The Emmanuel Center
A Center for Accepted Children
Previously Classified: Street Kids; Orphans and Vulnerable Children
The Emmanuel Center opened in 2004 with just a handful of children. Now 2.5 years later we have 22 strong, young men. Our boys are ages 2 to 18, all of them with stories beyond belief. We are located at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro, in Moshi, Tanzania. One of our main focuses in raising up these boys is to try our hardest to maintain a "family" atmosphere, so we aim to always keep the number of children at 20. Our heart and goal is to open centers in different parts of this city to better service and effectively reach the street children here. We have found in two years that our method of small numbers is COMPLETELY effective. With God as our focus, we know that we will see these young men continue through life being strong, healthy and a positive part of society.
Current Needs

"My stepmother tied my
hands with my belt and
my feet with another
strap. She laid me face
first onto the bed where
she tied me down. Then
she put the knife into
the fire and burned my
face, here on my arm
and right here on my
leg." (The child lifts his
leg to show a 4 inch by
1 inch burn scar... This
was punishment for not
helping with house chores.)

This boy was on the
streets for years before
he came; now he is off
drugs and studying in
school for the first time.

1. Boys need new shoes. $15 each
2. We need food. 30 bags of maize for the next 9 months, $20 a bag
3. Schooling fees
We need 3 more sponsors for the boys who are attending. $600 each for English medium school. We need 4 more sponsors for the advancement program (teens just starting to learn to read & write). This costs $400 a year. We need $200 a year for the other children.

We need $3,000 a month for running cost... anything will help.

Did you know?
From 2003 to 2005, the total
number of street children in
Arusha and Moshi areas
increased from 779 to 1346.

stats taken from Mkombozi.org

Sponsorship Opportunity

Thinking ahead...
Currently in Tanzania, it is not legal to home school your children. We are doing research and hope to come up with a potential solution to help children, and centers who work with vulnerable children, in order to help reintegrate them successfully into government schools. We have had a lady from Holland, Imkia, working with us for the past six months, and we plan to finish up after three more months. She has spent hours with our kids, and doing research with surrounding centers and schools to gather data to see what is working and what isn't working.

We have 9 boys whom we are tutoring (i.e. home schooling) until December of 2007. We have to have these children register in schools before January 2008. One of our main focuses is finding a school that will work for them. This has been VERY difficult, and I have spent hours of my time looking and also finding many dead ends.

I found a school that was highly recommended to me, so I went to meet with the headmaster. I was very pleased with the size of the school. They have 14-23 kids per class, in comparison to the normal class size of 40-100 per teacher. This is a new school and they seem to be very eager to make their name known. The only way to do that is to have top of the line teachers and prove great testing scores.

This school would cost $600 a year per child. We need 7 sponsors to sponsor one child. The money would have to be received by December of this year. If you would like to sponsor a child through his education or for several years of his education, please email me or send a note to FIRE International.

With proper education, these children will have a great opportunity to get supportive jobs and be able to change the very communities they came out of. Sponsoring a child's education is like teaching a man to fish. You only do it for a season and you get to see many other's reap from your investment.

These are some pictures of our schooling at home. We are working hard at getting them ready for school in December.

Jill teaches science twice a week and loves it. Also we took a field trip one day, so the boys were so happy. Also above are pictures of play time.

 

Read more about Jill:
missionaries/International/international_tanzania_verrier.htm
You can also contact me at childlikeheart@gmail.com with questions

Click here for our secure online donations page.
We thank you!


 
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