Child Sponsorship background from Zanzibar, Tanzania

SOS Children's Village Zanzibar

The SOS Children's Village Zanzibar is located within 7 kilometres of the harbour town of Zanzibar. Besides the 11 family houses, there is the village director's house, an aunt's house (SOS aunts care for SOS children in the absence of SOS mothers) and an administration and service area.

The SOS Nursery went into operation in 1995, and comprises four group rooms, a playground and several additional rooms.

Other SOS Projects in Zanzibar

The SOS Nursery applies the "Jolly Phonics" method in its teaching. It has capacity for approximately 150 children from the SOS Children's Village and its neighbouring community. Due to the great demand for nursery places and the high quality of the child care being offered there, the kindergarten works in two shifts. The children being cared for are between the ages of four-and-a-half and six-and-a-half.

When youths are about 15 years of age, they move out of the SOS Children's Village and into one of the two SOS Youth Homes. The older boys in the SOS Children's Village live in temporarily rented houses until a suitable plot of land is made available for the construction of the new youth home. Moving into the SOS Youth Home involves having a great deal of responsibility for themselves, as they are being looked after by only one care giver, and this is an important step towards their independence. The SOS mothers, the village director and a psychologist prepare them carefully for this step. It is presumed that youths will live at the youth house for about four years, though those attending university can stay longer.

In 1993, an SOS Primary and Secondary School was added to SOS Children's Village Zanzibar, which has 28 classes. A total of 800 children are being taught by some 40 teachers at the school at the moment. SOS School graduates always achieve good total scores in the national "O" Level exams.

In order to offer the local population better medical care, in 1998 the SOS Medical Centre was officially opened. About 160 patients are assisted in three examination rooms every month. A Mother and Child Clinic and a Gynaecological Clinic are planned to be constructed to complement the SOS Medical Centre.

Background to Zanzibar

Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous part of the United Republic of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, 25–50 kilometres off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, informally referred to as Zanzibar), and Pemba.

Other nearby island countries and territories include Comoros and Mayotte to the south, Mauritius and Réunion to the far south-east, and the Seychelles Islands about 1,500 km to the east. Zanzibar was once a separate state with a long trading history within the Arab world; it united with Tanganyika to form Tanzania in 1964 and still enjoys a high degree of autonomy within the union. The capital of Zanzibar, located on the island of Unguja, is Zanzibar City, and its historic centre, known as Stone Town, is a World Heritage Site.

Zanzibar's main industries are spices, raffia, and tourism. In particular, the islands produce cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and pepper. For this reason, the islands, together with Tanzania's Mafia Island, are sometimes called the Spice Islands.