Protect 100s Children at Tanzania's Bus Terminals

I’d like to introduce you to Joshua, aged 11. He lived a happy life with his mum and dad in Mwanza, Tanzania. His parents were entrepreneurs and were able to provide for Joshua and his two siblings.

However, life took an unexpected turn when Joshua’s parents separated, and his father took away all the family savings – including money his wife had saved to expand her business. By the time his father left, Joshua’s mum was pregnant, with three other children to provide for and a business that was struggling to stay afloat.

Taking to the streets

With his mother unable to provide for her children, Joshua started visiting the streets to look for casual work like fetching water. With the little money he earned, he would buy food for his family.

Joshua began to join other children on the streets more regularly and would frequently miss school. When he did attend school, the class teacher would shame him by calling him names, and his classmates would laugh at him and isolate him, leading him to drop out of school completely.

One day Joshua went to the streets and lost track of time. Too afraid to go home for fear that his mother would punish him, he instead stayed on the streets, spending time around the bus terminal.

We have teams at the bus terminal looking out for and protecting children like Joshua – which is where our staff met him during their outreach work.

Joshua was placed with one of our Fit Persons – someone who could look after him in a safe family environment while we traced his family. Luckily, at the same time, his mother had reported Joshua missing to the police and was desperately trying to locate her child.

Thanks to you we were able to reunite Joshua with his family.

Building long-lasting change

Our teams spent time running therapeutic sessions to help Joshua’s family solve the issues they faced so they could stay together for good.

We helped Joshua and his siblings enroll back in school so they could get an education and build a brighter future for themselves. The family received clothes donations and food supplies to help them get back on their feet. And we provided business skills training and a grant to Joshua’s mother so she could grow her business and comfortably provide for her family, meaning Joshua and his siblings would not need to find work and could stay in school.

Your support not only changed Joshua’s life, but the lives of his entire family- thank you.

Links:

• Find out more about our work in Tanzania