About Us
How Hope for Tanzania started
Hope for Tanzania is a charity which was set up in 2008. It owes its origins to Felix and Naomi Masenge, a Tanzanian Christian couple who used their retirement home to set up a school. More and more children were becoming orphans, making it impossible for them to have a basic education. Other children were denied schooling because their parents could not afford the fees. So in 2001 Felix and Naomi started a nursery school to help children affected by the devastating effect of AIDS on their community.
The Masenges were motivated to take up the challenge of helping to move these children out of poverty - by turning their dream home into a school. Now years later, Tuishime Nursery and Primary School in Arusha (close to Mount Kilimanjaro) has been developed into a thriving school which provides a high quality education for children up to 11 years old. Demand for places is growing due to the excellent exam results consistently placing the school within the top 3% of all Tanzanian schools. The school now has 380 pupils with five year groups having now moved on to secondary school. Every pupil who has taken the Class VII national examinations has achieved success which is an achievement we are extremely proud of. The School is one of the best performing ones in the whole of Tanzania being in the top 5% of primary schools.
Martin and Philippa Grosvenor visited Arusha in 1998 when they met the Masenges and a few years later they started sponsoring children at the school. Since then their interest and concern for Tanzania has grown. The setting up of Hope for Tanzania was a natural extension to this concern and aims to help individuals and communities from one of the poorest countries in the world to realise their potential.
Spiritual Basis for Hope for Tanzania
- Showing the love of Christ
- Helping people
Two Bible verses which sum up the motivation of Hope for Tanzania:
"You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world... Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."
(Matthew 5:13-16)
The King will reply, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."
(Matthew 25:40)