The Sponsorship Program

Our sponsorship program is one of the key programs at Twiga Vision Tanzania. This is due to the fact that this program has had directly and/or indirectly impacted on many people’s lives in the surrounding communities, which is exactly what the program is there for. This program was designed to help children or even young people from marginalized communities get an education. Our main target is children whose parents can’t afford sending them to school or have sent the children to school but struggle to pay for the children’s school needs. Currently, around 80 children are beneficiaries of the program. A child is sponsored through a daycare centre until when they turn 5 or 5+. Then they go to a government school until when they turn 16 years of age. When they complete their lower-secondary education, then, it becomes the choice of the sponsor whether to continue sponsoring them into higher education/vocational training or not.

The sponsorship covers the:

- Meals at school

- Lessons provided at school

- Conducive learning environment

- Exercise books and pens

- School study tours

- Full school uniforms

- Health insurances

The Sponsorship Program

A parent approaches us asking for sponsorship.

We tell them about how our sponsorship works and give them the option to come back when they think they understand the program clearly. Then a home visit is scheduled. When the day arrives we go to the home of the potential sponsored child to collect basic information about them. This information helps us decide whether they are illegible for sponsor or not. This depends on the living condition of the family and other situations that we will have seen. After the home visit, a full profile of the child is created ready to send it to our sponsorship mediators or direct to a pontential sponsor.

When our sponsorship coordinators get the profile they share it on their respective platforms to try and find a sponsor for that particular child. When a sponsor is found we get informed by our mediators about the sponsor. We then invite the child’s parent/guardian to come to the office to get this news about the child’s.

Friend Family Program

Friend Family program is a program that aims at rescuing families that have been or are being kicked out of a house due to failure of paying house rent or other reasons, which puts the family in danger of being on the street. In Tanzania’s urban areas, there are many cases where people find themselves in such a situation that they are being kicked out of a house that has been their home for a long time, just because they have failed to pay rent. In most cases, according to the laws of Tanzania, the landlord/lady would give those one up to three months of notice before they actually leave. When the time comes, the landlord is entitled to take whatever action towards the tenant, including kicking them out of the house. This is when the victim family desperately seeks for help.

We help people in this situation get a home for at least two years before they can be independent and stand on their own feet. We know that there are so many reasons leading to those situations. One of which is when a man abandons his family because of failure to provide basic needs to the family. In most cases, the woman is left with the children not knowing what to do and where to go.

This situation is even more difficult if the woman was previously made a mere house wife and fully dependent on the man. This makes it really difficult for them to provide for their family when the man leaves. Many women end up being prostitutes, while their children take to the street and turning into street children and this is when we are needed for an intervention.

Friend Family Program - Details

How it works?

When we get case like this, we first pay a visit to their current home where they are being evacuated. We evaluate the overall situation and come up with a full narration of the situation on paper. Where possible, we ask to meet the landlord/lady to ask for grace period, if our request is accepted then we use the grace period to look for a sponsor who can pay rent for this marginalized family. We do this by sending the information to our Sponsorship Mediators. After receiving the information, our Sponsorship mediators share the news with their respective networks. When a sponsor is found we get informed and we immediately inform the waiting family about them getting a sponsor. Then they are called to our office and sign a sponsorship letter that tells them when the sponsorship starts and for how long they will be supported. The sponsor is expected to pay 30 Euros every month for at least 2 years and maximum of 3 years. So the sponsor has the two options.

Just after identifying the family we invite the head of the family to our business training sessions, happening once every week. In this training they learn many business concepts and technics. What is a business, how to develop a business idea, market research, customer care and how to tackle competition in business. They continue doing this training even after getting a sponsor. This is to prepare them to start their own business as way of eventually becoming independent. In one or two years’ time we want them to come up with a specific and realistic business plan. We expect them to use the knowledge that they will have learned during the business training sessions. When their business plans evaluate to logical and realistic, a process to find them a business capital starts. There are two major ways to get them business capital one is through a donation by a onetime donor just for that business idea to turn into reality. The other way by starting a fundraising campaign that will enable them to get business capital. When they get a loan they are supervised and supported for one more year.

