About Us

Kasulu Foundation

Stichting Kasulu is a non-profit organisation that primarily aims to provide children from low-income families in Tanzania with the opportunity to attend school. It was founded in 2004. Since 2010, the foundation has expanded its operations to include whole families and communities. At Kasulu, we believe that a holistic approach to development can help a society as a whole. With this in mind, Stichting Kasulu is working to develop cooperatives and give organised groups a voice in their development. The foundation has launched various education and training programmes to help young adults learn skills they can use to make a living. The foundation undertakes various education and health projects. We work through four distinctive programmes:

• Sponsorship programmes – where children and young adults are sponsored to attend education.
• Sponsor-a-skill programme – where a sponsored person learns a specific skill (such as tailoring, masonry, mechanics and electricians)
• Training centres – we have built a training centre in the Kasulu district so that the local population can acquire basic skills. We are working with the Maisha Pamoja Foundation to realise another centre at Mto wa Mbu, Monduli district, Arusha.
• Building cooperatives – we have built small groups of people who work together. These groups typically focus on one or two business activities. We support these groups with initial funding to help them start a business. Examples include the Msagara Village Development Group in Kasulu, Kigoma Region; the Muzinga Women Development Group in Muleba District, Kagera Region; the Rehema Group (Mwanza City); the Misenyi Women Group in Kusenyi, Mara Region; and Maisha Pamoja in Monduli District, Arusha Region.

By encouraging groups to work together, we hope to

• build an inclusive development process,
• build a sense of ‘strength in numbers’ so that these groups can have the power to influence policies about their development
• increase the sense of self-worth
• increase the bargaining power for the products developed and collective procurement (including transportation of goods)

The name ‘Kasulu’ comes from the Kasulu District, located in the northwest of Tanzania; it is one of the six districts of the Kigoma region,