Education for AIDS Orphans

Education provides a brighter future!  No one knows this better than the millions of HIV/AIDS orphans in Tanzania.  When parents die of HIV/AIDS, the children’s futures are bleak.  Education allows them to rise above their circumstances and gives them hope, which inspired the Mwanga Lutheran Parish, and Peace Lutheran Church in Pella, Iowa, to begin an Orphan Education Project in 2002.

It began by providing uniforms and shoes to primary school students, and tuition to secondary and trade school students. They have helped an average of about 350 primary school students each year. The number of secondary and trade school students has increased from around 45 in 2002 to over 150 in 2008, which has prompted them to seek a partnership with Empower Tanzania to make this very successful program more sustainable.

The Orphan Education Project serves orphans in the Mwanga District of Tanzania.

• Uniforms and shoes are provided for area students in the program, as well as tuition.

• Local Tanzanian volunteers seek out orphans who are not enrolled in school to make sure they are aware of the program.

• The planning for the programs is carried out jointly between Mwanga Parish and Peace Lutheran Church.

Mwanga Parish provides a detailed account to Peace Lutheran Church of what students have been helped and how much was spent for. No money is given directly to the students or their families, but is paid directly to the schools.

As the HIV/AIDs problem continues in Tanzania, more and more children need help with education.  Your support can help to keep this very successful program in place, taking these children all the way to trade school and college, and making them a viable part of the future development of Tanzania in the 21st century.