During the one year we take a responsibility of making sure the business stands stable. We offer the client advice and from time to time we pay them a visit to see how everything is going with the business. After one year we tell them that they should now be independent. This is end of our support to that family.

The Kipepeo women's program

The Kipepeo women's empowerment program is a program that aims at empowering women in multiple ways. With this program women are empowered to become self-reliant by provided them with lifeskills training that lead them to having the right atitude and mindset for running a business as well as providing them with lessons on how to make handcraft products, which puts them in a position where they are ready to start their own businesses and run the businesses successfully. Business classes, that are taking place regularly at our centre(s), are also an integral part of the program. Women learn useful skills like sewing and making jewellers out of beads and fabric. They also get other useful knowledge that are beneficial to their lives.

Other Benefits:

Reduces stress. ... Raise your self-esteem. ... Stimulates creativity. ... Assists in difficult times

Apart from earning money, the group members get other benefits as well.

Team work: by working together they learn how to work as a team; they develop team work skills and learn how to go along with each other. Social benefits: by them coming together, they get a platform to share their good and bad experiences; this gives the chance for the rest of the group to help the affected member. By so doing the victim is less stressed as she knows there is back-up from the rest of the group. Also they would do a financial contribution to help a member in need.

Emotional benefits: when they first join the group, most of the women are likely to have been going through life hardships. So they are so damaged emotionally. By meeting new people they make friends and they get people to talk to about their life challenges, and then get supported on how to go about the situation.

Entrepreneurship skills: most women join the group knowing almost nothing, by the time they leave the group they will have developed a lot of entrepreneurship skills, this time they can produce handcraft products without the help of the members, which means, they could continue doing this kind of business by themselves!

How members of the group are recruited: We recruit members of the group among people who have been to our office asking for either membership in the group or had other economic needs to which we offer them the opportunity in case they are interested. Those are the only two ways to recruit members.

How it works: The women create their products and sell the products mostly to our volunteers; if we get an agent who could help to sell the products in Europe we really appreciate it. We use our leaving volunteers to transport the products. More information on this can be provided on request.

Business Training Program

The business training program brings together all of our other programs’ beneficiaries and provide them with business training. Examples of the beneficiaries are the members of the women’s group, beneficiaries of the Friend family program and parents of sponsored children. It is compulsory for members of the Kipepeo women’s group and the Friend family beneficiaries, but for parents of the sponsored children is optional.

The program aims at equipping our beneficiaries with knowledge they need to face the competitive world of business. The main goal is to make them independent. To be able to pay for their basic needs as well as being able to cover their children’s school expenses and probably some of them to become big business women!

Life skills training programs

With this program we reach the adolescents with life skills training. Most of the time, we do this in secondary school, where most of the students have reached adolescence. The main objective of this program is to prepare the youths to become active and productive members of the community.

Main topics that we deliver are related to their individual life skills and social life skills, this is to equip young people with the knowledge necessary for them to cope with situations in their surroundings and within themselves (dealing with their own feelings and emotions.

Daycare Services

In 2016 Daniphord, established a Daycare center called KHM, which was a separate legal entity. Since kindergarten and Daycare are not government funded, parents have to pay if they want their children to have some education before they start primary school. This leads to inequality since some children start school and know how to read, write and do simple mathematics while others don’t have that opportunity. This is where Daniphord wanted to step in and help children from less fortune families break through the cycle of poverty. Because of the great need of the services, they had to open a branch of the Daycare centre (another day care centre nearby) to fully meet the needs of the service.

The new Daycare centre was then named Unique Choice Daycare Centre, although later KHM Daycare was closed by the authorities, which left us with only Unique Choice Daycare Centre. Although the fees charged by the Daycare centre are relatively low, some parents are still unable to afford it, and this is when sponsorship program became a necessity.