AMARA Aid supports ‘Whisperers of the Jungle’, a Tanzanian Christian charity that provides basic needs, education and a safe home environment for orphans in the city of Arusha, Tanzania. Since 2005, AMARA Aid has helped more than 30 orphaned children to attend school and receive the loving care that they deserve.

This project began when Cifa Chalo, a retired athlete from Arusha, was asked to provide scraps of food for a family of five orphaned children who were being cared for by an elderly neighbour.

This is their heart-rending story. Two children tragically lost their parents at a young age and were taken in by their uncle, a single parent of three children. Sadly, their uncle passed away and all five children were left orphaned with no extended family and no means of supporting themselves. An elderly neighbour took pity on the children and took them into his home. But with no means of supporting himself, he struggled to take care of the children and was led to the home of Cifa where he made his plea for scraps of food to feed the five children he’d rescued from the street.

Cifa regularly delivered food to the orphaned children and as news spread in the community of Cifa’s kindness he was led to other orphaned children who had similar tragic stories.

When AMARA Aid learned of Cifa’s struggle to provide for these orphaned children one of the AMARA Aid team, Paul Stewart, arranged to meet with Cifa and the children at a local restaurant. When Paul arrived he was surprised to meet 14 lovely children, all orphans between the ages of 10 and 16, sitting waiting patiently for him to arrive. After sharing a meal each child recounted how their parents had died and they were left totally alone in the world. Each child concluded their story confessing that they were simply depending on God to help them through each day.

It was all so very touching and Paul determined there and then that AMARA Aid could help these children in their sad circumstances. The children decided that they would form a club where they could meet regularly to help each other and decided to call themselves the Whisperers of the Jungle. They explained “as orphans we are whisperers, we have no voice, no one hears us. And the world is like a jungle, it’s dangerous and if we drop our guard for one moment, we will die.”

In November 2006, ‘Whisperers of the Jungle’ was registered as a charity in Tanzania with Cifa Chalo and a group of Christian friends forming the charity’s leaders.

During 2007, AMARA Aid has assisted ‘Whisperers of the Jungle’ to provide basic needs, education and a safe home environment for 31 children. Eight girls share two rooms at the home of a Christian family in Arusha while 23 children have been supported to attend boarding schools. Most of the children currently attend government schools where the quality of education is very poor. As a Christian charity we are looking to God to provide the finances needed to support these children achieve a good education that will enable them to achieve their dreams of becoming doctors, nurses, teachers, lawyers and airline pilots!

AMARA Aid supported ‘Whisperers of the Jungle’ to renovate a building that can accommodate up to twelve children. The building contains two bedrooms and one common room, which houses eight girls during the school term and twelve during school holidays.