'Pamoja tunaweza' means 'together we can' in Swahili. We believe 'together we can dream that when worlds collide, anything is possible'. Pamoja Tunaweza Boys & Girls Club (PTBGC) opened December 2013. It is a collaboration between the original Hard Life Art Club, One Ndoto and Worlds Collide.
PTBGC was born out of the desire to provide education and employment opportunities to the most vulnerabl
e youth in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania. We call this group of youth 'the lost boys'; street-connected male youth over the age of 16. These young men have a basic education and spend their days on the streets, collecting rubbish and metals to sell in order to feed themselves. At night, some are able to return home while others find a quiet spot under a bridge and in a doorway to sleep in an empty rice bag. Drugs, alcohol, violence and abuse are abundant. We hope to make a significant impact on this cycle of poverty by focusing on these youth whom are so often left out of national and international aid programs.
Local empowerment is the cornerstone of PTBGC. Our gifted team of local leaders, some of whom are ex-street-connected youth themselves, serve as positive role models and mentors for these youth. They conduct the PTBGC programming and make all the decision regarding its operation and growth. Sustainability is a keystone of PTBGCs philosophy. While we recurrently rely on the generosity of our donors from around the world, our goal is for PTBGC to be 80% self-sufficient by the year 2019. We are working on achieving our sustainability goals through the sales from the Pamoja Tuanweza Workshop, as well as our social enterprise project, Worlds Collide Africa House.
In 2015 we opened Worlds Collide Africa House, a bed and breakfast located on a beautiful property just down the road from PTBGC. This social enterprise offers employment to our members, as well as invests profits to the further development of PTBGC.
Under the umbrella of Worlds Collide Africa, we are partnered with various projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Our partner projects include the Tchukudu Kids Home, Tchukudu Women's Training Centre, Jonathan Holiday School, and the Idjwi Island Agriculture Project and Vickers One Medical Clinic. We are hopeful that one day soon we will also have a Boys & Girls Club in the Congo as well! For more information on these partner projects please visit the Worlds Collide Africa website.
We are committed to empowering the most vulnerable in Central and East Africa to reach their potential and become productive, self-sustaining and responsible members of the community.
