About Us
Tanzania Communities
While traveling Tanzania, a group of Thomson guests was touched by the country’s limited educational resources. More than the lack of supplies, they were moved by the students who were ready, even desperate, to learn. With these children in mind, the group, together with our co-founder, Judi Wineland, founded the nonprofit organization Friends of Tanzanian Schools.
Over 25 years later, the name has changed to Focus on Tanzanian Communities (FOTZC), opens in new tab, and efforts have expanded to include education, women’s empowerment, healthcare, community development, and clean water.
FOTZC Initiatives
Education
When it was established in 1997, FOTZC’s founding mission was to improve access to, and the quality of, education in Tanzanian communities. In the past 20 years, the organization has donated thousands of textbooks and built facilities for 23 schools, keeping kids safe and helping them learn.
Kids were coming to school hungry or getting sick because of unsafe food, so FOTZC built canteens in several schools to ensure students are nourished and able to focus on learning. For kids traveling from rural areas, dormitories were built, enabling them to attend class regularly, while teacher housing in remote areas ensures teachers have a place to live.
Women's Empowerment
Tanzania is still a patriarchal society, and women rarely receive the same opportunities as men, either in education or professionally. We believe in fair hiring practices and support opportunities for Tanzanian women to advance into leadership positions in their fields. FOTZC fosters entrepreneurship among Tanzanian women by offering entrepreneurship training and helping them sell hand-crafted beaded jewelry in an effort to independently provide for their families.
In addition to the jewelry business, FOTZC has helped women establish businesses in bee-keeping, agriculture, and other industries. Together, these groups help foster confidence in strong women, who can go on to improve the lives of their families and the condition of their communities.
Healthcare
FOTZC funds healthcare initiatives across Tanzania, from delivering vital education about preventative medicine in remote communities to building a medical center to improve access to healthcare.
The Sukenya Health Center offers access to pre- and post-natal care, improving birth outcomes and helping women and their infants reach a 95% survival rate. The clinic’s doctors and nurses teach patients about everything from proper nutrition to the benefits of vaccinating themselves and their children.
Clean Water
In rural Tanzania, women and children have to trek hours every day to find water, then carry heavy buckets back under the hot sun. Sometimes, that water is low-quality, dirty, and potentially disease-ridden.
To address this, FOTZC donors have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to build boreholes throughout the region. These bring clean, safe water within close reach of thousands of people in Maasai communities.