There are many orphans and orphanages in Tanzania. Most orphanages, like ours, are privately funded - many from overseas.

 

AIDS has devastated the population. Many orphaned children are initially cared for by their grandparents, but age, illness, poverty, (what Mama Esta calls ‘hard life’) mean many can no longer cope.

 

Some of the children at Kitaa Hope Home are referred by Tanzanian Social Services, some by local government officials and some are brought by the grandparents themselves.

 

Behind the smiling faces of the Hope Home children lies a history of grief and deprivation. And also, variously, abuse, danger, abandonment, hunger and hopelessness. For some, who arrive as little children, Mama Esta is their mother; the other children are their brothers and sisters. Some have relatives. When the children are old enough to cope the social worker enable supervised visits to their home village: a few days with a seriously inadequate father, a few weeks with an elderly grandfather living in a single-roomed hut. For some, no visit is possible.