Background
Into the lives of 16 children came a compassionate Christian woman by the name of Mrs. Rose Hingi. Concerned about the countless children living as outcasts, Mrs. Hingi found shelter for them and offered each one what little she had. With the support of her church, they created a loving sanctuary called “Upendo Orphanage”, which means “Love Orphanage” in Swahili. Education, nourishing meals, clothing, school supplies, medical care, loving caregivers, and spiritual care through Bible studies and worship were all provided.
In 2007, Mrs. Hingi heard that the children and caregivers were to be evicted from their accommodations. She prayed for God’s help and through a chance meeting with Global Aid Network (GAiN), a partnership was formed. (To this day, Mrs. Hingi maintains that this was not a coincidence but a blessing from God in response to her prayers.)
Through this new working relationship, GAiN became the sole supporter of the orphans and assisted Mrs. Hingi in finding a new rental house with electricity and running water. Rooms were outfitted with proper beds, mosquito netting, and necessary furniture for both dining and school work.
Across the street from this shelter was one of the first deep-capped water wells drilled by GAiN Tanzania’s drill team, providing clean and pure water for the children.
On one of GAiN’s visits in 2010, the team met Grace, one of the girls that grew up at Upendo. Because she saw the good work GAiN was doing for her people, Grace decided against becoming a teacher or nurse, which is a common career choice for most of the girls, and instead went into the Water Management program at a local government college.
Present Situation
Today, Upendo has 22 children and they continually receive requests to take in more. Usually these inquiries come from families that can no longer care for their own children, the Police Department that has found unwanted children on the streets, and children that would suddenly arrive on the shelter’s door step.
Yet, even with such a noticeable need, Upendo is unable to take in any additional children as the orphanage finds itself facing another potential move. After years of improvements that were made to the rental property by Upendo’s caregivers, the landlord saw the possibility of more money and, as a result, increased the rent.
GAiN’s Dream
Global Aid Network believes that God has called them to not only continue providing for the necessary daily needs in the current location, but to build a permanent location for the orphanage.
Constructing this new shelter would help impact the children by eliminating the instability caused from always moving and give GAiN an opportunity to look at different approaches in providing care for these children.
The hope would be to purchase three to five acres of land, preferably in the same area of the existing facility. This is ideal because it would allow the orphanage to continue using the existing resources and school support that has been developed over the last few years.
For the description of the full plan, click here.
To help make this dream a reality, give today!
