Endelea
This project welcomes HIV-positive children and offers them a safe, stigma-free environment. It also provides support and guidance to their families in facing this situation. Its goal is to improve their well-being, integration, and quality of life.
We created the ENDELEA PROJECT, which means to move forward in Swahili, after seeing the large number of families living in deep poverty who, in addition to what this already entails, have to face HIV. Tierra de Amani could not leave them alone in their struggle.
How do we help them?
Living with HIV in Tanzania is very difficult. Our children, adolescents and their families arrive at the project with a lot of insecurity and fear, and even suffering from depression and rejection by relatives, friends or neighbors.
Tierra de Amani looks closely at each person's situation and their family environment in order to offer support adapted to each case to improve their well-being.
Schooling
The schooling of children and youth is our priority. We ensure school access for all children in the Endelea Project and, later if their grades allow, their access to secondary, vocational training, or higher education.
Financial Support
We deliver a monthly package of basic and nutritious food, essential to the diet of people living with HIV.
We often need to improve living conditions in homes with fewer resources. We provide beds, mosquito nets, blankets, and sheets. When families live in very harsh conditions, we find and pay for new rentals, either partially or in full.
We also make improvements to homes by repairing roofs, treating damp or even building new houses.
Healthcare support
We accompany families to their hospital appointments, monitor medical records and antiretroviral medication, and financially support any additional medical treatment.
Elimu
University support
When Tierra de Amani was founded in 2005, the initial support was focused on children between the ages of 5 and 12, supporting them with basic needs such as food, housing, health, and primary schooling. That was as far as we could reach.
Over time, many of the children we have supported throughout primary school have shown the attitude and aptitude to continue their studies in secondary school or vocational training. Dozens of them have made it to university. This encouraged us to take a step further.
That's why we created the Elimu Project, which means "education" in Swahili. Its goal is to offer university scholarships — not only to students already in our programs, but also to academically gifted youth from the communities where we work who, without our support, couldn't reach higher education.
This support usually covers their 4 years at university, and it works in a simple, effective way: each family or sponsor covers a specific student with backs one student through their donation. Companies support the Elimu Project the same way too.
Maabara
Being sick in Tanzania means an additional expense that most families simply can't afford. This brings yet another setback to their already precarious life situation.
The Maabara Project —which means 'laboratory' in Swahili— arose when Tierra de Amani found that most of the families we served could not afford medical tests such as ultrasounds, scans, detailed blood tests, or follow-up tests like viral loads or tuberculosis tests.
Even surgery must be paid for in hospitals, as well as the patient's daily food during their hospital stay.
Tierra de Amani actively collaborates with the social services departments of several government hospitals in the Kilimanjaro region, providing financial support to low-income families.