Rescue young mothers

The message below is from one of our Cooperatives, Refugee Youth Empowerment Network (RYENET). We would like to help raise some funds for an amazing project,  that has a proven track record of success. The RYENET team are located at Nyarugusu camp. The Nyarugusu refugee camp is one of the largest and best-known refugee camps of the 21st century, with around 150,000 refugees. It is located in the western province of Kigoma, Tanzania, about 150 km east of Lake Tanganyika. (source Wikipedia).

Helping girls in Tanzania

As we move into the first month of 2023, I am writing this e-letter to recap 2022 and all that we accomplished together at the vocational training centre run by our cooperative in Nyarugusu refugee camp, Tanzania.

I know you’d love to hear all the success stories about this lovely program.  Here is a summary of the accomplishments that caused far-reaching change in every girl that we serve:

• we trained 80 girl-mothers in soap making.  Later on, these girls trained 320 others, whereby 6500 pieces of soap were made and distributed freely to the neediest children
• we sewed 250+ school uniforms that we donated to orphans in foster care
• now, girl-mothers start experiencing an increase in household income. Each girl is able to make 150+ pieces of soap per week. Some are sold to help bring in small money. This helps solve the problems of sex for food
• overall, we rescued 200+ orphans and vulnerable children, as they can practice every day the precaution tips to preventing  school dropout.

It will not be an exaggeration to say, together we saved lives.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of children without parents in the camp was 20,000+.  Several of these children still depend on the street for food.  As we face the second wave of the pandemic, it is important that we keep equipping girl-mothers to take care of themselves and all the children.

We now plan to establish 10 business groups of soap making and gardening in the camp.  The aim is to empower 300 young people aged 5-24, (100 girl-mothers, 100 boys, and 100 disabled).

Through this project, we aim to see:

• young people create jobs for themselves, through running small businesses of gardening and soap production
• girl-mothers are equipped to feed their children appropriately, earn an income, and reduce sex trade
• orphans and vulnerable children have access to free meals and proper hand-washing facilities, and mitigate the risk of school absenteeism.

I know, giving money to someone in pain is priceless, but instead it brings hope!

• 100 dollars you donate will allow purchase seeds (including maintenance of the garden).
• 50 dollars’ will meet the cost of manure and fertilizer (including harvesting).
• 150 dollars’ donation will help purchase organic oil for one soap making group (including protective equipment)

We cannot realize this plan alone–we need help to reach a total goal of $5,000. We are short $3,200 (at the time of writing this note).

Please, consider helping this campaign continue to serve more orphans by contributing to this project.  Any amount matters!

Thank You!