please visit: alicefasionworld.blogspot.com for more info on the event.
ALICE Dosi Mwamsojo is a
woman with a vision, a
mission and compassion for Tanzanian
souls. Her dream is to help the poor and people without hope for a better future.
The 30-year old
lady is the brain behind Alice
Foundation, a non-government organization
with an overall objective of improving social and
economic advancement of street children in Tanzania, by
increasing
access to education. The foundation has also
the task to cater for maternal
matters, newborns health and
sexual reproductive health services related to HIV
and AIDS. "Alice Foundation is not here to compete but to work with
other NGOs that serve the interests of
women and children.
The Foundation
has a
strategic plan to make
significant contributions to Tanzanian
women and their families through working closely with the
government and donors," Ms Mwamsojo explains. At
first, the foundation targeted street children. However, with other
board members, she changed their mind.
Alice, who lives and runs her
business and her foundation in Ubungo, says she grew up with sympathy for street children she saw.
"Our foundation
started with Ubungo ward because the
area is filled with street
children, I think it's due to Ubungo Terminal Bus Station. I got a
thought that if I wanted to make a
change for the poor souls, I should
start
at home," she says. It all started late
2010, Alice, a social
worker graduate
and a former sales and
market manager, Ms
Mwamsojo left her job at the Syscorp,
and opened her Alice Fashion World boutique where she sells and rent wedding dresses, maid of honour/maids dresses
and caters for wedding and provide a
rental car services.
"My boutique is a
place where a bride would want to be. We provide all sorts of services," she explains. Within one year, her business boomed. Despite the little
profit she earned, she decided to give
back to the community. "I have been a
volunteer for long. So when my business became successful I thought more about a
better way to give to the community
than start my own foundation."
The foundation
was established in 2011, has 10 members
and seven volunteers. The organization
operates through four main programmes namely: MKUKUTA
(National Poverty Reduction Framework), Women Empowerment, Health and
Environment and Educating street children. "We have different projects such as the women empowerment program which has 28 groups of different women.
We also pay school fees for 11 children, and in a
week we do a visitation to 276 children, who are
underprivileged," The foundation
isn't a year old yet, but has done a
lot without a sponsor. "We don't
have a
sponsor. Sources of revenue for Alice
Foundation come from a small
stationery station where we provide services like 3-minutes
express passport size photographs, photocopy
and scanning.
These have helped
us to run the office, get lunch money, transportation fee
and manage
administrative cost." A mother, a
wife and a businesswoman, Alice
is still trying to master her time.
She says some day she will be the best chairperson of
Alice Foundation.
"I spend a lot of
time working as the Managing
Director of Alice Fashion World, a
chairperson of Alice Foundation
and a designer. Being a blogger, a
wife and a mother is not easy because there
are times I stay off work to have time with my husband and my
baby," she confesses.
Alice's vision is
to increase the number of economically empowered women, progressive communities
with well educated children free from
ignorance, disease and
poverty. It looks like her mission is giving her that. On March 8, this year the Alice
Foundation launched a
campaign to stop violence against
women. The guest of honor was Ubungo
Member of Parliament John Mnyika.
Alice says,
apart from funds, the only challenge they face is a
lack of commodious office. They
need a bigger office, office tools
such as a
computer for storing their data. The future is bright for Alice Foundation. In the near future Alice
says they are thinking of opening a bank to
give women security with their money, and
where they get a quick loan, a
children's campaign that
will help raise awareness
on HIV/AIDS in an earlier stage.
Her message to
people is: "People who search for happiness think that money
and fame will make their life perfect, that is not true
at all. You have to be thankful for everything you know and own. Just remind yourself that someone in the world has never even had the privilege you have.
"There is somebody
always better than you
and always somebody less fortunate than
you. Until you find a middle ground and
accept what you have, you will not have happiness. Together we can eradicate
poverty in our nation. Together we can do this".