Children’s Project

My name is Machteld Elize Speets. I am the coordinator and founder of the TWIGA Foundation. In 2002, during one of my safari’s as guide for a Dutch organisation, I met the chief of the Cultural Tourism Program in the town Mto wa Mbu in the north of Tanzania. He asked me to help the town in taking up the problem of the children that more of less live on the streets.
Due to poverty a lot of children in this town cannot go to school. Obviously, they don’t have money for a school uniform, notebooks and school fees. Therefore, you will often see that mothers sent their children to the streets so they can earn some money, or the children go there themselves because of poverty related conflicts at home.
Mto wa Mbu is located close to Lake Manyara National Park and along the route to famous attractions, like the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti. This way a lot of tourists visit the town every year. Of course tourism is important for the development of a country. However, the reverse is that children get the chance to earn money in a quick and easy way, instead of going to school.
Besides, aggression arises at home due to poverty and the hopeless situation, which often causes conflicts. According to research, this is the main reason why children take refuge in the streets. Naturally the reality is more complex than I can tell in this short introduction. In any case it is clear that since the children don’t get an education this vicious circle of poverty, violence, alcohol abuse and prostitution cannot be broken. Through education, attention and love this circle can be broken.
I came to know some of these children and I was touched by their hopeless circumstances. Apparently I was at the right moment at the right place to be willing to do something about this. After profound research I undertook action by starting the TWIGA Foundation. At the moment we structurally offer a future with better chances to about 150 people in the “Sarakasi ya Vijana” program.
The aim of TWIGA, our foundation, is to support these vulnerable children and to inspire them to bring a positive change in their lives to break the vicious circle of poverty and violence. We do this amongst others by supplying education and basic needs like food, clothing, personal hygiene and health care for the children and their caretakers.
We have achieved that 23 children from 6 years old are back in school and we make sure that they will stay there. The 23 children have been selected by TWIGA with the help of the Youth And Welfare Department of the Tanzanian government. In practice this means that they go to school one part of the day, and the other part of the day they are at the Sarakasi centre, where they get food, clothing, extra tuition, personal care and medicines. Besides, we attach a lot of value to education in sports, playing and lifeskills, with themes as respect, non- violence, environment, communication, etc.
If it is financially feasible, we would like to extend the number of children in the program. We also strive for letting children start at a younger age, because younger children are more vulnerable. In addition, they can be prepared for primary school this way and therefore it is easier for them to get their diploma. For the time being we rent the Sarakasi house and the volunteer house. In 2004 we have bought 5 acres of land close to Lake Manyara. We hope to build our own houses there in the near future, for the children as well as for the volunteers.