Mission

We work to empower rural communities to end extreme poverty through promoting sustainable access to quality education, healthcare, water and promoting livelihoods in partnerships with community members, local governments, development partners and private sector.

Category

Poverty Alleviation

Additional Information

Our History The history of the Foundation for African Empowerment (FAE) traces back to the village of Makiba. In 1997, prior to joining university, Samwel Onesmo Mfanga noted problems facing smallholder farmers at his home village of Makiba in Arusha, Tanzania. As a volunteer, through the use of participatory approach, he successful organized farmers into a network popularly known as Traditional Farmers Group and coordinated their collaboration with the Center for International Tropical Agriculture and other stakeholders on beans research and production. In the period between 2001 and 2009, Mfanga was involved in public policy-oriented socioeconomic research at the Economic and Social Research Foundation and later the Young Citizens empowerment program under the Harvard Medical School, Harvard University where he gained a firsthand experience on how empowerment of young people can bring about transformational change in a society. He also gained an intimate knowledge on the realities of empowering people for transformational and sustainable development in the most impoverished communities in Africa. His academic, professional and life experiences in Africa continue to inform and inspire him to dedicate his life on sustainable human development. In light of the widespread extreme poverty in rural communities and inadequate organizations empowering rural communities to actively and meaningful participate in eradicating extreme poverty and advancing sustainable development  in Tanzania, in March 2016, Mfanga founded FAE. He firmly believes that empowerment and genuine involvement of rural communities especially the most poor and vulnerable is crucial towards ending extreme poverty in our society in all its forms by 2030. Furthermore, Mfanga recognizes that ending extreme poverty in rural communities is complex and challenging. He is convinced that attaining the goal requires fostering and promoting effective collaborative partnerships between multiple partners including the extreme poor themselves, private sector, local governments and development partners. He views empowerment and access to social services not only as human rights but also as the key instruments that will lead to positive sustainable development outcomes to the impoverished rural communities in Tanzania.    Our Purpose The Foundation for African Empowerment (FAE) is a not-for-profit sustainable human development  organization working  to end extreme poverty in rural communities. It was registered in Tanzania in March 2016 through number 00NGO/08468. Since there are considerable number of people living in extreme poverty in rural areas in Tanzania, and since extreme poverty is a violation of fundamental human rights and since extreme poverty is not inevitable, the purpose of FAE is to eliminate extreme poverty in rural communities so as to build a more inclusive, prosperous, secure, just, equitable and sustainable developed communities.  Our  Core ValuesCore values that underpin our organizational culture, our employees’ behaviour and the conduct of our activities are:- Transformational Change: We strive to bring about sustainable fundamental changes by engaging targeted constituents and other diverse stakeholders in our interventions. Respect & Humility: We listen and treat with due regard expertise, experiences and perspectives of the poor people, partners and other stakeholders and we recognize our own limitations. Accountability: We accept to be questioned to explain our actions and decisions. Transparency: We are explicit and honest regarding the reasons behind our actions and decisions. Integrity: We are more in the quality of being honest and having moral principles. Operational Excellence: We strive to develop and become the leaders necessary to achieve higher standards of operations and impacts. What makes us different? We are focused on sustainable changes at grassroots level. We spend less money on administrative expenses and more on projects. We work with multiple actors including  most poor and vulnerable people to find sustainable solutions to drive out extreme poverty.