Help these 10 kids to graduate

TAFCOM is a Tanzanian NGO that was founded in 2005 and puts its focus on fighting poverty from all sides.

Pia from Germany and Nikolaj from Denmark, who both work as volunteers for TAFCOM until the end of October 2014, want to fundraise 2500€ to give 10 ambitious young attendants of secondary school the chance to finish their education!

It costs 60€ ($75) to send a child to a public secondary school for one year. The families that TAFCOM supports really struggle to pay that fee. In Tanzania, students attend secondary school for 4 years before they have to pass a national test that allows them to go to High School. After 2 years they graduate and then have permission to go to university. If the students drop out of school, even for financial reasons, they are not allowed to go back and finish their education.



What is TAFCOM?
TAFCOM stands for Tanzanian Organization Facilitating Community Development Projects. It’s an NGO that was founded in 2005 by Nie and Jonas, who realized that most Tanzanian people suffer from a lack of education. TAFCOM wants to empower those people to find solutions and puts its focus on human rights and poverty. For providing the community with the tools knowledge, funding and support, the Organization runs different projects.



This is us!
Pia from Germany and Nikolaj from Denmark. We work as volunteers for TAFCOM until the end of October 2014. The experiences we’re making here in Africa are different from everything we could have ever imagined. We want to make a lasting contribution and believe that only knowledge can bring you the opportunity to make a difference.

There are ten kids living in families of TAFCOM’s home-based-care-program who are going to secondary school and struggle to pay for their school fees. We want to make sure that these ten kids can finish their education to give them a brighter future. But to do that, we need YOUR help. Below we will introduce the ten ambitious young minds that we got to meet and decided to support. If you want to make a contribution, please donate. Even the smallest amount helps and is much appreciated.



Mwajuma was born in 1998. Her family used to own a home and had a stable income before both, her dad and her 4-year-old sister, died of an AIDS-related illness in 2011. They had never been diagnosed and therefore were unaware of their status. Mwajuma’s grandparents made her mother Jasmine responsible for the deaths and took away all their property. Jasmine and Mwajuma now live in one rented room in a divided mud building with other tenants. There is no running water or electricity. Jasmine has been diagnosed positive for HIV, Mwajuma tested negative. She is a good student and will take her national test to graduate Anna Mkapa Secondary School in 2015. Her favourite subject is history. After completing High School, Mwajuma would like to study law.



Asha was born in 1999. She has some struggles in school but one day wants to become a teacher for primary school. Her favourite subject is accounting. Asha will graduate from Anna Mkapa Secondary School in 2016. She lives in a single rented room with no electricity or water with her mother Rehema and her three sisters .They all share one double bed. The father passed away from AIDS in 2009 when Rehema was pregnant with Asha’s youngest sister Teddy. Asha has been tested negative for HIV.


Johari is staying with her mother, a single-mum of four kids. After a lot of conflicts and physical abuse, her father left the family. He remarried and doesn’t support Johari and her siblings. TAFCOM supplies her mother with second-hand clothing that she sells in the streets in town. The family shares one room in a rented house with running water and electricity. Johari is interested in social studies and would like to become a teacher. She will take her national test to graduate Msasahi Secondary School in 2015.


Medina was born in 2000. She is a good student and will complete Anna Mkapa Secondary School in 2016. Her wish is to become a lawyer. Medina suffers from HIV. She stays with her grandmother since both her parents died from AIDS. While taking care of them, Medina’s grandmother also infected herself with HIV. She is in very bad health and would need surgery on her eyes that she can’t afford. She would like Medina to continue her education.


This is Amina. Her mother gets supported by TAFCOM through a micro-loan that helps her to run a stand to sell vegetables outside their home. Amina’s dad passed away in 2011. He probably suffered from AIDS. Amina has been tested negative. In 2017 she will take her national test to graduate from Anna Mkapa Secondary School. She is very interested in biology and would like to study medicine once she finishes High School. Her, her older sister and her mother share a single room with a one bed, electricity and water.


Kassim was born in 1998. He is a good student and will finish secondary school in 2016. Kassim is interested in chemistry and would like to enter the medical field after graduating from High School. His sister realized her dream of working in Hotel Management. The entire family had to make many sacrifices to afford her education. Kassim’s mother is divorced and the family moved in with their grandmother. Together they sell fish, vegetables and charcoal out of their home, a one-room, windowless mud house with no water or electricity.



Zaituni is staying with her father since her mother died of AIDS last year. Zaituni has not been tested. She has two younger sisters who also attend school. Zaituni is very interested in social studies and would like to work as a journalist once she has finished her education. She will graduate from Msasahi Secondary School in 2015. Her dad Hassan works as a Daladala driver. The family stays in two rented rooms in a house with no water or electricity.


This is Winfrida. She’s staying with her mother, who is the sole provider for her three children. She has been suffering from a chest pain for a very long time. Whenever she feels better, she works on the rice fields. Winfrida attends Anna Mkapa Secondary School and will take her national test to graduate in 2015. After finishing her education she would like to become a journalist. Winfrida’s family lives in a one-room rented house with water and electricity.

Sarapina and Glory are sisters. They both go to Anna Mkapa Secondary School. Sarapina is going to take her national test to graduate in 2016, Glory one year later at the end of 2017. The two girls stay with their father who remarried after their mum died of AIDS in 2011. They have two more step-siblings and they all live in a three-room rented house with water and electricity. Their dad works as a carpenter.




Thank you for your time and support. We know that there are many kids out there who are in the same situation as the ones we met and decided to support. But you can’t change the world all at once; you have to take it step by step. And education is the most powerful weapon you can use.