Upendo: One Kid at a Time, Inc. Sustainable Service Learning

But what happens when a kid turns six?” This was the question that shattered our mood after spending the morning laughing and playing with the orphaned and abandoned children at the Upendo Children’s Center (UCC) in Moshi, Tanzania. The UCC makes a nurturing home for these children until they are old enough to go school, but then all their friendships, support, and stability evaporates when they are placed in homes or institutions. Even after our brief experience at UCC, it seemed heartbreaking to ask six-year-olds to start again, to leave behind the only companions they’d ever known. Then we asked another question, “What if the kids could all stay together, through high school?”
For the last ten (?) years, we have been answering that question with our 501(3)c non-profit organization, Upendo-OKAT, which is an amalgam of the UCC and the acronym for One Kid at a Time, a student-led initiative that morphed to a foundation led by a six-member Board of Directors and two advisory Board members, provides support for schools and abandoned school-aged kids in Tanzania. We created Upendo-OKAT to continue build on the supportive, loving environment that ensures that these children flourish from birth to five years old, by providing them with their own residence where they can continue to stay together as a family. Our preeminent goal has been to be sure that we can provide the resources and continuity that are so crucial to the children’s emotional, physical, and social health.

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