What we Do

p2FONELISCO is based in the city of Mwanza, in the north west of Tanzania. In May 2006 FONELISCO moved from the town center to another place and is currently located in Ilemela, in the countryside on the way to Parkland Hotel.
 
WhatsApp Image 2022 02 14 at 5.52.11 PM 3The premises contain one large house of 6 bedrooms, a large sitting room, also used as classroom, a dinning room and an office. There are bunk beds in each room where one - three children sleep in one mattress. Outside the house is the kitchen with three fireplaces for cooking. This large house contains three toilets and three showers/bathrooms. The house is connected to the national power grid and therefore is supplied with electricity on a constant basis.
 
In addition, there is a separate smaller house for the girls containing two bedrooms with in total nine beds, a sitting room with a couch, a kitchen and appropriate toilet facilities and bathroom with shower. The facility is close to Lake Victoria and is fenced with shrubs that provide it with a green environment.
 
There are various kinds of trees and flowers on the compound and lots of room for children to play. We are also using the compound for developing a kitchen garden comprising of vegetable and few other assorted crops. There is also a borehole providing the facility with water.
 
The volunteers are accommodated in a separate volunteer house in a five minutes walking distance.

Our Aims

Our aim is to help the most vulnerable members of the Tanzanian society especially orphans and street children by providing:
 
Education (primary, secondary, high school, university and vocational training)
School fees and other school supplies will be given to the children, so they can attend school and concentrate on learning. The very young ones are taught in the centre at FONELISCO. Also art like drawing pictures is given to them with the aim of stimulating their talents.
 
Food
The children take three meals per day, mostly typical African food such as Ugali, Rice, porridge etc.
 
Health care
The organization has not got enough funds for major treatments. But minor ailments such as coughs, sores, dysentery and even malaria can be treated.
 
Counselling
This is done according to schedule with the aim of changing their way of life. This has proved very fruitful because most of them have become affable, polite and docile, a picture different from when they were, right when entering the centre. There are also rules, which were made by the children themselves for harmony purposes at their surroundings.
 
Night street work
FONELISCO considered it not enough to only counsel the children at the centre. Hence does it also on street during night works on activity. Whenever the finances allow this, we do that Night Street Work. Apart from counseling it is whereby new children are considered and convinced to retire from the hard life on street and join centres like FONELISCO. Some immediately respond positively to this and to some it takes time.
 
Reintegration
Beeing FONELISCO focal point, this is done to those who are willing to be sent back to their families (parents, guardians). The main category is reintegrating the street children. It is an item, which requires money for fare, food, accommodation etc.
 
Home visiting
The staff concerned visiting the families of the children mostly their guardians accompanied by the children themselves. The sole aim of home visiting is to strengthen good relationship among FONELISCO, the child and his (her) guardian. To make the guardian realize that his (her) child is cared for and to slake the guardians brain tension about his (her) child's problems. The guardians feel happy and relieved
Here we want to list things we are always in need of:
  • Mosquito nets
  • Books (school and reading)
  • All kind of sport equipment (balls, volleyball, shoes etc)
  • Bed sheets
  • Tooth brushes
  • Clothes
  • Shoes (!)
  • Children stuff like toys, balloons, games etc.
  • School equipment (pencils, pens, exercise books, rubbers, rulers etc.)
  • Medicine for health care
  • First aid equipment
If you see any possibility of sending a package to our organization with some of these things we would be very thankful!
Just send it to:
Joseph Elias
Director
Foundation of New Life for Street Children and Orphans
P.O.Box 895 Mwanza,
The New Land is about 1 ha big. It’s a 30 minute drive with the dalla dalla from Mwanza town to Igombe, the closest bigger village. From there you take a bike for another 10 minutes.
 
Updates: The road to the ground is finished. The construction itself is at the moment put on hold because of a lack of funding.
For more information and if you would like to donate to assist in the construction of a new orphanage please email Joseph Elias (foneliscotz@hotmail.com)
 
Projects planned on this land:
 growing our own food to be independent (We need fence because hippos are destroying our crops) growing our own food to sell on the market to have a regular income building up an orphanage so that FONELISCO can move there and doesn't have to pay rent building up a school create a hostel for international volunteers and guests with a good view on the Victoria lake build a hospital for health care of the orphanage and the whole community
Thanks a lot for all our partners and supporters!
 
Already lots of fruit trees and other vegetables have been planted on the land, like papayas, bananas, rice, cabbage, maize, cassava, oranges, apples, peas, passion fruits.

Traditional Dancing

The children of FONELISCO are cultural very sensitive and created their own drumming and dancing style. One local volunteer, Martin, started this in 2004. He created songs and different dance styles by himself and introduced it to the children.
 
In the beginning they used buckets as drums, because they had no real drums. But nevertheless all of the children liked it so much that they practiced more than three times a week. All of them would agree with the positive affects on their physical and cognitive abilities.
 
Asking Martin about the dancing style he would say: “We have lots of different styles because the children come from different parts of Tanzania and Uganda. Each region in Tanzania has his own style and so the FONELISCO CHILDREN DANCE GROUP is a mixture of the Bugobogobo, Chagulaga, Lukomyalume and Lusalo dancestyle.”
 
They use the dancing and drumming for different occasions, such as on country special events like INDEPENDENCE DAY or Christian events, for school graduation and also to thank for the good harvest and in rainy season to thank the “rain god” for supporting the crops with water so that they can grow and feed the people. They also welcome and farewell people with singing and dancing and often they just dance to make themselves happy in difficult times.
 
Their style is unique in Tanzania, so is their whole performance, including their dresses and self-made necklaces. They use all different kind of things from the nature like leaves, branches from the trees, animal skin, horns etc. to make their clothing.
Volunteers will always be welcomed with a special song and dance and will also have the opportunity to learn how to drum and dance, if they wish, so that they learn more about African traditional culture.
 
One big wish of the children for the future would be to become more popular with their performance by playing on different places in Tanzania and abroad to show people more about their personality, their culture and also to use it as a fundraising method for the FONELISCO organization.
 
Everybody is welcome to experience this fantastic show! You can also book the group for your events: contact: Fonelisco Project Mr. Joseph Elias Mabinga E-mail: foneliscotz@hotmail.com Tel: +255713416292

Contact Us

Joseph Elias
Director
Foundation of New Life for Street Children and Orphans
P.O.Box 895 Mwanza,
Tanzania.
Mob: +255 713 416 292

Quick Links

News and Events