Isaline and Carl-Philip from gemhype support "Partnership for Africa"

As we all know, gemstones do not grow on trees, but are treasures that the earth's crust keeps hidden, sometimes more, sometimes less. Being a start-up with an internationally active company in the background, we face our social responsibility in our partner countries with which we feel connected through the trade in gemstones. This is also the case in Tanzania: as a result of the prevailing HIV epidemic, a large number of fathers and mothers are still dying. They often leave behind infants, children and young people as orphans or half-orphans, often also (HIV-positive) mothers who are sickly, destitute and unskilled and are housed in inhumane living conditions. The "Partnership for Africa" association has set up a programme to combat these injustices, the recipe for which is education and comprehensive care - especially for orphans and half-orphans. We became aware of the organisation through a shared hobby of its initiator Friederike Heidenhof and Isaline Arnoldi. The two founders got talking while horse riding and gemhype have been actively supporting the organisation ever since. Carl-Phillip and Isaline Arnoldi embarked on a start-up partnership from 2021 to 2023. Two young adults were supported in setting up their own business. Rose Mkari, who was 26 at the time, founded her own shop with the help of a small amount of start-up capital. Her start-up still exists, but Rose has since moved on to new challenges while her mother continues to run the shop. Kenneth started a delivery service using a discarded sack truck from his friend Emmanuel. As a result of this initiative, Kenneth Nathai, who was 24 years old at the time, also received start-up capital from us for a three-wheel motorbike to expand his delivery service, which is still active today.

We are helping two orphans with a sponsorship

After the start-up partnership ended last year (2024), Carl-Philip and Isaline began sponsoring two children in need: brothers Japhet (left) and Pendaeli (right) from the Canaan orphanage.

Japhet is the eldest brother of three siblings and is now 16 years old. He is only in the second grade because he had no opportunity to attend school before he came to the Partnership for Africa centre. He is a fast learner and will therefore be able to catch up quite a bit. It is not uncommon in Tanzania to find older children in the lower classes.

Pendaeli is 6 years old and goes to pre-school, which he seems to enjoy very much. He loves joking around and making the others laugh. He is now taking on the role of big brother for the little ones, which he also really enjoys. He is proud when he can teach the children something at such a young age.

The siblings come from an impoverished family, Japhet's father died before he was born and Pendaeli's father ran away. His mother and all the children are HIV-positive and Pendaeli recently had tuberculosis, which he gladly overcame well. This means that in all probability he would not be alive if the children had not been taken in, even though there was actually no more room. In order to be able to continue to provide assistance in such emergency situations, the centre is to be expanded next year.

Thanks to regular updates from Friederike Heidenhof and her team, we receive encouraging news about our foster children: the three siblings were quite shy at first, but now - after over a year - they are almost unrecognisable: they laugh, play and sing with the others and don't look the least bit sickly. If everything continues to go well, they have a chance of leading a completely normal life.

The initiators of the association, Friederike Heidenhof and her husband Dr Günter Heidenhof, are personally on site at least twice a year to monitor the implementation of the project and the use of the donations. This February, they visited the children with their colleague Julia Eger. They reported that it was astonishing how quickly the children develop and grow up - all 16 children who were newly admitted to the Canaan orphanage have already settled in well in the two months and built up trust in their caretakers. Julia organised activity programmes such as craft afternoons, which are still popular even with the older children - this time the activities included painting key rings and lanterns. Any form of variety is welcome for the children! In addition to artistic activities, regular training sessions are also organised with the pupils on topics such as responsible use of social media.

Not all orphans are still in the orphanage. Those over the age of 18 usually have to leave the centre due to legal regulations. The organisation has found other safe accommodations for them. However, some of them also return to the orphanage as interns during their holidays.

Find out more about the 'Partnerschaft für Afrika e.V' here.