About us
Upendo Foundation Australia’s sole purpose is to provide the financial means to operate our children's home at the base of Mt Kilimanjaro, Siha, Tanzania.
Our Australian team comprises of generous volunteers, sponsors and donors who support our Tanzanian team to provide a safe refuge for children who have no family support.
We are a registered Australian charity with a gift deductible status. No one who works in our charity gets paid.
We aim to enrich and transform the lives of our children and the lives of those who support us.
Our story
Initially conceived and established 2009 by Melbournian Luke Bennett as an art school for street kids, we’ve expanded his vision to providing a loving nurturing home, quality education and opportunities and pathways to employment.
Upendo Foundation Australia Inc. (UFA) is the funding source for the Tanzanian NGO called Upendo Foundation Australia Children’s Home (UFACH). UFACH is registered in Tanzania as an international NGO with an international board of directors. It is fully compliant with local regulations and works with the local authorities to ensure all the children we take in are truly needy.
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Our team on the ground in Tanzania are dedicated to our children who sadly all have distressing backgrounds ranging from physical and sexual abuse, abandonment, hardship and some are orphaned from the effects of HIV and AIDS pandemic.
Some children arrive to our home with long-term health problems, some with psychological scars, some undernourished during their first three years of life and may suffer from lifetime lowered brain function.
We strive every day to provide these beautiful children a better future and hope as they grow up they will make a positive contribution to their community and break that cycle of poverty.
We know that a quality education leads to better life for our children. With percentages stacked against African girls and young women our hope is to broaden their possibilities, choices, opportunities and sovereignty.
"Children are the rock upon which our future will be built"
Nelson Mandela
Our dream
We recently purchased a piece of land in the Siha district with enough space for the children to grow and play, with arable soils to grow our own food. Our next goal is to build suitable accommodation for our children with room to care for many than the 22 kids we currently nurture and love.
We envision the creation of a small cottage business that can supplement our income in-country and provide employment for more needy people.
Can you help us?
Our next steps are to drill a bore to get a secure water supply and fence our block to provide security. Then we’re ready to start building our new home.
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Join our family – pledge to the Upendo Home building fund. In the grand scheme of things what we are seeking is a not a lot of money. Your generosity will transform many hundreds of lives now and in the future.​
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​Best of all its tax deductible. Contributing to this dream will become a collective legacy we will all be very proud of.