About Us
“Tuwapende Watoto” in Kiswahili means “we love children.”
The Tuwapende Watoto Children’s Foundation is a charity in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It provides orphaned and abandoned children a loving home and a good long term education for their future.
Tuwapende Watoto is a politically and religiously independent organization.
The Foundation is officially registered as an NGO in Tanzania. It is funded through private and institutional donations. The largest part of the administrative work is done by volunteers in Switzerland. All travel expenses of the founding members and the ambassadors as well as of the volunteers are paid by the persons privately. We guarantee that almost 100% of the donations are used locally.
Short history
2006
The Foundation has run the orphanage since 2006 with 25 children between the ages of 18 month and 20 years. In 2010, it opened a nursery and a year later a primary school.
Currently about 580 students visit the Tuwapende Watoto Nursery and Primary School.
2016
In February 2016, the foundation opened an vocational education and training center for tailors and in April 2016 a class with horticultural apprentices.
Beginning of 2017 we opened the first two school buildings of the center, each with three classrooms, a building with toilets and showers and a gatehouse.
At the same time, we were able to open a new class for tailoring and horticulture and a class with baker apprentices. Currently 49 apprentices are trained in three professions. By 2019 five school buildings with a total of fifteen classrooms will be finished. In addition to the above-mentioned occupations, the following professions are planned: painters, electricians, computer scientists, carpenters and merchants.