Who are we ?

Our legal structures

BKF/ LEBAO’S KIDS has two entities, one in France, BKF/ LEBAO’S KIDS ASSOCIATION, and the other in Tanzania, BKF/ LEBAO’S KIDS FOUNDATION.

In order to support the humanitarian actions carried out in Tanzania by LEBAO’S KIDS FOUNDATION, an international partnership agreement has been set up with LEBAO’S KIDS ASSOCIATION in France.

  • BKF/ LEBAO’S KIDS FOUNDATION is a nationally accredited NGO registered in Iringa, Tanzania in order to be as close as possible to the needs and expectations of the people concerned. The entity was incorporated as a foundation under Tanzanian law on 20 August 2020.
    The two co-founders and co-directors are Catherine Fiaud-Bourroux, French, and Theophil Myinga, Tanzanian. Together, they have the right and obligation to control and approve all financial transactions made by the NGO, which currently relies exclusively on private funds for its operations.

Its co-founders made the deliberate choice to register in Tanzania to avoid the ethnocentric vision of a French NGO in which the social and cultural outlook would be far from local values.

The NGO’s goals are defined broadly in its bylaws, in order not to restrict its operational scope :

– To become the principal organisation for the promotion of orphans’ and vulnerable children’s quality of life, and to give female farmers the means to ensure familial stability in the country (Article 7).

– To promote the general well-being of orphans and vulnerable children by helping the families and community members involved in responding to the children’s fundamental needs regarding care, healthcare, and education, and to give women the means to conduct their farming activities to ensure family stability (Article 8).

– To promote the orphans’ educational needs, quality education in general, and local farmers’ activities (Article 9).

  • BKF/ LEBAO’S KIDS ASSOCIATION is a French association whose president is Catherine Fiaud-Bourroux.

– The association’s purpose is to develop, organize and support educational and humanitarian activities of general interest, possibly accompanied by development actions, in order to fight against all forms of extreme poverty, distress and misery of which orphans, disabled people, children and women in France and abroad are victims. As an extension of its humanitarian and educational actions, the association will carry out activities contributing to the protection of the natural environment.

Map of Africa
Map of Tanzania : Iringa

Our actions in the Iringa district

BKF/ LEBAO’S KIDS FOUNDATION is active in the Iringa district. The Iringa region is a region in southern Tanzania with an area of 35,503 km². It comprises mainly highland areas around the town of Iringa, its administrative capital.

Source : National Bureau of Statistics, 2013

Creation of a therapeutic centre in Iringa

It welcomes and takes care of up to 40 physically and mentally handicapped children aged between 0 and 16 years old and living in the Iringa district. BKF provides them with educational and rehabilitative support from a team of professionals consisting of a director, a doctor in charge of the Iringa hospital, 2 educators and a rehabilitator. This support is provided within the framework of an individualised care project for all the children followed and aims to carry out medical diagnoses, to maintain and stimulate their physical and mental capacities, to socially integrate them and to provide overall psychological and social support for their well-being.

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Acquisition of agricultural land in Iringa

In this traditionally agricultural area, BKF has acquired 10 plots of farmland totalling 10 acres, or 4 hectares of working land, in the Kalenga area of the Iringa rural district. A team of permanent farm workers work on the land, which is planted with banana and taro (a root related to the sweet potato). BKF's farming practice is mainly ecological through the use of liquid manure and we hope to obtain the BIO label in the future. The farming team has received training in ecological farming practices to complement their know-how.

BKF has also acquired 22 acres of land, 9 hectares in the area, for avocado cultivation and other farming methods are being developed.

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Fish ponds in Iringa

In addition, BKF is dedicating four ponds to the practice of fish farming dedicated to the breeding of catfish and tilapia, fish that are very popular with Tanzanians.

BKF is developing a virtuous system: the income from the sale of all its products will be used to cover part of its operating expenses and to meet its support missions to the target populations. This is the objective of this self-supporting that we hope to carry out in the coming years in order to avoid an overly restrictive and uncertain dependence on foreign aid and financial participation.

Finally, BKF is training young women students in agriculture and recruiting them to enable them to acquire the skills and means of subsistence necessary to look after their family situation without depending on a third party.

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Support to orphanages in the district

The orphanages only receive occasional and random support from the surrounding population to ensure their livelihoods and are therefore in a very critical situation.
BKF has intervened in two orphanages in the district, located in Malendi and Migoli, and supports them by purchasing basic necessities, i.e. food, sanitary products and other essential items, every two months on average. BKF plans to partly finance equipment (furniture) and the renovation of dilapidated premises. The NGO plans to equip an orphanage with a water tank and a water pump as there is no running water (an engineer has carried out a study).

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Specific actions

BKF intervenes on an ad hoc basis in order to provide essential support for the survival of an individual or a community. The NGO has carried out the following actions:
Acquisition of an industrial maize flour mill for the village community of Malendi in order to provide them with more means of subsistence.
Construction of a house for one of its farm workers who was living in an unhealthy habitat.

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Our projects

Within the framework of the virtuous system of self-financing :

  • Establishment of 500 beehives for production for the benefit of the NGO as well as training in beekeeping.
  • Planting of avocado trees.

Creation of a specialised educational structure in conjunction with the Therapeutic Centre to provide schooling for disabled children.

Bringing water to the Migoli orphanage.

Our needs

BKF needs to diversify its financial contributions because the foundation will not be recognised as being of public utility in Tanzania for another three years.

In France, as in Tanzania, applications for grants from private or public bodies are generally not examined before this same three-year period.

While waiting for the agricultural revenues to generate profits, BKF plans to set up publicity and marketing operations to identify financial partners. A video presentation has been produced.

Our operation includes the following values in its ethical charter :

  • Integrity in the use of funds and actions carried out.
  • Accountability to donors and government bodies for the use of funds and actions undertaken.
  • Limiting operating expenses and favouring direct action (material, services).

It is therefore imperative that we now find diversified and sufficient means of subsistence to maintain BKF's activity and develop its projects.