The story of how this wonderful family came to join us at Tumaini starts with two young brothers showing up on our doorstep back in 2015. After Junior (2 yrs.) and Aloyce (4 yrs.) were abandoned at Tumaini by their mother, Oddo did his magic and located their father, found the mother who was arrested and punished, who then abandoned the children again to their father who promised to care for them. At the time, though, the father had another young and very pregnant girlfriend – Tumaini – who became the boys’ stepmom.

In Tanzania and many other parts of the world, it is uncustomary for a “step” parent to care at all about the offspring of another person’s child, but this young lady has a special heart. She came together with her common-law husband (father of Junior and Aloyce) and got pregnant with her first biological child, Vanessa, in 2016. Stanley followed in 2018 to join a growing family of now four children.

Junior, having been unstable health wise, was living with us at Tumaini and we assisted the rest of the family with food, rent and occasionally medical care. Baba (Dad) attempted to abandon Aloyce one day, miles from home and Dada Tumaini found him and returned him home. Dada Tumaini fell sick and soon discovered she had been infected with HIV. She and the four children were abandoned and soon ran out of options. They came to join us at Tumaini as a family.

Aloyce is a kind, gentle young man with a big heart. A BIG Simba SC fan (a Tanzanian football (soccer) team), Aloyce both loves to watch and play the sport alongside his Tumaini siblings. He is quiet and well-mannered, but definitely not shy! Aloyce is quick to play and always loves to laugh.