Reception Home

We take new children (all of whom we receive through the Ministry of Social Welfare) into our Reception Home in the Kinondoni District of central Dar es Salaam. They have all been categorised as orphans or vulnerable at-risk children, and our priorities are to settle them safely and research the best solution for their future.

The Reception Home was fully redesigned and refurbished in 2005 and extended in 2018 to provide lodgings for 20 children. It also houses the charity’s main administrative office.

New children arrive often with extraordinarily little known about them, so trained staff find out as much as possible, always with the hope of reuniting them with their family.

With the help of Social Welfare we publicise these children in newspapers and a weekly TV programme. Our staff also take them to places they have known to see if any members of the wider family can be recognised. Using these methods, we can occasionally reunite the child with their family.

It can take up to six months to trace surviving extended family members and negotiate with them to care for the child. This is best done by placing them on our Relatives Support Programme. This not only gives the family a twice monthly support package of food, toiletries, etc. but also enables our social workers to visit and see the child once a month, to ensure their continued well-being.

Those for whom no suitable family can be found are moved in small groups to the Children’s Village, where they live in a family unit comprising a Mama and up to ten children.

The Reception Home also provides accommodation to our older children, who have left school, while they train and study in Dar es Salaam. Since 2021, more than half of the children are there for educational purposes.