Arusha, Tanzania

Asante sana in Swahili means thank you very much. We'd like to take this opportunity to say asante sana to all those who generously donated to the Canaan Orphanage and to tell you how our visit there went.

First and most importantly, family and friends donated enough money through our website to pay for one year of health insurance for twenty orphans!! That is a seriously big deal! There are 32 orphans in this orphanage and 15 of them are HIV positive, so healthcare services for these children are a matter of life or death. We cannot thank our donors enough. So onto the visit.

We arrived at the orphanage and met the Executive Director Dr. Alex Victor Lengeju and his wife Caritas. He provided information about the orphanage and the children. After our briefing, Michael told him about our fund raising efforts and handed him the donation money. Alex was happily surprised. I think he thought we were there for a tour and some information.

Michael delivers our donation money to Alex, the Executive Director of the orphanage. Fr. Ephrem documents the moment with a photo.

Alex gave us a tour of the site. It is a well organized development. They have a good start and are hoping to expand as more children arrive. We saw the preschool room and the boys' and girls' dorm rooms. In the kitchen, Alex explained the importance of the water filtration system. The water there has too much fluoride. When it's ingested in large amounts, your teeth can turn brown. It can also impact bones. We saw a lot of this in Arusha.

A tour of kitchen and water filtration system in background

The water here has too much fluoride and this shows effects

Only the preschoolers were on site when we visited. The other children were in school. The preschool children gladly took a break to show us the playground. Some of them were shy, but others were quite social. They all looked happy and Maeve and Liam enjoyed playing with them. Of course, I enjoyed introducing them to the selfie concept.

Maeve and Liam join the children on their playground

But he got over it quickly as he experiences his first selfie

the boys' room - extremely clean, organized and outfitted - even had smoke detectors which we almost never see anywhere since we began our trip

Michael and I have regularly donated money to foster care programs. We are more than aware that there are a ton of deserving charities out there. If you aren't already attached to a cause, please consider this one. We will continue to donate annually (or more) to the Canaan Orphanage and we would be thrilled and honored to include your contribution. So don't worry if you missed out on contributing during this visit. We have ongoing communication with Alex and the organization. More interesting information and details will be posted on this site in the future.

We were honored to meet Alex and his wife. They are an incredible couple making a powerful impact on these children's lives.