Rx Jump Ropes for Small Steps For Compassion and their Tanzania Orphanage

When we were presented with the opportunity to donate jump ropes to Small Steps For Compassion for their Tanzania Orphanage, we were beyond excited. To be able to be involved with bringing joy and fitness to kids is a blessing and we were more than happy to participate. Read on to see what Small Steps For Compassion is doing to make change.

Founded in 2009, Small Steps For Compassion has been about inspiring global change through community transformation. They take a ground-up approach to ensure that their work remains a partnership and not an "us and them" project. From their volunteers and board members State side, to local teachers, house moms, and ground staff in Tanzania, they champion each other and use their unique gifts to transform the lives and communities around them.

Small Steps For Compassion provides a loving home to 25 girls. They use the word ‘home' rather than orphanage because orphanages tend to be institutionalized and don’t have a history of working. That is why they have structured Small Steps like an actual home. You’ll find a safe place full of love and compassion. The girls don't get "phased out" as most do in orphanages. They are family and will always be family. They have an amazing bibi (grandma in Swahili) who cares and cooks for the girls every day, tenderhearted house moms who love the girls as their own, and Uncle Juma, the Director of Operations, who has rescued them from where they were at prior and does everything he can to help them know love and help them heal from past traumas.

Steps Academy, Small Steps’ school, employs 37 passionate, driven, and educated teachers that are dedicated to coming alongside their 300 students to change their lives and futures for the better. It's at the school that students are seen and given the freedom to dream and write their own stories. Small Steps For Compassion take a holistic approach to their education, feeding their students two meals and a snack every day.

The first step after purchasing their property in 2009 was to build trust. They dedicated time to really getting to know their local community, listening to their hearts, learning about their needs, and then partnering with them to get them what they need. That quickly led to the building of a well for their community, and since then they have only grown in their relationships. Their goal is to never stop listening and growing with the locals.

Practicing sustainability not only for the environment, but for an investment into the community's future, Small Steps For Compassion has 13 acres with a water well, community water tap, solar panels, produce farm, livestock, fish farm, and, their most recent additions, a hydroponic project and bakery. Their goal is that nothing will go unused and that everything will come full circle.

For more information please click  www.smallstepsforcompassion.org.