Halloween in NK - A Photo Blog

Happy Halloween everyone! While most children in Tanzania do not celebrate Halloween, we thought we'd introduce to our children at the Nkoaranga Orphanage the fun and expressive activity of playing dress-up!

Here are our top 15 photos of our 2014 Halloween in NK. Enjoy!

1. Bekka (TST's Executive Director) turning Filipo into a chameleon!

2. Vampire Cats? (Frankie and Maureen Mdogo)

3. Even Mama Ayo joined the fun!

4. Suleman the Dalmation!

5. Ester, Brighton, and Frankie with their new hair. 

6.Peace, the flower!

7. Isaac, Brighton, Peace and Maureen watching volunteer Cassie carve a pumpkin!

8. Filipo admiring the finished product!

9. Isaac doesn't know what to think about this strange new goo!

10. Ebenezer Mkubwa with baby Olivia.

11. Neema the cat.

12. Baby Baracka a little confused with his new hat.

13. Shujaa the Tiger!

14. Maureen helping Brighton put in his vampire teeth!

15. Brighton and Shujaa ending a lovely day on the swings

Meet Olivia, Suleman and Adam; three gorgeous babies who are still in need of sponsors!

Meet Olivia, Suleman and Adam. These three gorgeous babies are still in need of sponsors!

Sponsoring a child is a great way to support our work, open your family to a child without one, and develop an ongoing relationship with one amazing little boy or girl. Is this something that you, or somebody you know may be interested in?

Read the following profiles of our beautiful babies to see if you could become their sponsor today. The hardest part will be deciding which one to sponsor!

Olivia 

Date of Birth: July 14th 2014

Olivia is a beautiful girl whose mother is suffering from a severe mental health condition, preventing the mother from providing the love and care needed to raise her child. While Olivia's grandmother was trying to help, due to her age and immobility, she lacked the capacity to be able to provide Olivia with the necessary attention for healthy development. Olivia is now staying at the Nkoaranga Orphanage where she will receive 24/7 care with frequent visits from her grandmother, allowing her to develop into a healthy young girl while continuing to form relationships with her family.

Click here to sponsor Olivia today!

Suleman

Date of Birth: June 14th 2014

Suleman was born in his home, and tragically his mother passed away after giving birth to him. Suleman was born in June 2014, and very early it was discovered that he had a heart condition and he was taken to a heart specialist. The first couple of months Suleman cried quite a lot, but he has already grown so much and is turning into a happy cuddly boy. His father doesn't visit, but his aunt and uncle have visited sometimes and they call the orphanage from time to time to get an update on little Suleman.

Click here to sponsor Sulimani today!

Adam

Date of Birth: July 27th 2014

Adam was born a healthy little boy, but sadly his mother died after his birth. He was born in a far-off district, however, since his father is originally from Meru, he brought Adam to TST. Adam was born on 27th July this year, making him the second youngest at the orphanage. Although he, like any other newborn, cries a lot, he also overwhelms the volunteers with his cuteness.

Click here to sponsor Adam today!

So, how does it work?

We have five levels of sponsorship available: 

• Rafiki (Friend) sponsorship: $15 or £10 per month covers your child's toys, games, trips off the property, and medical care.
• Mwalimu (Teacher) sponsorship: $30 or £20 per month covers your child's day preschool, plus buys books for the orphanage.
•  Shangazi (Aunt) or Mjomba (Uncle) sponsorship: $50 or £30 per month covers your child's food and vitamins
• Mzazi (Parent) sponsorship: $75 or £50 per month covers the mama's salaries and the child's housing and clothes.
• Shujaa (Hero) sponsorship: $150 or £100 per month covers all of the above! Shujaa sponsors can also choose to help cover our administrative and other costs by adding on an additional amount per month.

Click here for more information on our sponsorship program!

The Small Things would be extremely grateful for any support you would be able to provide these wonderful, sweet babies. Simply by sharing this blog and reaching out to your friends, family, colleagues and neighbors, you would be helping massively in helping us get our Adam, Sule and Olivia sponsored soon!

Thank you!

Supporting you on every step of your volunteering journey

At The Small Things, we wholeheartedly believe that volunteering at the Nkoaranga Orphanage and Pilot House is an incredible and life-changing experience. At the same time, we are aware that the prospect of travelling to a foreign country can seem a little daunting and scary at first. We get this. It's only natural to be nervous!

