OUR WORK

At the Kigamboni Community Centre (KCC), we are committed to improving the living conditions of children, young people and the entire community in the Kigamboni District. In order to provide targeted and sustainable support, we have divided our work into three central areas. Each of these three areas has its own focus - their common goal is to bring about positive change in and with the community.

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Providing quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for children and youth.

Access to education is not a given for many children and young people, especially children from families around Kigamboni district - a lack of financial resources, strict school admission rules and a lack of educational opportunities mean that many young people have no chance of a good education. That is why we want to give these children and young people, who have no access to education, the opportunity to realize their dreams and achieve their goals by providing them with an education.

Our Education Department is organized into six departments that specifically address the needs of children and young people.

In Tanzania, children are only allowed to attend public schools if they can already read and write. Therefore, families with higher incomes send their children to private preschools – but for many in Kigamboni this is not affordable for a variety of reasons. Due to this challenge, we have opened the KCC Nursery school for free for all children from low-income families and provide the same services as other children got from other private or government nursery schools - they are specifically prepared for their classes and receive all the necessary materials, including school uniforms, pencils, papers and a lot more.

Nursery Programm

According to the government system, children who have exceeded the regular school entry age can no longer be admitted to state elementary school. However, poverty, family problems, missing documents or a lack of awareness in the family of the obligation to attend school often prevent access to education. Our drop-out program offers these children a second chance: in a two-year intensive course, we work with them to catch up on the material they have missed so that they can switch to the regular school system after passing an exam.

Drop-out-Programm

In order to attend secondary school, children in Tanzania have to pass a final exam at the end of primary school. While children from wealthy families receive expensive private tuition to pass this exam, many children in Kigamboni have no such support. This challenge means that many children lose the opportunity for a good education at an early age. For this reason, we at KCC have started a free after school tuition program to give every child in Kigamboni, whose parents cannot afford to pay the private tuition fee, an opportunity to prepare specifically for the last primary education exam - thus opening the way to join public secondary school

Tuition

Even though school attendance is officially free, there are of course costs for school uniforms, books, food and transportation, which can be too much for families to afford. With our scholarship program, we therefore specifically support children from financially challenged families so that they can continue their school education despite these costs. In addition, we support committed young, local KCC volunteers with a scholarship to enable them to continue their education or study - so that they can in turn provide professional service back to our community.

Learner Scholarship

Books are often in short supply in Kigamboni and the public schools and access to the only two public libraries is limited or not free of charge. Our free library, on the other hand, gives children and young people the opportunity to read books, do their homework or continue their education in a quiet environment. In addition, we regularly bring books to various neighborhoods with our mobile library to give even more children access to knowledge.

Libraries

Digital and language skills are important requirements for the labor market, but many young people in Kigamboni have had little access to computers or language lessons. We therefore offer computer courses to teach the basics of word processing, internet use and digital communication. In addition, our English and other language courses enable young people to better prepare for the job market or take advantage of further education opportunities.

Additional Classes

Supporting children and families through outreach, rehabilitation, and empowerment.

This department is the heart of our KCC, it carries all the programs and the whole aim of KCC. Since the the founders of KCC have difficult social backgrounds like child abuse, lack of education, family care and street life during theirchildhood this lead them to establish an NGO to help children and youth who are facing similar situations or more by giving them psychological support, home, education, health care, free space to play and develop their talent and skills and also reunify them with their families and or relatives if necessary.

This department has several areas which are working to save children and the community at large.

Our outreach program allows children living on the streets to have an opportunity to participate in our KCC program like education and talent development, but also basic care - they can receive clothes, wash themselves and, if possible, be reunited with host families or their own relatives. In addition, we regularly visit schools and families to get to know the background of the children participating in the KCC program in order to provide them with the best possible support in their development and to strengthen the interaction between parents, teachers, children and the KCC.

Outreach Programm

Through creative events and awareness-raising campaigns, we sensitize the local community to issues such as education, children's rights, health and climate change. Our talented children and young people use theater and music to raise awareness of these issues in schools and at public events. KCC is also active internationally - with exchange programs and workshops in various countries.

Community Awareness
And Empowerment

The KCC Children's Home was born out of the urgent need to offer the children in the outreach program more than just short-term support, as we were constantly being asked how long they would remain homeless. The daily encounters with these stories made it clear to us that a safe place had to be created for them.

In 2012, we therefore opened a shelter for homeless children - the KCC Shelter. Initially with six children, today with over 30. Here they receive protection, care and long-term prospects until they can safely return to their families or host families.

Children's Home

Children who come into conflict with the law often end up in prison in Tanzania, but often not in a children's prison but in an adult prison - which makes them even reoffending after or becoming worse criminal members. Since 2012 and With the support of Unicef, we offer an alternative at KCC: instead of being prosecuted, the children concerned undergo a rehabilitation program structured by us. In cooperation with government agencies, we help them to reflect on their behavior, resolve conflicts non-violently and reintegrate into society.

Rehabilitation Programm

The idea behind this program at KCC was to involve our beneficiaries on how we run our program to the community and how they can advise us on how to make it better for everyone who attends or gets support from KCC around the community and schools.

That is why we rely on direct exchange with our community. Student and parent committees meet regularly to discuss ideas and needs, which we incorporate into our projects. We also have student clubs in a variety of schools to reach even more children and invite them to our programs.

Forum

Young people and also adults need safer spaces to talk openly about issues that concern them. Our peer education program creates exactly that: every week, young people discuss health, sexuality, personal development and global challenges. External experts from various organizations often support them with their knowledge and experience.

Peer Education

Encouraging creativity and personal growth through
music, dance, sports, and arts.

The Talent Development Program is a central component of the KCC, as it gives children and young adults the opportunity to discover and develop their talents. But it is about much more than that - it is a place of encounter, creative expression and shared learning.

Every day, children, teenagers and young adults come together to be active and creative - be it through acrobatics, dance, music, theater or arts and crafts. What makes it special is, that many of the trainers themselves started out as participants in the KCC, developed their skills here and are now passing on their knowledge to the next generation. This not only creates a strong community, but also a culture of empowerment in which children and young people grow and build self-confidence through a sense of achievement.

The training sessions take place every afternoon and end with a special highlight: the weekly shows. Here, the participants present their newly learned skills in front of an audience, which not only boosts their self-confidence, but also makes the KCC visible as a creative center of the community. The performances bring people from different backgrounds together and show what can be achieved through cohesion and commitment.