My Story
The driving force of mama Malaika US
Every day I am happy to see the difference Malaika Kids makes in the lives of our orphans.
I remember finding children hiding in the corner of the courtyard at my home in Dar es Salaam. They lived on the street and I brought them food and listened to their stories. Some I have taken into my family or found other families to house them. With the advent of HIV/AIDS everything changed. I realised that there were too many children who needed help.
My daughter and her husband who live in the Netherlands were visiting around that time. I shared my concerns with them and they said, "If we raise money and make a plan, can you do something bigger to help kids?".
I said I really wanted to do it and so in 2004 we started by opening the Reception Home.
It wasn't easy, we've had many challenges along the way, but the Malaika Kids team is amazing.
The number of children, but also our brand awareness has increased sharply since the start, and the crowning glory of our work was when in 2010 president Ali Hassan Mwinyi and his entourage officially opened our then newly completed Children's Village in Mkuranga .
My daughter and her husband who live in the Netherlands were visiting around that time. I shared my concerns with them and they said, "If we raise money and make a plan, can you do something bigger to help kids?".
I said I really wanted to do it and so in 2004 we started by opening the Reception Home.
It wasn't easy, we've had many challenges along the way, but the Malaika Kids team is amazing.
The number of children, but also our brand awareness has increased sharply since the start, and the crowning glory of our work was when in 2010 president Ali Hassan Mwinyi and his entourage officially opened our then newly completed Children's Village in Mkuranga .
- Najma Manji, oprichter en voorzitter Malaika Kids Tanzania
Najma Manji with the first nine children in 2004 in front of the Reception Home that had just opened.
President Ali Hassan Mwinyi in 2010 who officially opened the Children's Village in Mkuranga.