Good Hope Orphanage

Introduction

Good Hope Orphanage and School was started in 2006 and is located just outside Arusha, Tanzania in the Ngusero area. There are currently 12 children who reside at the orphanage and several others that attend the school daily. Good Hope is run by the Mohammed family, who created the orphanage centre in order to to help uplift their local community.

Who do we need?

Good Hope require volunteers to assist them with the day to day running of their organization. Volunteers do not need any specific qualifications or skills, except for a love of children and a desire to make a difference to someone elses life. We ask that volunteers come ready for a challenge and willing to put in some hard work.

The Environment:

Good Hope Orphanage and School is located in Ngusero, an area just outside of Arusha, Tanzania at the foot of Mount Meru.

Arusha is a small city located on the Tanzania - Kenya border and is surrounded by many well known national parks such as the Serengeti and near Mt Kilimanjaro. Although small, it is a city well equipped with a shoprite (a supermarket with western supplies).

Food and accomodation

We ask for a donation of US$400 per month (or $100 per week) from each volunteer. This covers the rent for your accommodation, food, electricity, water, security and the remainder acts as a small donation to the orphanage.

The orphanage is surrounded by a compound of walls so the building is quite safe. The house has two doors both with a barred door locked at night and the door itself has a lock, however during the day it is quite safe regardless. The school is very close and the walk is safe with neighbours greeting the volunteers.

Hassan, the volunteer coordinator will accompany volunteers until they feel safe.

Pleasure trips: Nelson Mbise also runs a travel company on his spare time and also helps books pleasure trips for volunteers. During this time he takes the extra initiative though not required, to ensure the safety of volunteers anyway.

Health: There are private hospitals that can care foreigners. The orphanage has numbers to private taxis that can take the children or the volunteers for health problems in case of emergencies.

Project Directors

Asha Mohammed, the director of Good Hope vowed to take action against the devastation caused by HIV/AIDS, and the poor health care and educational services due to the impoverished state of Tanzania’s economy.

Nelson Mbise is the local coordinator who lives close to the orphanage. Michelle Wong is the inter-national volunteer coordinator.

Your Job:

Duties include:

• Teaching or assisting in teaching at the Good Hope school which is located 3-5 minutes walk away from the orphanage.

• Helping the children with their homework.

• Caretaking: helping children get ready for school in the morning, washing their hands before meals

• Housework: laundry, cooking, cleaning (i.e. sweeping) all assisting the matron

• Help with fundraising or finding new options in looking for new volunteers without a middleman

• Reading stories

Volunteers live in the orphanage building and are provided with three meals a day. During the week volunteers help the kids get ready for school and walk them to the school building, which is approximately five minutes away from the orphanage.

In their free time, volunteers can take a local town bus (daladala) into the center of Arusha town and experience the sights, sounds and tastes of Arusha.
Good Hope also coordinates safaris to Lake Manyara, The Serengeti, The Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangire National Park, also treks to the infamous Mount Kilimanjaro (the tallest freestanding mountain in the world) and the local Mt. Meru at an extra cost.

Background

Orphans come to the orphanage centre when they can no longer be cared for by their sick or poor guardians or their parental guardians have passed away due to AIDS or other life threatening diseases. There are currently 12 orphans who live at Good Hope full time and also attend Good Hope’s schooling services. The children’s ages range from 4 to 8 years old and the orphanage is co-ed. In addition to the orphans, 60 local children attend Good Hope’s school and then return to their respective homes at the end of the day. When the children turn 12, Ally Mohammed, Asha’s son and co-director of Good Hope will teach an HIV/AIDS prevention and informational class to the children.

Religion:

The orphanage has children of Muslim, Christian and no faith. The volunteers are not required to go to religious services however if they are interested in attending service there is a Christian and Catholic church nearby that hold English services on Sundays. There are also Muslim services held in Swahili.

To read about past volunteers' experiences at this project, please click here.

You can read in more detail about us at: http://www.goodhopeorphanage.org