal sponsorship from the Greater Houston Community Foundation, which is a 501c3 certified organization, making it possible for us to now accept fully tax-deductible donations. While we have made incredible progress over the past year and a half, we still need to raise another $400,000 in order to completely finish the construction of the center, furnish it, and get the supplies needed to conduct our outreach programs--- this $50,000 will pay for the next phase of the construction, which is the second floor slab, second floor walls, the rimming for the roof!

It has been said that the start to achieving a dream lies simply in your belief that it is possible. And that when you have picked a dream that is bigger than yourself, that truly reflects the ideals that you cherish, and that can positively affect others, you will always have a reason for carrying on. And no matter what kind of challenges lay before you, if somebody believes in you and you believe in your dream, it can happen. I believe in this dream and I believe it can happen. I just need someone like YOU to believe in me too. I hope you can find a way to help me make this dream a reality for these deserving Tanzanian individuals. Thank you so much for taking the time to read about this project—I really appreciate it!

-Mandy Stein



Video Credits: Major Thanks to 4eProductions for allowing us to use their song, "Together We Can Change The World" in our project video. "Together We Can Change the World," one of the featured song in the original musical "LETTERS TO DADDY," is available for download on iTunes or via www.letterstodaddy.com © 2013 4eProductions (ASCAP) 

Original version of the song is performed by Rilee O'Neill with background vocals from The SIFA Choir. 

Music & Lyrics by Mark Shepard

Arrangement by Joe Mennonna

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