Samweli's Victory
The growling of his empty stomach drove the four-year-old boy to rise early and search for food scraps in the garbage dump at the edge of the village. Finding food was all he could think about. His mother had died after an extended illness, and he and his six-year-old sister had no one to look to for help besides their mother’s 12-year-old sister. But she was as hungry and scared as they were.
Someone in the village became aware of the children’s desperate plight and notified the Welfare authorities. A Social worker arrived one day and drove all three of them to a place where their daily search for food would be over.
At Treasures of Africa Children’s Home, Samweli was given a bed with clean sheets and a blanket. He received new clothes to replace the ragged ones he was wearing. The smell of freshly cooked food wafted from the kitchen. The kindness of the strangers who ran the place amazed him. A soccer field with lush green grass beckoned him outside to play. Samweli had never seen such a place in his young life. Was this heaven?
Samweli blossomed overnight. The sudden infusion of nutritious food provided without fail three times each day strengthened his body and encouraged his soul. He felt safe for the first time in his young life. His dynamic personality, which had been hidden under a veil of worry, too great for a child to bear, seemed to develop out of nowhere. He quickly found a friend at TOA, another 4-year-old boy named Antoni, and for years to come, they would stick together like glue.
As time passed, Samweli began school, and it became clear that he was very bright. When he completed Primary School, Samweli was accepted to one of the best Secondary Schools in the country. He excelled there and was chosen by the school administration to serve as the head of the student government.
When asked how his student leadership appointment came to pass, Samweli answered this way: “It is the outcome of something I was trained to do at Treasures of Africa - to be friendly to everyone and to communicate well with others. As a result, the school administration saw that I was kind to the other students and to the teachers and they decided that I was the right person to lead others. Our school motto is ‘Be a blessing to others’ and they focus on raising leaders who will be a blessing to other people.”
After completing Advanced Secondary School, Samweli applied to the Machame Health Training Institute. During his second year at the medical college, Samweli had an experience that would impact him for years to come. As a part of his training, he assisted a doctor in the delivery of a baby. The woman giving birth suddenly went into medical distress. Samweli related that she literally died in his arms. She was not much older than he. This experience shook him deeply. The following day, Samweli was scheduled to share a few words at the Treasures of Africa Annual Christmas Reunion Banquet. He related this tragic story and made an impassioned plea to the audience to cultivate a heart of gratitude to God for every day of life and for all that God has done for them.
Samweli completed his final year at Machame Health Training Institute in July 2025. His graduation was celebrated with a special dinner at a hotel restaurant in Moshi. Though he will have to serve a year of unpaid internship to gain more clinical experience, graduating from medical college is a huge victory! Thanks to God’s grace, Samweli’s hard work and the generosity of donors to the Treasures of Africa KIDZ project, the little boy from the village has reached a goal few people in Tanzania can claim.