We understand the anxieties volunteers may experience beforehand, so we do everything in our power to support our volunteers at every step of their journey with us: from answering initial questions and making them feel confident before leaving their home country, to helping them to quickly settle in and feel part of our Nkoaranga Family once they arrive. Our Introduction to Volunteering Guide provides everyone with comprehensive information after securing a placement with us. Best of all, we provide in country support in the form of our lovely volunteer-coordinator. After all, volunteers are integral to our work, so we want our volunteers to feel valued, safe and happy!

Considerations regarding the Ebola virus

We are aware that the recent Ebola virus crisis in West Africa may be worrying people who are considering volunteering in Africa, and seek to reassure everyone that the safety of our volunteers is our top priority.  This is a serious issue, and we have done our research to help you feel comfortable. First, take a look at the following map to see just how far we are, physically, from Ebola - farther than London or Rio de Janiero! 

Map reproduced from SafariBookings.com and the Washington Post

• The Foreign Travel Advice for Tanzania does not consider traveling to Tanzania an Ebola risk (read more here). 
• 'The FCO [Foreign and Commonwealth Office] is not aware of any cases  [of the Ebola virus] in Tanzania' and does not consider it a risk (read more here).
• Tanzanian President, Jakaya Kikwete, has announced that Tanzania has intensified anti-Ebola measures (read more here).
• Tanzania has very low levels of inter-Africa travel, and there are zero flights directly between affected areas and Tanzania. 
• In response to concerns of the virus spreading to Kenya (which borders Tanzania), the Kenyan government has taken the step of closing its borders to travellers from West African countries affected by the growing Ebola outbreak (read more here).

Our board and in-country volunteer-coordinator will continue to monitor and follow the advice of the World Health Organization, to ensure that prospective and current volunteers remain well informed and safe.

In addition, if you have any questions about volunteering with us (honestly, ask us about anything and everything, we love hearing from you!), please email us at volunteers@thesmallthings.org, and we will be delighted to respond!

Just want to have a browse? Check out our volunteering website!

In seeking to reassure you about the low risk of volunteering in Tanzania, East Africa, we in no way wish to draw attention away from the courage and dedication shown by those who are engaged in the aid response in West African countries.  We have huge respect for these individuals and the work they are doing.

Why this 26 year old Executive Director wants to put her company out of business

The Small Things' (TST) Executive Director, Bekka Ross Russell, co-founded TST four years ago back in 2010. After building the organization to facilitate 3 major programs, including the Nkoaranga Orphanage, the Happy Family Children's Village, and the Outreach Program, Bekka's next goal is to shut it all down. Read the following guest blog, written by Bekka herself, to learn more about why it's her dream for TST to become obsolete.

Guest Blog by Bekka Ross Russell
Executive Director, The Small Things

I have poured the last four years of my life, night and day, into the creation of our NGO – and now am working towards putting that same NGO out of business. My name is Bekka, and I’m the founder and Executive Director of a US and UK registered charity called The Small Things (TST),which supports orphaned and vulnerable children in a little Tanzanian village called Nkoaranga. TST came to life in 2010 when a group of volunteers saw a need for improvement and support at the Nkoaranga Orphanage and its surrounding community, and decided to jump in and start getting our hands dirty to see if we could help this community to create a better life for these truly incredible kids.

TST started off by providing financial and project support on an as-needed basis - raising funds to re-wire the very dangerous electrical system, providing the orphanage with an accessible system for clean drinking water, and paying for additional staff members. Four years later, I live on the ground full time with my family, and TST runs the orphanage volunteer system, employs more than 20 staff split between office and caretaking tasks, and has expanded beyond our partnership with Nkoaranga Orphanage to create a children’s village for older kids as well as an outreach program to keep kids in families whenever possible. We’ve partnered with over a thousand individual donors to feed, house, educate, and keep happy and healthy the more than 35 children TST directly supports, and the many other families we impact through employment and outreach. Up until this past summer, all of TST's activities have been focused on providing better living conditions for the orphaned and vulnerable children TST supports; trying to provide these children with a better and brighter future. In business terms, we've always focused on how we can provide our beneficiaries (the children), with better services (quality of life). Now, TST is adding a new approach, attacking the same problem from another angle. This past summer, we've introduced a new project, No More Orphans (NMO). This project takes a public health approach in increasing the quality of life for the future children of Nkoaranga – and hopefully putting us out of business.

