ASSALAM COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
Our Activity Areas
We operate in three main areas
Formal education for children, vocational training for women and social initiatives to ensure the continuity of our projects.
Projects
HIGH QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL
Assalam International School
The main backbone of the Assalam campus, the key point of the projects is the school. Students are carefully selected in this school where, local students are given world-class education and also scientists, managers, craftsmen and artisans of the future Africa will be trained. Assalam international school has both natural and technological facilities, quality teaching staff, laboratories, books and toy libraries to support psychological and mental development of children. All in school Students receive education through sponsors. The total school size is 93 as of 2022 and a new class is added to the school each year.
Assalam Children's University
Assalam Children’s University is an alternative education system established by the Assalam Foundation four years ago, where children can learn science, computers, coding, art, drama, language and sports and develop their abilities. The children’s university aims to educate African children with superior abilities and intelligence in many different subjects, from classical scientific methods to 3D printers. Every year, around 50 children graduate from the Children’s University.
Assalam Youth Center and AfriCamp
Africamp is Assalam’s year-round camping program. Hundreds of campers from different periods and age groups attend the youth center (which has a capacity of 94), the construction of which was completed in June 2022. On one hand, the campers receive training on many topics from permaculture to survival techniques, from vocational training to factory settings of human, on the other hand, they are enjoying the turquoise sea, white sand, water sports, the sun and ecological village life. By 2022, around 500 children and youth will have benefited from the camps.
Assalam Vocational School
Assalam Vocational School, whose construction was completed in 2022, started training in agriculture and animal husbandry, carpentry, sewing and design, cookery and tourism-hotel management with 43 students as of July. In the school, which plans to open three more classes in three different areas in 2023, mostly orphan mothers receive education through sponsors. After 1 year of practical and theoretical training, it is aimed to empower and employ students who are provided with internship opportunities.
Assalam Mobile Library
Assalam is running its educational projects from five years in Kizimkazi region of Zanzibar and in 21 villages for a year while humanitarian aid projects were held from the beginning everywhere in Zanzibar and Tanzania. Although it’s hard to carry educational projects to wider communities, Assalam Mobile Library will make it possible, not only carrying books but also teachers, volunteers and art & science & sport activities. Mobile library will go first 21 villages in South region of Zanzibar/ everyday two villages and then all other villages of Zanzibar in five years.
SOCIAL ENTERPRENEURSHIP FOR SUSTAINABILITY OF DEVELOPMENT
KangaAfrica
KangaAfrica is Assalam’s first social enterprise brand. Assalam, which takes self-sufficiency as its top priority in order to set an example for a self-sufficient Africa, sells online to the whole world, as well as at CafeAfrica&Shops in the city center of Zanzibar and at its stands in various contracted hotels, the products of orphan mothers who receive sewing and design education, under this brand. Under the KangaAfrica brand, dozens of women have gained economic empowerment and sustainable livelihoods.
MamaAfrica
Volunteer tourism is a system that provides opportunities for people who like to work in both vacation and business life. More than 1000 volunteers have been hosted at Assalam’s Zanzibar campus in 5 years, and many projects have been implemented with these volunteers. Volunteers, who are active in many fields from permaculture to school, can stay with us in various processes that can last from a few days to a few months, and provide support. Accommodation fees received from volunteer tourists who stay short-term constitute one of the main income items of the foundation.
Ecovilla
Zanzibar, located on the Indian Ocean, is a piece of heaven on earth. And the Assalam campus is built on an area of 15,000 square meters on this beautiful island where green meets blue. Ecovilla is the name of a sustainable campus designed as an Eco-village where volunteers or guests stay. Living in accordance with the principles of permaculture, that is, not harming nature and human beings, and fair sharing is a priority for the Assalam family. There is an accommodation capacity of 120 people in Ecovilla and some income is obtained for the projects by renting the rooms sometimes to volunteers and sometimes to foreigners depending on the demand. The campus, which has a water well and solar energy, harvests rain water and grows its own vegetables, fruits, meat and dairy products, aims to live fully independently without the need for external resources.
CafeAfrica&Shops in Zanzibar & GaleriAfrica in İstanbul
CafeAfrica&Shops belongs to Assalam Foundation, as a way to serve the people of Zanzibar and as as platforms where social entrepreneurial products of NGO is sold. All the profit from everything you buy from this shop is used for the sustainability of social development projects, like vocational training center and school.
HUMANITARIAN AID FOR FAIR SHARE
Although the Assalam Foundation is an NGO that prioritizes social entrepreneurship, it also carries out humanitarian aid projects. Especially since 2020, due to Covid19 and its effects on our island, many projects such as hygiene kits, masks and soap distribution have been implemented, apart from Ramadan, Qurban, stationery, zakat, food, water well, home repairs, wedding and clothing aids. Assalam humanitarian projects, particularly active in 21 villages in the southern and eastern region of Zanzibar, are also carried out from time to time in mainland Tanzania.
Assalam Youth Challenge
Every Year Assalam organizes a weekly youth camp with the winners and a competition where young people come up with creative solutions to an Africa that is facing challenges. Project candidates are expected to design a project according to that year’s theme and present their projects that can be implemented in Zanzibar. Assalam sponsors all the camp expenses of the winning project owners, including transportation, and the participants come together to brainstorm to put their projects on sustainable grounds at every stage from financing to design.
PERMACULTURE FOR SELF-SUFFICIENCY
PERMACULTURE
Assalam is an active Permaculture demonstration site and has been used to teach permaculture to international and local students in Assalam’s educational projects and to tourists in sustainable community tours. In our permaculture farm each class of Assalam International school has a veggie bed and raises their plantations, Africamps and Vocational Training Center has classes-apart from volunteers, who take part any time in garden independent from their responsibilities. It is at the forefront of Permaculture Design, displaying many permaculture principles, and produces an abundance of food and yields from within its living environment.
Some of our products are:
- Almost a hundred different types of vegetables, bushes, fruits, herbs and species, trees, bamboo and cactus species.
- Various bread and cakes with local flour
- Dairy products from cows and goats (Yogurt and Cheese)
- Assorted jams from local fruit combinations
