Your Alumni

Providing hope in Tanzania

Organization gives shelter, education and health care to orphans

By Matthew Fox

Sharon Mkisi, BSW’90, performs an important role as a senior health-care manager with the Calgary Health Region, overseeing pediatric home-care services throughout the city. But to dozens of children half a world away in Tanzania, she personifies love, hope and support.

Mkisi brings these elements to orphans and children living in poverty through the organization she co-founded, Baraka Community Care Connections. Established in 2003, Baraka provides shelter, an education and access to health care for 140 children.

“We’ve built two schools—Baraka Nursery School and Glory Nursery School—for orphans and children from very poor living situations,” says Mkisi. “I believe they should have the same chance in life to receive an education and to develop their potential in a way that is meaningful for them and so they can contribute to society.”

In 1999, Mkisi took a three-year volunteer position with the Mennonite Central Committee in East Africa and fell in love with the people and beauty of Tanzania. She met and married James Mkisi and together they launched Baraka, meaning “God’s blessings” in Swahili. James continues to spend much of his time in Tanzania overseeing daily operations.

While their organization is not yet a registered Canadian charity—the Mary A. Tidlund Charitable Foundation partners with Baraka to offer tax receipts until it has official status—Calgarians have been very supportive financially, Mkisi says. Its low overhead costs allow more dollars to go directly to the Tanzanian people and benefit them in very practical ways. For instance, new leather shoes were purchased for each child last Christmas.

Mkisi aspires to expand Baraka’s portfolio in Tanzania. “I would like to offer a microfinance program so that women can develop their own businesses to support their families and contribute to their communities.”

he modest Mkisi credits others around her for Baraka’s significant impact in its brief existence. “I am proud that it is not through my single efforts but rather that individuals [in Calgary] who want to make a difference for people in Africa are able to do so.”

For more information, Mkisi can be reached at 710-8172 or sharonmkisi@yahoo.com.