It has been more than a year ago that Bread and Water for Africa® provided our first grant for pilot project to a potential new partner in Tanzania, Watoto Wa Africa (Children of Africa) to prevent the orphanage it operates from being shut down.
The purpose of the grant, requested by WWA director Joseph Kirutu awarded in November 2022, specifically was to improve the living conditions in the dormitories through the procurement of mattresses, general repairs of the existing bed frames, the constructing of 10 new additional beds and buying bed lines to benefit all 86 orphaned children living there. In addition, we provided mosquito nets for all the beds to help ensure the children and youth sleeping there were protected from potentially contracting malaria.
A lot has happened in the past year, and thanks as always goes to out our generous supporters, as we have been able to provide tens of thousands of dollars in support to Watoto Wa Africa (WWA), including painting the orphanage and making other capital improvements, such as replacing doors and windows, adding fencing and significant upgrades to the kitchen.
Bread and Water for Africa® has also been providing grant support to help keep the children fed, ensured staff members receive their paychecks and paid the school fees for all the children so they can remain in classes, as well as providing them with mandatory school uniforms and other items of clothing – even making sure they had a festive Christmas 2022.
As with all of the orphan care programs we support in Kenya, Zimbabwe and Zambia our overarching mission to provide them with funding to address immediate and urgent needs in the short term, and ultimately helping them become self-reliant.
To that end, Bread and Water for Africa® has provided funding for WWA to purchase eight hectares (nearly 20 acres) of land, which has been ploughed and planted with sorghum grain (a nutritious food rich in protein, dietary fiber, B vitamins and minerals), sweet potatoes, greens and more.
In addition, we provided funding to construct a small, simple “watchmen’s house” as well as drilling a well in order to provide irrigation to the farmland during the long dry season.
“We want to thank the supporters of Bread and Water for Africa® for their generous support because all of this is being accomplished in our primary duty to our children,” says Joseph.
“Our children have mattresses, beds and bed linens that we were not able to provide for them. All the broken windows and doors have been made new.
“Our children have been able to get proper school uniforms and other items of clothing, nutritious food and an education.
“And to top it off we have a now have a project to help the orphanage become self-reliant.”
While Joseph, his staff of caregivers and, of course, the dozens of children themselves, are grateful for all that has been accomplished in the past year, we at Bread and Water for Africa® are not done yet – far from it!
For 2024, we will, of course, continue providing support to feed, house and educate the children along with more improvements at the farm including a water tank, a septic tank, sprinklers, pipes for irrigation, furniture for the farmhouse such as a dining table and chairs, and sewing machines, one of which for the orphanage which “will be used to make sure that our older children are first and foremost equipped with a skill in tailoring,” says Joseph.
“We are looking to make the farm be a place we can work at easily,” he added. “We want to make irrigation possible. We need sewing machines to repair clothes and make school uniforms less expensively while teaching the older children tailoring.”
And to all the supporters of Bread and Water for Africa® who have made all this possible, Joseph wants them to know this holiday season:
“Since October last year, Watoto Wa Africa and all the children under our care have been blessed to have Bread and Water for Africa® come to their rescue.
“Since our partnership with Bread and Water for Africa® began, we have had the privilege of feeding the children three meals each day, living in a much improved, cleaner environment, and today we now have our own land where we can produce our own food. We even have a new well that we can now get our own water from.
“From myself, our staff, and all our children here, thank you Bread and Water for Africa®!”
