SCAW BLOG: TANZANIA, 2026: August 14

Team Tanzania 2026: Family, Friendship and Community

For two unforgettable weeks in Dar es Salaam, Team Tanzania 2026 experienced far more than a 10-day distribution. We became part of a community, built friendships, shared countless smiles and witnessed the extraordinary power of family working together to give back.

Over 10 days, we visited 10 schools and provided 700 children each day with a bedkit—7,000 children in total. Every child received a knapsack, school uniform (blue skirt or pants and white t-shirt), T-shirt, flip-flops, mattress, sheet, mosquito net, notebooks, pens and pencils, and a colourful kanga, a traditional piece of Tanzanian cloth that can be used in so many ways: as a towel, a baby carrier, a decorative wrap and much more.

Each morning, before the distribution began, we spoke with mothers and fathers about the importance of a good night's sleep and showed them what their children would be receiving. For many of the children, the flip-flops were especially meaningful; some arrived at school barefoot.

Although our days started early, the energy and enthusiasm of the children inspired us every step of the way. And each school brought us into a different local community, giving us a glimpse into everyday life in Tanzania that few visitors ever experience.

Our time in Tanzania was also about family.

We were privileged to visit Mama Wandoa and her family on their farm outside Dar es Salaam and attend her church, where we were treated to an incredible choir. We met her three children, Benjamin, Wendy and Eunice, who help lead the work as Sleeping Children Around the World's overseas partners in Tanzania, as well as some of her grandchildren, who are also involved on the ground.

The Wandoa family is incredibly close, generous and selfless. For more than two decades, they have given their time and energy to serving their community through Sleeping Children Around the World. At the heart of it all is the formidable matriarch, Mama Wandoa, a woman who is deeply respected throughout Tanzania. We were honoured to work alongside her family and to see firsthand how their commitment to others has become a family tradition passed from one generation to the next.

We also discovered that a distribution is built on friendship and partnership.

Our volunteers worked side by side with Mama Wandoa's family, local volunteers, charity UPENDO and our long-standing mattress partner, Unoplast. Not everyone spoke English, and the few Swahili words we knew were certainly not enough to carry a conversation. But somehow, communication happened. A smile, a gesture, a shared laugh or simply working together was enough.

We were one team.

The Dream Team, Tanzania 2026

Everyone understood why we were there: to give 7,000 children something as simple - and as important - as a safe, comfortable place to sleep. Better sleep can help prepare a child for another day of learning, playing and growing. We may never know what impact these mattresses and bedkits will have years from now. But perhaps that's the point. Big change often begins with small individual acts.

The experience also reminded us why travel with purpose can be so powerful. We didn't just see Tanzania through the eyes of a visitor. We met its people, visited homes and communities, shared meals and music, stood in schools and churches, and experienced the warmth, generosity and resilience of Tanzanian families.

We came to Tanzania to help children. We left feeling that Tanzania had given something to us, too.

The 2026 Team Tanzania experience was ultimately about family, friendship and community - the belief that we are all connected and that each of us can make a difference.

These small acts of kindness won't solve all of the world's problems. But they are an important reminder that kindness and goodness still exist in the world, and that there are people everywhere who believe in giving back.

If you want to travel with purpose, experience a country and its people beyond the sanitized tourist version, and make a meaningful contribution to children and communities around the world, consider travelling with Sleeping Children Around the World.

You may arrive thinking you're going to change a child's life.

You may leave realizing that the experience changed yours, too.

Team Tanzania, 2026

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