karibu imuma.
IMUMA Orphanage is located in Bagamoyo, Tanzania. Bagamoyo is a culturally rich town on the Indian Ocean, just north of Dar Es Salaam. IMUMA offers services to orphaned children and vulnerable youth in the community. They currently house 6 children and provide services to around 60. Through IMUMA,these children receive a better opportunity to go to school, make close friends, and form supportive relationships. IMUMA is tucked back into Nianjema on the far side of Bagamoyo town. The land houses two classrooms, a small garden, living facilities, a kitchen, and two rooms used for local artists. Volunteers come by often to teach dancing, drumming, and art skills to the children, giving them a lively environment that keeps them in touch with their culture and their people. IMUMA strives to send each child to school, but due to financial reasons, this is often not possible. If you are interested in sponsoring a child to go to school, please visit our “donations” page to read about what you can do to help. Through IMUMA’s current projects, designed to create a steady, self-reliant income, IMUMA aims to end reliance on donations and to eventually expand their facilities to house more children in need.
history.
IMUMA was started in 2006 by Sharif Yusuf after he noticed children spending the night in his local cinema. Left with nowhere to go and no school to attend, these children were forced to sneak into the cinema to sleep under a roof. Sharif had started the cinema to support his wife and two children. The cinema consisted of a small room with a thatched roof, and tickets cost 50 Tanzanian Shillings, or a little less than five cents. When Sharif realized that the same school-aged children were coming to the theater every day, he began to ask questions. Many of the children had been orphaned by HIV/AIDS or malaria. Some were the children of impoverished single mothers. Often they were victims of sexual or domestic abuse, and the majority were malnourished. Sharif and his wife, Asha, expanded their family, welcoming these children into their home. With the help of friends and family, IMUMA was born. Sharif closed his cinema with the goal of opening the orphanage and offering a safe haven for children of the community to come when they have nowhere to go and no one to turn to.
Over the years, IMUMA has grown from those ten children to fifty-six children, only six of whom Sharif can afford to house full-time. The other fifty children come to IMUMA during the day, where they are given food, education, and lessons in painting and drumming. IMUMA achieved official NGO status in 2008, but remains unsupported by the government. Many volunteers come during the day to offer their help and to cook, clean, and educate the children. IMUMA is largely supported by donations at this point, but is in the process of developing self-sustainable businesses to ease reliance on foreign donations. Two of these projects are featured on this blog: the internet cafe and the brick making business. To read more about these projects, please visit the “Current Projects” tab.
imuma. 