Projects

A Place to Call Home - Kili Kids

Kili Kids originated assisting a group of 68 children aged 2 months to 19 years who had been left orphaned by AIDS or abandoned as a result of poverty. Since this time, Committee Assist has been registered as an NGO in Tanzania, set up a Little Kids Programme and now secured land to build its sustainable village project where it will home at least 100 children with the loving care, education and training they deserve to live a fuller life.

What Was:

68 kids and helpers in a small dilapidated house: Minimal running water - often carried from the local stream.
No kitchen - dirt fire.
No showers or adequate cleaning or sanitary facilities.
8 children to a double bunk.
Insufficient food and nutrition.
No education.
No future.

From its inception, Committee Assist in a matter of weeks took action to ensure that these 68 children had adequate shelter, care and education. In our first year while we formed our organisation in Australia, we took significant steps to assist these children. We installed a kitchen, plumbing, taps, sinks, showers, toilets and rented & furnished an additional house with bunks, tables, chairs, cupboards etc in the nearest town for 40 of the younger children so that 30 could be enrolled at the local government school. We enrolled a number of the children into secondary school and vocational boarding school. We built a new kitchen at the newly rented house with new stoves, sinks, and shelved storage room and a further toilet & shower facilities.

What Is:

In our second year. we embarked on our NGO registration in Tanzania to ensure security and sustainability for our future work. Accordingly, through trial and error (good and bad) we met and formed our local management team which now runs our Li’l Kids Programme for little kids aged between 1 and 12. We searched high and low for the appropriate block of land to build our sustainable village which we have now secured to home 100 children and house vocational centres.

Our Third Year is very exciting as we experience our little kids growing in their new home and plan for the building of our village at Rainbow Ridge - see "What Will Be" below.

Lil Kids Home Rose (director) with some of kids Mary(cook) infront of Kitchen

Kitchen Pig Pen 4 homes up to roof level at Rainbow Ridge
Check out Photo Gallery for more

What Will Be:

Commitee assist is raising funds to:

Purchase land (secured) - We have secured 5 acres close to Moshi town and Kilimanjaro International Airport to build our Kili Kids Eco-Village.

Fencing has finished.

Commenced building our sustainable village in October 2008, including sustainable energy, water/sewage systems to home 100 children. 4 homes are built up to roof leve.

Farm the land according to expert agricultural/local advice for the location, utilising permaculture principles. See our Permaculture Challenge - Read More. Particular focus will be placed on teaching and implementing sustainable practices.

Establish vocational programmes - art, music, carpentry, sewing, cooking, farming, health and nutrition.

Acquire two vehicles and one mini van (done) which will be used for buying and selling produce, deliveries for the orphanage and carting kids around.

Build supporter’s facilities - the orphanage is placed at the epicentre of Mt Kilimanjaro and the Serengeti tourist attractions for our supporters to really enjoy Africa when they visit us.

Develop other business options - local shops to sell wares including furniture, clothes, tourist items/produce and products from the vocational programmes.

Committee Assist will NOT establish a privileged self sustained community at the exclusion of its neighbours. The local poor will be incorporated into the operation of the facility and vocational programmes will be extended to them.

The children are, and further children will be, educated at local public schools. Consulting with local authorities, we believe this will break down the social stigma directed toward these children left orphaned by aids. We are advised that random inclusion back into the community is a far better option than excluding these children further in their own private home/school facilitiy.

Committee Assist is cooperating with the local government, schools and "self help" organisations to assist with education and training. A longer term objective is to contribute to vocational training programmes and practices (focused on sustainability) to the whole community to improve their conditions permanently.

Committee Assist recognises the plight of many teenage girls and single woman who have been left uneducated, abandoned or widowed (often through aids) and struggle to find a job in this tough environment with the added responsibility of motherhood. Committee Assist can provide a place to call home for these woman who are willing to work with the village and its children and workers and so provide them and the village with further opportunities through vocational training and education and small business exposure.

Committee Assist will develop these sustainability models methodically to be used to assist other orphaned children and their surrounding communities in different locations. We are lucky to have many people with varied professional expertise to assist us. However, if you feel you have specific skills, knowledge, contacts, passion or money that could assist us with our work, please contact us.

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