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.”

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By Glory Ngowi

In a world where millions of children live in poverty, facing the harsh realities of hunger, lack of shelter, and limited access to education, the role of a child sponsor becomes a shining light of hope. Sponsoring a child is more than just a monthly donation – it is a life-changing act that opens doors to opportunities that once seemed unreachable. As one of the children who has benefited from the Treasures of Africa KIDZ child sponsorship program, I write this article with deep gratitude and a hopeful heart. Your sponsorship is a lifeline, a powerful act of love that transforms lives in ways words can hardly express.

When you choose to become a sponsor, you choose to become a part of a child’s story – like my story. For 17 years of my life, child sponsors chose to stand in the gap for me between lack and provision, between struggle and opportunity. Because of them, I had access to education, proper nutrition, healthcare, and above all, the knowledge that someone, somewhere, believes in me.

Many children in our Tanzanian community face challenges that can easily steal their dreams. But your support as a Child Sponsor can restore those dreams. You may never meet all of us in person, but your love reaches us every day. Child Sponsors give us more than help; they give us dignity and purpose.

To anyone considering becoming a sponsor – please know that your impact goes far beyond what you can see in a simple photograph in the Victory Magazine. You are building futures, one child at a time. You are changing generations. Sponsoring a child’s education is a priceless investment. You can be the reason a child stays in school instead of being forced into the streets to search for food for the family.

You can be the wings beneath their dreams. You can help them rise through the power of education. Without child sponsorship, school can end for a child in Tanzania in the early years of Primary school, and any dream they may have had of a future career is shattered completely.

I recently went back to the village where I was...

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By Rita Langeland

More than a decade ago, Hidden with Christ Ministries purchased a 5.2 acre plot of land outside the city of Moshi, Tanzania. The year was 2011, and our work with orphaned children through our Treasures of Africa Children’s Home was well known to the local Social Welfare office. 

The head of the Welfare office (at that time) had begun to pressure us to purchase a permanent location for the children, as she was very uncomfortable that we were renting a building for use as an orphanage. She feared the owner would not renew the lease, and all the children could suddenly become homeless. The Welfare authorities had nowhere to place the children, as there were no government orphanages, so the pressure was on.

We searched high and low, and no buildings were found suitable to house a large number of children. It became clear we would have to buy land and build. After walking and praying over one specific property for 7 days, we felt confident we had found God’s intended location. After a series of miracles, financial and otherwise, the property was purchased. But the faith battle continued, as it took three solid years to receive the Title Deed for the land. 

When the Title Deed finally came through, we had only one more hurdle to overcome, or so we thought. Our land was zoned as “Light Industrial” in a large swath of land that had been set aside by the government for industrial development some decades prior. But all the landowners had simply planted corn, and the entire area looked like a series of small farms instead of the intended industrial complex. The Land Office had promised to change our Land designation to “Educational”, to allow us to proceed with building an orphanage and school. But when we refused to “encourage” the Land Officer with a financial “gift,” our promised zoning change stalled out. This went on for years, regardless of writing letters to officials and making in-person appeals. I got to the point of simply laying the entire project on the “altar” like Abraham did with Isaac and was confident that God could raise it from the dead in His perfect timing. 

Fast-forward to March 2024. It felt like the time was right to ask the government officials in Hai District, to change the land’s zoning designation to “Educational” one more time. By this point, many things in the government had changed. The previous Land Officer, who had refused to help us without a bribe, had been jailed for corruption. We also had heard that the new District Commissioner, to whom we planned to make a direct in-person appeal, had the reputation of being a very reasonable person. 

We no longer planned to request permission to build an orphanage, since the central government had announced its intention (in 2020) to close orphanages across the country and place the children in families. We had successfully moved all the TOA children into families by mid-2021 and now set our sights on seeking permission to build a Secondary School to be called TREASURES OF AFRICA LEADERSHIP ACADEMY. Our need for a zoning change of our property from Industrial to Educational was still the primary issue we planned to present to the District Commissioner.

One of our HWCM Board members in Tanzania, Mr. Shali, a civil engineer, secured an in-person meeting for our Board with the District Commissioner. The Board members came out in force for this meeting, as all of us had prayed together for a positive ruling on our request by the D.C. The meeting proceeded, with our Engineer leading the way. He explained the history of our organization seeking permission for a zoning change for many years. The D.C. listened carefully and suddenly asked exactly where the land was located. When it was explained, he blurted out, “I was just there last week!” Then he explained that he went to see a project that had been built across the road and noticed our iron gate which reads, “TREASURES OF AFRICA” and “Through these gates pass future leaders of nations.”

He asked more questions, such as how another non-profit organization had managed to build a non-industrial project in the same area while HWCM was denied permission. (This had all occurred before he was appointed District Commissioner) By the end of the meeting, the D.C. had called the Land Officer into the meeting and announced in his presence, that he was giving permission for Hidden with Christ Ministries to proceed with the project, and no one should disturb them! Suddenly, our dream had been resurrected from the dead! We left that meeting rejoicing over the miraculous turnaround.

The next step in this project involves completing architectural and engineering plans for the school so they can be presented to the Ministry of Education for approval. Mr. Shali is overseeing this process, as he has been the lead Engineer on a multitude of school projects over the years.

We are asking for your help to bring this dream into reality. Here are several ways you can help:

1. PRAY FOR WISDOM AND DIVINE FAVOR WITH GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS FOR EVERY STEP OF THE PROJECT. (Especially with the Ministry of Education)
   
   
2. PRAY FOR US TO FIND THE RIGHT PEOPLE FOR EVERY POSITION IN THE SCHOOL – FROM THE HEADMASTER TO THE TEACHERS WHO CAN CARRY THE VISION OF TREASURES OF AFRICA LEADERSHIP ACADEMY.
   
   
3. PRAY FOR FINANCIAL PROVISION FOR EACH PHASE OF THE BUILDING PROJECT AND FOR OPERATIONAL EXPENSES FOR THE FIRST THREE YEARS

Thank you for supporting this vision for the Treasures of Africa Leadership Academy – where godly leaders for the next generation will be trained!

DONATE NOW to this Project!