Wheelchairs Change Lives!

Faraja students returned to campus after a months-long holiday break. We had the pleasure of welcoming 10 new students (pictured above), for a total enrollment of 106 students —54 boys and 52 girls! (More on the new students and their sponsors in next month’s newsletter.)

One of the very first priorities for Faraja’s incoming students is a wheelchair fitting. Most of our students come to Faraja without any mobility devices—they crawl or limp in, or are carried on the backs of parents and grandparents.

Our children come from households at or below the poverty line of $3 per day, with most families surviving off of subsistence farming. For them, wheelchairs are very difficult to procure and very expensive to afford.

A properly fitted wheelchair that works in the rugged terrain of Kilimanjaro can easily cost upwards of $300, three times the monthly living wage of the families of children we serve! It is hard to imagine making the choice to go hungry or providing your child with a wheelchair.

Not just steel and wheels, a wheelchair is a literal game changer: fostering physical strength; enabling children to attend school; develop friendships; participate in community life; gain independence; and escape the stigma associated with social exclusion.

When you support Faraja, you ensure that every child who needs a wheelchair gets a wheelchair.

You really do change lives.


Faraja Forward—our mobile outreach program—is providing hope and dignity to children outside the walls of Faraja School where little, if any, hope exists. Wheelchairs in these rural and far-rural villages are key to newfound freedom for both children and their caregivers. Click on the video above to see the pure joy a wheelchair brings to a child who has been isolated, confined to a dirt floor, or carried on the backs of mothers, who must also provide for their families. A wheelchair is not just a device, it is liberation.

Special Father’s Network Features Dave Tolmie and Tumsifu Munuo

The Special Father’s Network Dad-to-Dad podcast was founded and is hosted by Chicagoan and author David Hirsch to provide mentoring and a platform for fathers raising children with special needs.  In this edition, David interviews Faraja COB Dave Tolmie on the history and trajectory of Faraja and what it means for Head of School Tumsifu Munuo to build the Faraja community while raising his own son born with autism. You can listen to the inspiring story here. 

Hongera kaw ndoa yenu, Alex!

All of us at Faraja send our warmest congratulations to Faraja alumnus Alex Bernard on his marriage to Victoria Samwel. Alex is now 28 and works as Committee Clerk at the Karatu District Council. He met his wife through work-related activities.

In relaying the news, Alex added that what he remembers most about Faraja is the sponsorship that helped him to study and gain knowledge, to build self confidence and to see himself as “equal within society.”

Here is a picture of Alex from his early years at Faraja.

Although we took a month off from the newsletter in January, we wish you a Happy 2026, and will see you again next month as we welcome Spring.

As always, thank you for your support! We cannot do this work without YOU!

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Disability is NOT Inability!