Rift Valley Children’s Village

On Friday morning 11/8, I hopped in a 4 wheel Jeep with my driver to head to Rift Valley Children’s Village. Which, as the crow flies, is about 2 miles away, but a 45 minute, very bumpy ride from FAME. A very bumpy road is said to give an “African massage”

So, after another “white knuckle trip”, we arrived at RVCV started along with the funding NGO, Tanzanian Children’s Fund by an East Coast woman, India Howell, who fell in love with Tanzania after coming to climb mount Kilimanjaro, along with a Tanzanian, Peter Leon Massey. India had started working for a travel agency but soon found there were so many orphans and felt compelled to do something, and Peter was also concerned.So, through a lot of grit and some luck and some heavy negotiating with the Tanzanian government, they got a parcel of land, formally a village, amid foreign owned coffee plantations and started a children’s “Forever Home”

I had a sweet little Guest House right on the grounds.

Nearby were the Early Childhood Education Center and the Children’s houses. Each house, which holds up to 12 children, has a house “Mama” who cooks, cleans, does laundry and provides nurturing and support to the children.

RVCV houses close to 100 children, provides them food, education, guidance and later economic opportunity. FAME’s volunteer coordinator, Saidi, who I have written about is an early alumni and success story from RVCV.

While visiting the RVCV, I got to visit their clinic and meet their 2 doctors and 2 of the 3 nurses and give a Diabetes presentation to 5 clinicians and then a group of 100 staff and teachers.

Because the Tanzanian public schools are abysmal, RVCV and Tanzanian Children’s Fund paired with the Tanzanian government to rehab nearby schools and provide additional staff. In the primary and Secondary schools nearby they fund, there are 5 Tanzanian teachers and 19 teachers funded by TCF. It was heartbreaking to see picture of the schools before TCF helped rehab them.

Many of the administrative staff and teachers live onsite, away from their families. All staff and administrators are now Tanzanian

The children were so sweet and very interested in me, especially the little ones, who laughed when I said “call me Bibi ( grandma)GG.”

It was very amazing and humbling to see what 2 people’s dreams and determination have built.