We hope you can take a couple of minutes to learn more about how The Mango Tree is helping over 13,371 orphans in Tanzania and Kenya already by reading the overview below.

Introduction

A fundamental pillar of African society has always been the duty of the extended family to support any members of the household in need of help. This is particularly vital when parents die and leave young children to fend for themselves. But this traditional strength is now collapsing across the continent as too many children, who have lost one or both parents to AIDS, overwhelm family members already struggling under the burden of persistent poverty. The result is that whole families are dragged too far below the poverty line to survive. Severe malnutrition, preventable diseases and infant mortality rates increase. School attendance rates plummet. And many are forced to migrate from their villages to become urban street children, creating a whole new raft of social problems.

The Mango Tree Orphan Support Programme believes this snowball effect to be one of Africa's most appalling problems, and has discovered what it thinks is an innovative, effective and very cost efficient way of tackling it at its roots.

Who are we and what are our goals?

'We' are the trustees of The Mango Tree (contact us). In early 2002, after developing our own concerns about the plight of African orphans, some of us gained first hand experience of it in Malawi and decided to do something about it together. Since its inception in September 2002, our programme has been driven by three central principles:

1. Focus on needs

Orphans face even greater hardship than kids from healthy families, and have significantly diminished prospects for a secure future. Our goal is to fill the huge gap left by the absence of parents, and to provide support in proportion to the severity of each child's needs.

2. Long-term development, not just relief

Beyond their immediate need for food, clothes and medicines, we believe that it is only through education, practical training and the generation of income that we can help these children to create a sustainable life for themselves. There is admittedly no point in providing that aid to those who are incapacitated by malnutrition or disease. So The Mango Tree does use some of its resources to feed the starving and to take scarce medicines out to the homes of those who need them most. But our main focus is on:

Primary education support - Primary school is free in Tanzania, but many orphans are still banned from attending because they can't afford the necessary uniforms. By just providing the basic kit they need, we are making the difference between a vital education versus ignorance and social isolation.

Secondary school support - Africa has to educate its most able students if it is to generate lasting economic development for the future. Despite many of our registered orphans being in that category, none of them can afford secondary school which costs about £70 a year. So The Mango Tree helps as many of them to cover that cost as we can afford.

Vocational training and microfinance support - For some of the less academically able teenagers, we provide practical training on skills that then make them employable. We deliberately picked a catchment area with a local economy that could sustain more tailors, carpenters, tinsmiths, masons and the like. By giving them those skills, and by helping them with equipment or small microfinance loans to get them started, we are making a more lasting and profound improvement to their lives. (NB Training has only been provided to carpenters and tailors to date and microfinance loans have not been provided but are planned).

3. Cost efficiency

If you can give a child an education with a uniform that costs less than £2, you soon become paranoid about spending too much of our funds on anything else! We think that the most efficient and effective way to deliver lasting impact is to ask the local community to help. So we have volunteers in every village to help us focus on the orphans with the greatest needs and reduce overheads in Tanzania in the process. We incur no costs at all for our fundraising and administrative activities in the UK.

Where do we work?

We set up The Mango Tree in the Kyela District of southern Tanzania, along the border with Malawi. Why?

1. The region is extremely poor, but it does have a local economy that could potentially employ the kids we help

2. At least 1 in 5 people in the district are HIV+

3. There is no one else there to help them

We have also now set up a second programme near Lake Victoria in Kenya, because it is an area of acute poverty and high levels of HIV.

What have we achieved so far?

For the latest news on what we are achieving, please have a look at our latest reports off the home page.