projects
Assalam Community Foundation projects have five main domains: • Educational Activities for Kids and Vocational Training for Women • Social Entrepreneurship • Volunteering • Youth Challenge • Humanitarian Aid
FOR KIDS
We have given priority to educational projects. Our children projects are intended to provide regular education pre-school children and those at the primary school age. Additionally, we organize periodical projects like festivals and workshops.
Assalam International School
Assalam International School is a nursery and primary school founded in 2018 by Assalam Community Foundation with the purpose of providing world class education to the children of the Kizimkazi Village.
The school is set in an organic environment: there is a library on top of a mango tree, a playground built with recyclable materials and the Indian Ocean is just a few steps away.
We also give much importance to the modern aspects of teaching/learning. At the moment, we host two leap learning rooms for literacy and numeracy, where our students follow a self-taught learning path through the use of kid-friendly tablets.
Assalam International School’s objective is to offer high quality education and we do that by keeping a low student to teacher ratio (15 to 2), by hiring distinguished teachers who are regularly trained on new and up to date teaching methods and by providing teachers and students with the latest materials/resources in the education sector.
Assalam Children’s University
Assalam Community Foundation established the first children’s university in Africa to provide advanced education for the gifted children of Zanzibar. There were 60 students in the beginning. We have customized programs in accordance with our school schedule. The children are taught English, computer and coding, art, games and sports.
Assalam Children’s University aims to reach world-class education standards for its art, sports, physics, chemistry, biology, robotics and mechatronics classes.
Children that participate in the children’s university science and art workshops are expected to participate in the International Science Olympics and exhibit their work in international galleries. Assalam Community Foundation expects the success of our children to be a source of inspiration and encouragement to the rest of Africa and we aim for our initiatives to be modeled in other countries.
Assalam Children’s Library
Africa has the lowest literacy rate in the world. Some teachers are unable to provide the books and other vital resources to improve the level of education in schools. Many African children go their whole lives without owning a single book. Assalam Community Foundation has established a children’s library in Kizimkazi in order to change this situation in Zanzibar. This interactive library built on a mango tree is an attractive place that has books and educational electronic tools for children. The tree house encourages children to enjoy reading due to its adventure playground and interesting architecture.
FOR WOMEN
We care about strengthening the social status of women. Most of our employees consist of women and the majority of our volunteers have also been female. In addition, two of every three children receiving an education at Assalam Community Foundation are girls.
Tailoring for Single Mothers
Assalam Community Foundation creates sustainable employment opportunities for single mothers. Mothers receive sewing training for one year and at the end of this period they start to create our products – bags and dolls. The women are responsible for the entire production from beginning to end. This includes the design, sewing and selling of the products. Our intention is to create sustainable business opportunities for single mothers all around the Africa.
Young Ladies
We does not neglect the material and spiritual development of the mothers who raise the new generation. Assalam Community Foundation aims to help the young ladies from our neighbor villages to have a profession. We organizes for the young girls courses such as sewing, housekeeping, computer and English.
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Assalam Community Foundation aims to be a self-sufficient organization in every aspect. Therefore, we established three brands: KangaAfrica, CafeAfrica&Shops and Mamafrica.
KangaAfrica
KangaAfrica, the social enterprise brand of Assalam Community Foundation which provides education for children and employment for the single mothers. Mothers are included in all the processes of production, design and sales after one year of sewing training. A local fabric called “kanga” is used for all the designed products.
Mothers who learned to sew under KangaAfrica brand are continuously creating new products.
They started out with bags production in 2018 and have been sewing tribal dolls with bags since 2019. We were inspired by the cultural heritage of Africa when designing these products. The dolls which are made by the mothers and inspired by the most famous tribes of Africa, including Masai, Zulu, Mursi, Suri, Fulani, Arbore, Gana, Karo, Himba, and Tuareg. We exhibit and sell these dolls in CafeAfrica&Shops and in partner shops. The funds from these products are put towards our social programs.
CafeAfrica&Shops
CafeAfrica&Shop is a showcase as well as the main platform where KangaAfrica products are sold. CafeAfrica&Shop in Stone Town (historical heritage site of UNESCO) is the city office of Assalam Community Foundation, which is centered in Kizimkazi Region, Mkunguni Village.
There is another CafeAfrica&Shop in İstanbul, which is a small and contemporary Africa museum. We called it Gallery Africa. Gallery Africa is in Çengelköy, a historical neighborhood of İstanbul. We organize periodical programs about African culture and history, voluntarism and social entrepreneurship under Gallery Africa. We hope that it will be a lively center representing African culture in Istanbul. The income of Gallery Africa is used for the sustainability of Assalam Community Foundation’s projects, as well.
Mamafrica
Mamafrica is the responsible tourism brand belonging to Assalam Community Foundation, which encourages volunteers to enrich themselves, while integrating with African people, contributing to the community and respecting the nature.
Mamafrica offers pleasant holiday opportunities for families with children and travelers of all ages. We organize many camp and workshop programs throughout the year and invite people to Africa.
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