About Us
Canaan Children’s Center was blessed and inaugurated by His Grace the Archbishop of Arusha on February 17, 2013, as one of the major events for the Golden Jubilee of the Archdiocese. The Family of God in Arusha want to make this facility as an expression of a matured love, outpoured from Christ himself, and through his Church reaching out to the most needy and most vulnerable members of our community.
Partnership for Africa, represented by Friederike and Guenter Heidenhof, took the initiative together with the Archdiocese to set up the Center. They graciously financed the buildings, water tanks, solar system, water pipes, play and learn center (with the support of Sternstunden e.V.) playground, soccer field, the Center’s car, internal equipment, school garden, school fees, kindergarten equipment, income-generating projects, erosion control, road repair, fence, gate and security house, and also care for remodeling, repair, and maintenance of the buildings.
This Center, which is owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Arusha, is fully licensed to operate as a children’s home according to the laws of Tanzania. The Center recruits children following the regulations established by the Department of Social Welfare and submits reports to the District Social Welfare Office on a monthly basis as per requirement of the law.
This Center, which specifically targets vulnerable children with a special emphasis on those affected by the HIV/AIDS scourge, has the capacity to provide full care to 40 orphaned and vulnerable children, with 39 children already admitted. Our original policy was to maintain an HIV-positive-to-negative ratio of 50/50, plus or minus ten. However, due to the success of mother to child transmission control in our country HIV positive children are now very few. Therefore, at present, out of the 39 children, only 14 are HIV positive, all of them on ARVs.
Our Goal: Provision of Quality Care
Quality care is an essential requirement for proper development of all children. However, this is an especially critical need for Canaan because one-third of our children are HIV positive, a situation requiring all-round quality care. We therefore invite friends from inside and outside Tanzania to partner with us to make quality care available for the present time and sustainable in the future. Our vision for the children under our care is for each one of them to become an independent, self-supporting adult and a contributing member of the community.
Education is provided by the Center Kindergarten and an out-sourced school, Yakini Primary School. The Center also has adequate management to oversee care quality and efficient use of resources. Counseling and other psychosocial support is provided by a trained social worker hired by the Center on full-time basis. The social worker in return gives on-the-job training to other Center staff to build their capacity in on-going psychosocial support.
Health care is provided by registered medical facilities in the city of Arusha, including three large hospitals: one owned by the Catholic Church, one by the Lutheran Church and one owned by the government. Our children access these services through National Health Insurance policies.
Canaan also has recreational facilities for our children, including a play and learning center with outdoor swings and indoor games. The recreation facilities provide a happy environment that fulfills our children’s right to play and facilitates the healing of past emotional and psychological traumas caused by the loss of parents, poverty and social stigma.
Canaan Compound
Canaan compound is comprised of eight main buildings, including dormitories, two staff houses, kitchen and dining hall, outside toilet, a kindergarten classroom and a play center. The original main buildings, water system, solar energy system, pathways and erosion control channels were built with the support of Partnership for Africa. Over the years the management, largely with the financial support of Partnership for Africa, has striven to transform the Canaan compound from a barren land to an island of green that contrasts sharply with the surrounding dry and bare landscape. The two photos bellow shows the main compound of Canaan, before and after the transformation efforts.
Major Partners
We gratefully acknowledge the generous contributions of our major partners:
