THE SMALL THINGS
Empowering children, families, and communities
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
There are more than 24,000 children living in orphanages in Tanzania. Around 90% of these children have living family members. Yet, poverty and lack of access to education and other opportunities lead many families to believe placing their children in orphanages is the best solution. Decades of research show that children thrive when they grow up in families, not institutions.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Happy Family Children's Village
We provide family-style, community-based residential care at Happy Family Children’s Village as a last resort. In honor of Amir Visram and in partnership with Happy Family Organics, we run a home that serves 40 children. These attachment-focused homes offer stability for children, surrounded by love and given the opportunity for a brighter future. The homes have less than 12 children in each in order to ensure that children are raised as closely as possible to living in a family-environment. Most of these children travel home on breaks/ long weekends to spend time with relatives who might not be ready to take them full-time again. This serves as a way for the social work team to plan for successful reunification, and for the children to stay connected to their communities and relatives. We currently have a reunification rate of over 50% by age 5 and over 80% by secondary school-age.
Outreach - Family Support
Our outreach program keeps children in families and reunites separated children with relatives whenever possible. This comprises a daycare center, preschool, income-generating projects, and in-home support. We currently support several outreach families through our program, and in extenuating circumstances, provide outreach services to young adults in need.
Community Daycare and Preschool
The community daycare and preschools was established in response to a community needs assessment. There was overwhelming data from vulnerable families and community members alike for an affordable English-medium daycare. The daycare serves children aged 2-7 and serves as a space for children to have access to high quality education who might not otherwise be able to. It also aims to alleviate the burden for low-income families for childcare, by providing them with a place to send their children, while they work. The daycare and preschool serves 45 children, based on a sliding payment scale for families.
Social Enterprise Studio
In order to assist disadvantaged youth within the community, TST established the Social Enterprise Studio to provide these youth with opportunities to express their creativity and further their education. They are provided with English courses, business courses, and jewelry and sewing classes.
Community Tutoring
Every Saturday TST's library opens its many doors to hundreds of children from the surrounding villages to get a little extra help in academic work, practice their English, and socialize. They also have the opportunity to take out books from the library.
Where we work
External reviews
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of students receiving homework help
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adolescents, Children, Preteens
Related Program
Community Tutoring
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Number to date
Number of community banks established
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Economically disadvantaged people, Families, Caregivers, Parents, Widows and widowers
Related Program
Outreach - Family Support
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Number to date
Number of children served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Orphans, Transitioning children
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of orphanages supported
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Caregivers, Orphans, Foster and adoptive children, Transitioning children
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of children and youth who have received access to stable housing
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Orphans, Transitioning children
Related Program
Happy Family Children's Village
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of families supported through business development, education support, and nutrition support
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Families, Caregivers, Parents, Widows and widowers
Related Program
Outreach - Family Support
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of children reunified
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Orphans, Transitioning children, Children and youth
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of children kept with families
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Families
Related Program
Outreach - Family Support
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Percent of children reunified with families by age 5
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Families, Orphans, Transitioning children
Related Program
Happy Family Children's Village
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Percent of children reunified with families by age 18
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Families, Orphans, Transitioning children
Related Program
Happy Family Children's Village
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The Small Things believes that poverty should never be a reason families aren't together. We aim to keep children in homes where they belong, care for them when their families can’t, and do all that we can to reunify children in our care with relatives.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Family Preservation: We empower families who are struggling (often due to poverty or the death of a mother in childbirth) to keep their children at home where they belong, through support services including education and food support, scholarships to our preschool, business development training and support, and access to community banking. We have also helped keep many children at home through access to our community programs.
Family Reunification: As soon as a child is referred into our care at Happy Family Children's Village, our team develops a case plan and begins creating a long-term solution for them while in a small family-style environment. We work with family members to create safe, stable home environments through business development training and support, microfinance, counseling, education and nutrition support.
Community Services: Our community services enable families to set their children up for a bright future without sending them away from their homes. They include an affordable daycare program, community library and tutoring, vocational training, and a village community bank (VICOBA).
Families and Futures Coalition of Tanzania: We believe that a coalition of organizations working together can democratize and decolonize access to high-quality trainings and practical support to help grassroots organisations improve their quality of care and move toward family-first models. We provide training to children's homes on best practices for residential care, family preservation and reunification, organization management, and capacity-building.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Family Preservation: We've provided intensive support to 50 families, thereby keeping 150 children at home who otherwise may have entered orphanages. Upon graduation from the program, families see an average increase in income of 1,400%.
Family Reunification: To date, we have reunified 36 children with their families after being referred into our program. Around 50% of children in our care are reunified with their families before reaching age 5, and 80% of our children are reunified before they finish secondary school.
Community Services: Our 18 VICOBA groups include over 450 families supporting more than 820 children. The daycare and preschool program provides education to 74 children from the community, 21 of whom are supported with scholarships. Over 200 students attend our community tutoring each week and have access to over 1000 books in our library. We have graduated 37 students from our vocational training program, with a graduation rate of 91%.
Families and Futures Coalition of Tanzania: This pilot project launched in early 2022. In under a year, we provided training to 30 organizations caring for over 1000 children. We provided intensive support to 5 children's homes that in turn were able to begin or complete reunification for nearly 25% of the children in their care.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We act on the feedback we receive
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
THE SMALL THINGS
Board of directorsas of 08/07/2023
Richard Furter
Jason Smith
Bekka Ross Russell
Dorothy Goldberg
Jason Smith
David Furter
Ray Harding
Delphine Mendez de Leon
Wendy Bond
Miki Russell
Henry Barda
Lisa Nkonoki
Kristina Alexander
Ismael Manang
Eliawira Amos Ayo
Martha Ayo
Mohamed Sharif
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? No -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? No -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? No -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data