We (Henni from Finland, Joey from Canada and Matthew from the Isle of Man) decided 6 months ago to go together to Tanzania for some months to get engaged in charity work in Tanzania. Sports Charity Mwanza was initiated in 2016 by international students who want to make in difference in close collaboration with the local community. We build sports and communities centres and set up sports clubs so that more and more children, youths and young adults (youth unemployment rate of nearly 90%) get the chance to enjoy team sports and to gain new energy as well as important life skills which help them to master their daily challenges succesfully. Together with the local coaches we have been actively engaged in setting up new sports clubs which was a great experience. Also in future years we will stay actively engaged in the project.

Currently we are building a sports and community center in the center of Mwanza (1 million people) which will be used in the mornings by different schools and in the afternoons by sports clubs. The center will have basketball, football, volleyball and netball fields as well as recreational areas for the local community. The total costs are around 35'000 Euros and our organisation has already financed 80% of the costs. Therefore the building process is already very progressed and our target is now to close the gap of the last 7000 Euros.

The overall costs for 1m² while building a sports center are around 2,50 Euros (=3,50 Canadian Dollars, =2,30 Pounds). We hope to find many friends and relatives who support us with some square meters so that we reach closer to our target. Hopefully we can open the sports center in November already.

Since all of us work 100% voluntarily for the charity (we also covered our travelling and living costs in Mwanza on our own), 100% of your donation will go straight into the project. 

Over the past months that we have spent in Mwanza together, we have truly understood the passion that the children and coaches have for sport. We have experienced their enthusiasm and appreciation for our support. But we have also learned how team sport and community support plays a large role in the lives of the people here, especially in the local context with the high unemployment rate.

We count on you,

Henni Hietala, Joseph D'Eramo and Matthew Aire

PS (important): Betterplace.org is also a nonprofit organization. You can support them with a small donation but also you have the possibility to set the automatically added amount to your donation back to 0$, so that all your donation goes into our project.