Heart for Africa exists to make a difference to lives in Tanzania, one of the world’s poorest countries. We support orphanages, schools and church communities in the Arusha area of North Tanzania.

The charity was born out of longstanding links between the Rhondda and Tanzania, dating from the 1990s when John Bullock, Pastor of Porth Elim Church, and his wife Debbie took up a missionary role in East Africa. So when John’s friend Phil Davies started the charity Sporting Marvels which works with young people in Rhondda’s primary and secondary schools, where else would they take pupils for a totally life-changing experience that would show them the contrast between life in the UK and life in the developing world! Since 2011, Sporting Marvels has run four trips for Rhondda sixth-formers to Tanzania, during which they have visited schools, orphanages and churches, bringing gifts and running children’s activity sessions.

The involvement of schools, parents and the wider community with these trips has been increasing every time - on our Feb 2017 trip each participant had a second suitcase to take their share of the gifts of clothes, books and toys going to Tanzania, while money raised enabled us to buy 12 goats for orphanages around Arusha, improving the children’s nutrition. With such strong links, Lawrie Davies, Sporting Marvels Managing Director, and his team felt they didn’t just want to bless their Tanzanian friends every two years, but offer more ongoing support - and that's how Heart for Africa was born in May 2017!

We aim to fund one major project per year, with a focus on sustainability, as well as supporting orphans and vulnerable children with their schooling and raising money for other needs identified by our community co-ordinators in Arusha. And of course Sporting Marvels trips are continuing - the Feb 2019 trip was even better in terms of community support, with the extra suitcases overflowing and enough money raised to buy 20 goats, as well as gifts of cocks, hens, food and money for the orphanages the young people visited!

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