Beneficiaries: 11 children and their families
Completion date: September 2025
Country: Tanzania
Executive summary
Access to safe shelter is the foundation of a child’s well-being—it influences their health, education and emotional development, while also shaping their future opportunities. Sadly, some of the families served by Compassion’s frontline church partners in Tanzania currently live in unsafe shelters at risk of collapse. Eleven children and their families from the TZ0620, TZ0621 and TZ0651 centres in the Katesh area of Tanzania are in urgent need of support due to their precarious living conditions.
Three of the eleven families are currently living in small, rented rooms and one is living in a community shelter as they have already lost their homes. The rest are living in unstable, deteriorating housing conditions without adequate windows, doors and ventilation. Families do not have access to adequate sanitation facilities like clean washrooms and hand washing sinks. During the rainy season, moisture seeps into the home, damaging items and putting children at risk of mould exposure and cold, damp living conditions. Children living in inadequate shelter may experience recurring skin, respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses.
Poor housing conditions not only impact children’s physical health, but also their emotional well-being. Overcrowding leaves children more vulnerable to abuse. Caregivers from these 11 households work as small-scale farmers and day labourers, earning very little income and they are already struggling to meet the basic needs of their families. Caregivers are often forced to choose between paying for necessities like food or health care and maintaining their homes. Without help, these families will be unable to make the changes needed to provide their children with safe shelter, putting each child’s well-being and life at risk.
Your generous support will provide 11 children and their families with safe shelter through the construction of new homes. Each home will be built with sturdy, high-quality materials like concrete and bricks for walls and iron sheets for roofs. Homes will feature three bedrooms and a living room, ensuring children have separate sleeping quarters from adults. Participating churches and families will contribute building materials and provide manual labour during construction. Locally available materials will be used to build washrooms alongside the new homes.
Summary
Background
Katesh is a rural region in northern Tanzania. Like many rural communities, it has varied housing conditions. Traditional homes, commonly found among the Iraqw and Maasai communities, are constructed using locally available materials such as wooden poles, mud, grass and thatched roofs. However, the quality of these homes varies significantly, with many families living in deteriorating or inadequate structures due to limited financial resources.
Most caregivers living in Katesh work as farmers, livestock keepers or small business owners. However, limited employment opportunities in the region and inadequate access to resources have impacted their ability to generate income and provide for their families. As a result, many households struggle to maintain their homes or invest in improvements, leaving them vulnerable to the effects of harsh weather during the rainy season, putting further strain on their already limited resources.
The need
Children need access to safe shelter—without adequate housing, children are left vulnerable to serious illnesses, abuse and emotional distress, hindering their development and overall well-being. Compassion staff have identified 11 families from three Compassion centres is dire need of new housing. After their homes collapsed, four of the families had to leave their homes and cram into a rented room in a house or seek refuge at a community living shelter. The remaining seven families are currently living in dilapidated and unsafe conditions.
With your generous gift, 11 vulnerable children and their families from three Compassion centres in Katesh, Tanzania, will soon move into safe, secure homes, providing them with the stability and protection they need to thrive. Child and youth development committees from each church will ensure that the new homes are built to the required standards and are completed on schedule. The homes will be built with sturdy, locally sourced materials, ensuring they can withstand strong winds and heavy rains that are common during the region’s rainy season. To provide children with safe, comfortable sleeping spaces, each house will have three bedrooms and one common living space. Families without a washroom will use local resources to build a new washroom beside their homes.
With adequate ventilation, light from windows and sturdy roofs, families will no longer need to worry about leaks, persistent moisture or dust damaging their belongings or impacting their health. Children will have a quiet, well-lit space to complete their homework and study for school. Caregivers will contribute to the intervention by providing labour and materials, giving them a sense of pride and ownership over their new homes.
What your gift will do
Your gift will allow for the construction of 11 new homes for children and their families from three Compassion centres in Katesh, Tanzania:
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Construction materials for new homes:
- Stones
- Timber
- Iron sheets for roofs
- Cement, blocks, gravel and sand
- Nails
- Binding wire
- Doors and windows
- Silicone putty for sealing windows and doors
- Transportation
- Labour
- Monitoring and evaluation
Logistics
- Local contribution: US$2,349.20
- Handling of funds: Compassion Tanzania and frontline church partner committees will ensure this project stays within budget.
- Monitoring and follow-up: Compassion centre staff and church partner committee members will ensure homes are constructed to the required standards and within the expected timeframe. They will provide ongoing monitoring and evaluation during and after the intervention.