Wild Orphans in Mufindi

In December 2014, we drove through the seemingly endless tea plantations of the Mufindi region. A fantastic landscape that impressed us. One of the large landowners in this region is the well-known Fox Family, which now runs one of the largest safari and lodge companies in Tanzania. The fact that we were the only guests at Mufindi Highland Lodge has less to do with its quality and more to do with the fact that it is completely off-season. We were able to spend two evenings talking to the Fox Seniors about their long life in Tanzania as white people.
We learned that tea cultivation in southern Tanzania attracts large groups of aid workers from all parts of the country several times a year. This is an important reason for Mufindi’s Aids rate, which is the highest in Tanzania. The Foxes are also aware of this and have fulfilled their corporate responsibility by founding the Wild Orphans Trust.
Wild Orphans is an orphanage project that looks after the care, health and education of orphans. The couple Jen and Geoff have been in charge of the project for many years now. It is impressive to see the great conviction with which they pursue their Christian values in this remote location and manage this project very successfully under the most difficult conditions. An important insight from our discussions with the two was that infrastructure and staff alone do not make a school successful. The attitude and ability of the school management and its teachers are crucial for a successful school. They also helped us constructively with their experience when we critically questioned our idea of building our own school.
However, the two of them used the example of their feeding project to show us how crucial even small problems can be at first glance. Their children and many other children in the village get up at 5 a.m. every morning to complete their 6-kilometer walk to school and arrive on time. Many of them have not had an adequate breakfast at home and arrive at school starving. As a result, the children’s concentration wanes or is lacking and the resulting restlessness disrupts the entire lesson. Serving a simple maize porridge drink has led to a significant improvement in school results in a very short time.
Destory visited Wild Orphans again in July 2015 and laid the foundations for future cooperation.
Further information:
http://www.wildorphans.org
https://www.facebook.com/OrphansInTheWild