The Tumaini Fund is setting up shop in the parish for the next three months.
The charity’s name means ‘hope’ in Swahili. It currently supports 200,000 orphans in Tanzania – one of the poorest countries in Africa.
Among its team of volunteers, it employs about 50 workers across five offices and one sub-office in Tanzania, as well as over 400 ‘parish workers’.
Chairwoman Susan Wilson said though the charity was grateful to receive donations that had so far helped it build two schools, numerous wells, houses for homeless families, and to provide life-saving mosquito nets, it faced challenges in paying its hardworking African staff.
The pop-up shop, which opens today, is aimed at raising money that will pay workers’ salaries, which are currently three months behind.
‘Our orphans aren’t in orphanages,’ said Dr Wilson.
‘We appoint a head of family so that they can stay at home, be with their own people, go to their own school and they don’t become a number in an orphanage. Our parish workers check in on them twice a week. As we’re registered as a charity, we’re very lucky to get specified money for all these wonderful things, but we don’t get money dedicated to paying our workers’ salaries – I’m always scraping the unspecified money barrel to buy money back. We also have to pay their taxes, social security and health cover – being in such a poor country, that’s like gold dust to them.’
The shop, located opposite Forest Stores on Le Bourg, will be open for the next three months, from 9am to 5pm Mondays to Saturdays.
It will sell African handmade crafts and a large selection of donated goods, and be run by volunteers including manager Jan Rushton.
‘I’m really excited,’ she said.
‘It’s an absolutely fantastic charity. Susan is incredible, she started it all off on her own, set up so many projects and given these children a hope in life that they’d never have had.’
The charity is seeing the move as a stepping stone in its bid to find a permanent location for a shop.
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