Songea's Kids

Songea’s Kids is dedicated to building hope and transforming lives of orphans and vulnerable youth in remote, under-served rural Tanzania, East Africa. We are an all-volunteer, grassroots nonprofit organization based in Sammamish, Washington, USA (www.songeaskids.org). We partner with local Tanzanian NGOs to provide safe shelter, food, clothing, education and health care for up to 65 children each year. We have two major programs to make a significant impact on the lives of orphans, vulnerable children, their caretakers and communities:

Child Sponsorship Program: Our Child Sponsorship Program works to meet the basic and education needs of orphans and vulnerable children. We currently support 82 children by providing nurturing homes, food, clothing, health care and education. How it works:

• Songea’s Kids identifies Child Sponsors who provide funding for basic needs and education.  
• Our Tanzanian partner, Hope Village Organization works with the Tanzanian government and village councils to identify the children most in need of help. They distribute the donated funds and supplies and regularly visit the children in their homes and schools to make sure that their needs are being met.   
• Songea’s Kids volunteers visit the programs on a regular basis to meet with our partners, local government and social service agencies, and visit the children in their schools and homes to ensure that their needs are being met. Child sponsors are invited to join our trips, and several have found the trip to meet their sponsored child to be one of the most heartwarming experiences of their lives.
• As the children graduate from school and prepare to enter the workforce we provide mentoring and career guidance to help the graduates launch their careers.

Partnership to Build a Residential Haven for Orphans : We partner with the Tanzanian NGO, Hope Village Organization, to build Hope Village in Lutukira Village near Songea. Hope Village is planned to be a community that will include homes in a nurturing environment for up to 160 orphaned and abandoned children. Once completed, it will include orphan housing, deep wells, a health clinic, nursery/pre-primary school, vocational schools and entrepreneurial opportunities. Key project information:

Land for Hope Village was donated by the local Lutukira Village, which will benefit from the clean water, health care and vocational training opportunities that will be available in Hope Village.  

Songea’s Kids and its’ donors provides pro-bono architectural and engineering designs and guidance, along with funds for construction.  

Hope Village Organization is developing a public/private partnership with the Government of Tanzania to provide funding for staffing of the main services.

Hope Village Plans:

• Residential orphan housing for up to 160 children, cared for by matrons in a family style, nurturing environment. The first home is under construction and will be completed in 2023.
• Clean water from deep wells has already been provided at Hope Village and in the Village of Lutukira. Solar pumped water is installed, and solar panels provide electricity.
• A health care complex/dispensary that will benefit the orphans and also the 2800 local villagers in the community was constructed, opened in April 2021 and is now providing desperately needed health care services in the region.
• An education complex will include pre-primary education and vocational training classrooms for masonry, carpentry, agriculture, IT, and more.  The education complex will benefit both orphans and local villagers. The Masonry Classroom opened in January 2022 and students are gaining valuable skills to support their futures.
• Income generating small enterprises will be established, and user fees for the health care center and tuition for the education and vocational training will provide ongoing operational funds for Hope Village.