Background

Tanzania Children Concern (TCC) was founded first in 2003 as Saint Timothy Nursery and Primary School. The founding teachers, James Nathaniel and Beatrice Elias, saw a serious need to help vulnerable children receive the education and care that they deserve. They soon became aware of the magnitude of the problem facing these children, both in terms of education and the staggering effects of HIV/AIDS, and decided to form an organization to work against this problem. Tanzania Children Concern was officially registered as a Non-Government Organization in early 2006.

The Problem

Current figures estimate that more than ten percent of Tanzania's population is living with HIV/AIDS. This creates a grim situation for the nation's children: increasing numbers are being orphaned or abandoned, forced onto the streets, victimized, and neglected. There are currently almost 2 million AIDS orphans in Tanzania, and this number is expected to more than double by the year 2010 (UNAIDS, 2006). Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs) experience serious discrimination and are easily exploited, making them more susceptible to forced child labor, prostitution, drug and alcohol abuse, as well as HIV infection. Many of these children do not have the opportunity to go to school or receive vocational training in order to gain skills that could enable them to support themselves. Many are faced with the added burden of caring for and supporting their siblings, sacrificing their own education and often their health for their family's survival.

Currently, the majority of Tanzanians living with HIV/AIDS struggle to obtain proper medical care. Anti-Retroviral (ARV) medication is available free of charge, but is not widely accessible the majority of the population living in rural areas. Medicines for opportunistic infections are often too expensive for most, and many people cannot even afford the bus fare to the hospital or pharmacy to get them. Those who are on ARV therapy are too often unable to maintain the proper diet needed to make the drugs effective. Further fueling the problem is the widespread stigma associated with AIDS, keeping people from testing their blood and blocking any significant progress in controlling the pandemic.

As a result, many people are suffering who do not have to be. Many are dying young, when they could have many more years to live. And as more and more productive citizens are lost to AIDS and their children are left vulnerable and disadvantaged, Tanzania's future is in jeopardy.

Tanzania Children Concern strives to alleviate the problem by providing afflicted families with educational opportunities for their children, as well as health, nutritional, and psycho-social support.

Learn more about our Programs and Activities.

Read a few words from our Chairman.