SWACCO Programs

Songea Women and Children Care Organization is dedicated to promote self-reliance that stands for the principles of hard work and empowerment where as the management team considers to be central to this effort.  SWACCO provides a safe and loving home, nutritious meals, and medical care to homeless children in the Songea, Tanzania. SWACCO’s trained caregivers make sure that each child rescued from the streets is given love and attention as well as important life skills, restoring hope to their lives. About 16 children live in the temporary SWACCO centre where they receive these services. The ongoing work of the foundation is to support the following activities:

• Building and running the orphanage centre

SWACCO has a dream of providing a safe and loving home for 200 homeless children in Songea. Efforts have been shown, including acquisition of 25 acres of land, drilling of 100m deep water well, and fence construction round the orphanage compound. Future plans now include building of houses, each will accommodate 8-10 children, and each house will have its own matron, children will live in a family level, there will be classrooms, assemble ground, playing grounds, Managers house, Dispensary, and outside the fence we will build school and hospital to support other community members.

• Education support:

SWACCO invests so much on children education as a solution for children problems and for project sustainability, as when children get education they can manage to meet basic needs themselves without seeking support from SWACCO. We support children from Nursery to college level. Children who graduate from vocational schools are provided with working equipments like tailoring machines etc.

Currently we have 43 children in nursery and primary schools, 29 in secondary schools (high schools) and9 children in various colleges. SWACCO pays on including school fees, school uniforms, and all other school expenses.

• Food and Nutrition support

Children, who live in the temporary orphanage, get three meals a day which contain all required nutritious package for their growth. We also provide all other necessary needs for the children including toothpastes, medicated soaps, laundry soaps, and the like.

Children who live with their fosters get food support each months, including maize, beans, rice, fish, cooking g oil, salt etc.

• Cloth support

SWACCO provides clothes for our children both at the temporary orphanage and at the foster care. Laundry soaps are provided each month. Cloth support goes broader to other children in need who are not in our program yet.

• Medical support

Health of the children is our first priority. We always send our children for regular checkups in each month, and in case of emergency we have a budget for medical expenses which help them get treatment on time. We plan for paying health insurance fund to the government so that we can get cards that will help us reducing cost of treatment.

• Shelter

Currently we have a temporary orphanage at Mrs. Regina Chinguku home where 18 children live there. Each child is given his/her own bed and nice mattress, with bed sheets and blankets. We have caretakers who work there all the time to ensure safety and hygiene of the children is permanently observed.

• Income      generating activities:

SWACCO tries its best to ensure that we become self-sufficient in service provision by establishing various economic gains for the center and for the guardians. Currently we have the following projects:

      Corn project: SWACCO cultivates 10 acres of corn each year. The idea behind is to have enough food to feed the children in the temporary orphanage and to children under foster care. The surplus is sold to support other children needs.

      Vegetable garden: We plant onions, green vegetables, and tomatoes for our children and the surplus is sold to raise income.

      Interlocking blocks project: SWACCO in collaboration with National Housing and Building Research Agency (NHBRA) trained 15 youth on how to make interlocking blocks (mixture of cement and soil). These youth produce bricks which for selling and train other youth. This project has become an important source of income for the centre and also it has created employment for many of our youth.

      Computer and course and nursery school: We decided to open up a nursery school to help children in the program and others near the temporary orphanage. Computer course has created up to date youth and it has become a source of employment in government offices and in private institutions.

• Community development

SWACCO supports a number of community development activities which enable the poor to achieve a minimum living status. Our community development project target a self-reliant community by using the following approaches;

Encourage and strengthen close collaboration among local communities, Assist communities in setting-up activities which will generate income, Promote poverty eradication, Assist grass-root communities to gain new skills, Educate communities and villages in basic homestead hygiene, sanitation, protection of water sources and improvements in nutrition. We have managed to support villagers in starting small and sustainable businesses.

• Volunteer Program

SWACCO in collaboration with Mwangaza Jitegemee invites volunteers all over the world to help building community especially orphans and children in Songea, Tanzania. While being in Songea, Tanzania, Volunteers have chances to work with us in the following areas: Teach children computer skills, Build underground food storage, Teach children carpentry skills, Volunteer your time in the orphanages, Provide HIV/AIDS awareness, Teach children English, Science, and Math, Teach children art creativity, Volunteer or head-up a fund-raising project, Provide health care and hygiene training, Become a counselor for children and adults, Teach children sewing and kitting methods, Teach children building/maintenance skills, Teach children canning and storage methods, Train farmers in principal farming practices.