Currently, one of the leading causes of maternal mortality during childbirth is post-partum hemorrhage (PPH). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), PPH is responsible for as many as a quarter of all maternal deaths in the developing world. Death from PPH rarely occurs in hospitals, as mothers receive an injection of oxytocin shortly after birth, which causes blood vessels to contract and stops bleeding. However, for the many women who give birth in villages far from a hospital and helped by traditional birth attendants, there is no one able to administer intravenous oxytocin, resulting in the appalling numbers of orphaned children in Tanzania from PPH.Thankfully, there's an oral medication called Misoprostol which can act as a substitute for oxytocin, and reduce deaths from PPH by up to 50% (again according to the WHO). However, most traditional birth attendants in the villages haven't even heard of it. That's where our No More Orphans project comes in. By educating and training traditional birth attendants on the effects of misoprostol, and subsequently providing a distribution system of the drug to these community health workers,  No More Orphans and similar projects can literally result in a community without orphans, making us obsolete.

In a perfect world, TST would be obsolete in 18 years, as all of the children living at the Nkoaranga Orphanage will have grown into happy, healthy, and educated adults, independently supporting themselves. Through simultaneous targeting maternal mortality in the community, we want to eliminate the long term need for an orphanage or a children's village completely, putting TST out of business. Yes, the opportunity to close down everything we have fought and worked for over the past years would be a dream come true. If losing my job means happy children with healthy mothers, I'll take it. Does that make me crazy? You tell me.

First Impressions of Tanzania - Guest Blog by Theresa, Thomasson (Intern)

Last month, The Small Things (TST) welcomed our newest intern, Theresa Thomasson, who will be TST's Sponsorship Coordinator for the next 5 months. In this guest blog, Theresa highlights her first impressions of Tanzania and her experience with TST so far. We are extremely appreciative of Theresa's hard work and dedication, and look forward to her journey with us.

Theresa Thomasson
Sponsorship Coordinator

Hey everyone!

My name is Theresa Thomasson and I am the Sponsorship Coordinator at TST. I have now lived here for a little over a month, and since some say that the first impression is the most important one, I thought I would share with you my first impressions of Tanzania. 

First I’d like to start off by telling you how I ended up at TST and in Tanzania. For a long time, a dream of mine has been to travel to Africa. So when I received the job offer, I grabbed it with appreciation and much enthusiasm! Naturally, I had romanticized the picture of life in Africa based on movies and my own image of the continent. I knew I wouldn’t live with gorillas in the jungle or lions in the desert; life is not quite like the Lion King now is it? Nevertheless, my expectations were quite different to how it really is over here. Arriving in Africa there were four things that struck me and made the biggest impression on me: 

1. No expectations can prepare you for the incredible country of Tanzania! 

2. The unbelievable nature and scenery that keeps baffling me every day. 

3. The tremendously friendly and welcoming people of Tanzania. 

4. The difference between my life experience in the western world, and life in Tanzania. 

Life here is busy yet uncomplicated and extremely rewarding. One of the most surprising aspects of moving to Africa was finding how positive everyone is. It is refreshing to find people who maintain optimism despite facing many daily challenges that many foreigners will never experience. 

One thing that has got me thinking, is the term ‘developed countries’ - developed according to whom? Is it more developed to build relationships to objects rather than people? (which is the way I sometimes think the Western world has become) My point is, I have found a place which seems to value things I value, and has a great deal of harmony in life. The people I have met in Tanzania seem to draw great happiness through their relationships to others in their families and communities. Now that's something beautiful to talk about.

Theresa with Angel

What I have not yet quite adjusted to is the fact that I stand out so much, being a foreigner. Being a minority and receiving attention due to that is not something I am familiar with, and it is very interesting to experience not being part of the majority. I think it is an important experience for me and I am learning from it. In time I'm sure I will get used to the increased attention, as all of the local villagers I've met have been extremely inviting and welcoming. Their hospitality has exceeded my expectations, and I'm thrilled to be able to be a part of this community.

Another difference about life here in Tanzania is that the internet can be unreliable at times, which pretty much dictates our working hours. During the off hours, I like spending time with the kids at the orphanage and the Pilot House. Even if I'm having an off day, there is not a day in which those wonderful angels can't cheer me up! The love is not only evident from the Mamas and volunteers, but also from the kids, who just love playing and cuddles.

Theresa with Diana

This internship is my first full-time employment, and I feel very lucky to have found such a wonderful workplace. The job is truly motivating, and even more so when we often see the results up close. Also, the room for potential creativity and openness to new ideas is something I find very encouraging and stimulating. These first weeks here in Nkoaranga, Tanzania, have been fantastic so far, and I look forward to the rest of my time here.

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To learn more about Theresa's work and TST's Sponsorship Program, feel free to send Theresa an e-mail at theresa@thesmallthings.org our visit our Sponsorship Page here.