Our story…..
In 2018, Cosmas Ngira founded Furahia Foundation (also known as the Furahia Mtoto Foundation). The first class, consisting of 14 children, who were taught in the backyard of his parents’ home.
Furahia Mtoto Foundation (FUMFO) was officially registered as a Non Government Organization (NGO) in 2019 with Registration No: ooNGO/R/842. “FURAHIA is a Swahili word which means ENJOY / HAPPY“, and “MTOTO is also a Swahili word/name which means CHILDREN“. Furahia is a Charity School which primarily operates as a daycare and pre-school at the same time that provides education, meals, and a safe learning environment for children with different background from regular families in the Meru and Arusha in general.
Families with difficult backgrounds and economically unstable, such as single and or unemployed parents, have the opportunity to bring their children to Furahia Mtoto Foundation. Furahia offers a safe and family-friendly alternative where children are cared for while the parents have the opportunity to go to work and earn income. In addition, the children learn social behavior among their peers, receive regular meals (which might not always be provided at home) and are taught how to read and write numbers, letters, Swahili, English, Arts and simple maths.
Attendance at the institution is free of charge, so parents do not have to pay fees unless they want to contribute.
Objective
The main objective of this organization is to act as a basic learning center / safe home to provide much needed Education and Wellbeing support to underprivileged children from ordinary families, such as Orphans, Abandoned children, and children who are being raised by single parent, Grandparents or Guardian to create a better foundation for their future lives.
Furahia Foundation wishes are to see Young people especially children being treated with love, good care, good education, motivation, and trained to be skillful and knowledgeable.
Our door is open to any individual, Organization or Company which can cooperate with us to make better lives for these children.
Our team
Cosmas Ngira
Director
Meet Cosmas the founder and director of Furahia foundation. Cosmas is a 32 yrs man who decided to support children in his community by starting Furahia Foundation as a center to bring together the children who are in need.
The idea of starting this beautiful project started since 2012 and it finally started to operate in 2018. The main reason behind was TO GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY because Cosmas was also supported by an organization which supports Youth in Arusha (Umoja Tanzania).
Apart from supporting children, Cosmas is a tour guide who is organizing different tours like; Coffee tour, Wildlife safari, Mountain climbing tours, Cooking class, Waterfalls and all other tours available in Arusha. This is how Cos got funds to start the project but for now Furahia needs more support from outside due to the expansion of the project.
Doing any tour with Cosmas will be considered as a way round to support what he is doing for his community around together with his own family who gave their land and family house for free to let Furahiabe established.
Aikamesia Wlliam
Co – founder
Aika is a co founder of furahia and a teacher at the same time due to the lack of employment and shortage of fund to hire professional teacher at Furahia. She was a very important person when Cosmas wanted to start the project because it was not easy for Cos to convince his family to give the land and house just for free.
She was working in the finance company from 2021-2023 when he got an accident which caused her to loose her job. It is not a good story to tell but Furahia is happy to have her in our team and she is so friendly to the children and other team members.
Anitha Justin
Manager
Anitha has been working with Furahia since day one and has been very reliable person at Furahia because she acts like a mother for everyone at the project. She is the one who knows more about our daily operations as well as looking after children and staffs at Furahia.
For the last 8 years Anitha has been playing extra roles at Furahia in order to fill any gap left. She has been managing the project everyday but she was a teacher at the begining 2018-2021 then she became a nanny in 2022-2023 until she finally became a chef.
All these efforts need a person with a good heart, love and passion to work with children. We can not imagine how Furahia could be without Anitha.
Chellenges
Furahia is facing some challenges in which some are short term and others are long term challenges which the founders are working hard together with our partners which are STEP AFRICA AND TABASAMU to make this project operates smoothly. The following are the two major current challenges.
FUNDS / DONATIONS; Since our project is a non profit making organization we face a lot of financial difficulties to provide what is always needed at the project in daily basis like food, stationeries, salaries for the teachers and others staffs. We mostly rely on donations from few sponsors we have but that can not cover everything which is the reason why we are always asking for help.
CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROJECT; Construction costs a lots in Tanzania and our project is expanding everyday so we are looking for the support to help us expand this project so that we can be able to support more kids from different areas. We wish to have more classrooms, enough area for the kids to play, get the land for building our own private primary and secondary school