For the majority of people in sub-Saharan Africa, life is tough. 60% of Tanzania’s population survive on less than £1 a day, 800,000 children are orphans due to AIDS, and in Arusha alone, there are hundreds of street children, many living in abandoned buildings only a few feet from raw sewage. Local community groups & churches do what they can to help, but most of them are also desperately lacking in resources and can only fulfil the most basic needs.

So it’s not surprising that a lot of tears are shed on our African trips. The level of deprivation is unimaginable if you haven’t seen it. But it means that even small gifts can make a massive difference to children’s lives – a blanket, second-hand clothing, a toy – and gifts of goats and hens, or a bag of maize, can improve nutrition long-term for all the children in a home or orphanage! Heart for Africa's trustees have all been to Tanzania … seen the desperate needs & given what we had to give … we’ve seen the joy and gratitude from the recipients of even the smallest gifts … and now the communities of Tanzania are etched on our hearts forever, and we just want to do more.

You’re hugging an orphan child who is SO skinny they can’t walk, whose parents left them to die on a dumping site, who can’t go to school, who have never experienced the true love/care of a mother, who have zero family members, who share a tiny orphanage with 20 other children, who have absolutely nothing to their name and the biggest smiles you’ve ever seen at the sight of a balloon, skipping rope or bubbles. … I PRAY I’ll be able to make more of a difference/impact out there in my future, because coming back and carrying on with life as normal just doesn’t sit right with me!! Being a part of blessing so many orphanages/schools with lots of goats, hens, maize, money, clothes, games, stationery etc – I guess I could say “I’ve done my bit.” but I DO NOT want to stop there.
(Hiedi Jo Redwood, Feb 2017)

Africa 2017 changed my life forever! Knowing that we blessed so many places with goats, chickens, bags of food and sooo many clothes, they may not last forever but knowing the smiles that we put on their faces is a memory that I will never forget!
(Naomi James, Feb 2017)