Anike Foundation Partners With Shalom Centre

In 2014, Anike Foundation partner Shalom Centre committed to provide support to at least 300 at-risk orphans and vulnerable children in the Ngaramtoni slum of Tanzania’s Arusha region.

The challenges are many for people in this poverty-stricken region. People in this area are forced to migrate in search of employment to earn daily bread. Parents often send children begging in town to sell marbles and plastic bags to earn money to purchase a family meal for the day. Most families often struggle to get even one meal per day.

These poverty challenges affect children’s school performance, and many times school dropouts encounter abuse. In particular, girls who drop out of school often engage in sex trades that lead to contraction of STIs, early pregnancy, young unskilled/unemployed mothers, and single parents, which further complicate the problem of children and youth at risk.

Shalom Centre’s Children in Crisis program seeks to empower children of this region to become responsible members of society by providing psychosocial and educational support. Specifically, Shalom Centre seeks to increase school enrolment, attendance, and access to basic education, as well as improve academic performance by providing support during home visits and weekend gatherings in selected places. Shalom Centre will also supply scholastic materials for the children who are most in need. Anike Foundation will partner to benefit 230 schoolchildren over 2016 and 2017 by providing exercise books and other scholastic materials.

Anike Foundation and Shalom Centre hope that, through continued support, this program results in reduced school absences, student academic improvement, reduced cases of violation of child rights, and the remaking of happy, cheerful and confident children in Ngaramtoni, Arusha.