ABOUT US

About Us

The Need

Each year in Africa, hundreds of children are orphaned and abandoned. Some are left in garbage cans, others are left by the side of a road or in an abandoned building. Infants may be left at the hospital or with a neighbor or even given to a stranger. The need to rescue these children and provide them with a home is why Samaritan Village Orphanage exists.

Born From a Tragic Event

The founder of this incredible work is Elizabeth Mwalozi, a native of Tanzania, Africa. While a high school student at a Christian boarding school in Tanzania, Elizabeth helped care for infants in a nearby hospital. These babies were either left at the hospital after birth are brought there as by parents who were unable to care for them.

The number of babies being taken to the hospital was so overwhelming that the facility could only provide care for them until the age of three or four. After that, the children were given back their parents or relatives—relatives who themselves were often in poverty and near starvation.

Tragically, most of the infants died soon after being released to their families. Elizabeth was a witness to this horror.

God placed a burden for these children on Elizabeth’s heart. She decided to do her utmost to establish a permanent orphanage in Tanzania for abandoned and orphaned babies.

Elizabeth came to America in 1964 to further her education. She received her BA degree from San Francisco State University in California. She became a teacher and later married. She and her husband moved to Marysville, California where she opened a dress shop while her husband became a professor at Yuba Community College.

Samaritan Village Begins

Elizabeth often shared her story, but it wasn't until she shared it with a group of Christians in Yuba City, California in the early 1990's, that something was done to rescue these children. Thanks to the prayers and dedication of that small group of volunteers and another like-minded group of Believers in Arusha Tanzania, Samaritan Village Orphanage was created in 1992 and began caring for children in the year 2000.

Our Mission

Samaritan Village exists for the purpose of implementing the Great Commission of Jesus Christ to go into all the world and preach the gospel, by providing physical, mental and spiritual care for abandoned, orphaned and trafficked children in Tanzania, Africa.

Our Vision

Samaritan Village is a private, non-profit organization in the US (501c3) and a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in Tanzania. The orphanage was established and continues to be overseen by volunteers with the ongoing purpose of developing, expanding and maintaining a Christian orphanage to care for abandoned, orphaned and trafficked children.

Our Goal

We work in Tanzania to reduce the number of abandoned children as well as the deaths of children that can result from their abandonment. We do this by providing care for children whose parents have either died or abandoned them and who have no relatives responsible for their care or children who have been rescued from human trafficking.

Our primary goal is to find a family to adopt the our children. For those children who are not adopted, Samaritan Village provides a safe and stable Christian home environment with lots of mamas and care givers, even more brothers and sisters and a father named Josephat (Our Director).

Samaritan Village Today

Since its beginning in a small house in Arusha Tanzania, Samaritan Village has rescued over three hundred children. Over two hundred of these children have been adopted by families from Tanzania and three other countries. Those children who have not been adopted grow up at Samaritan Village. Simply put, through the Grace of God, these once abandoned children now have a place they call home and a family they call their own—a place where they can receive healing for their past and hope for their future.

Today, Samaritan Village is growing and currently cares for more than 60 children in a permanent residence with a 24 hour staff to care for them. The orphanage provides each child with nutritious food, clothing, health care and a Christian education all in a warm and loving Christian environment. Samaritan Village has its own newly remodeled chapel for daily worship that serves not only the children, but many members of the community as well.

In the fall of 2019 we opened a three story medical clinic and dormitory that serves many of the health needs of the children and the local community. The building also adds rooms for up to eighty more children. In addition, we have completed a new nursery that allows us to provide better care for babies brought to the orphanage with severe medical needs.

We also just completed a new preschool for our children and for the children in the surrounding community. The school will feature three classrooms for children 3-5 years of age. The school will open in January 2025.

In addition, we added two green houses to our farmland, a new pig house, a new cow barn/chicken coup (housing 500 laying chickens and 500 "broilers") and a new storage building. Our new office/meeting building was completed in 2022. Our new Football (Soccer) field was opened in 2023.

Our Future

Samaritan Village is continuing to expand in order to rescue more children and meet the diverse needs of the those in the surrounding community. We are currently planning to build a 50 bed hospital to replace our current medical clinic. That will make the current building, where the medical clinic occupies the bottom floor, into a three story dorm for the older children. This building alone will provide rooms for over 100 children.