Child Support Tanzania provides early childhood education for children with disabilities in Mbeya , south-west Tanzania.
What do they do?
Child Support Tanzania (CST) has a disability inclusive education centre for early years children, it is the only centre of its kind within a 1000-mile radius and without it, the students it reaches would otherwise have no formal early educational opportunities. In the absence of quality state education for children with disabilities, CST offers a vital service to children and their families, whilst also aiming to bring about wider scale change through government advocacy and training of neighbouring primary schools.
CST also supports and empowers parents through its parent support groups and uses a Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) approach to mobilise individuals within the community to help them challenge the barriers faced by their children with disabilities.
Find out more about CST on their website
Visit SiteOur work together
CST has been a partner of Able Child and a locally registered NGO since 2008. With our support, CST has grown significantly over the past 10 years and now serves children with hearing and visual impairments, learning difficulties and physical challenges. Able Child guided CST through their registration process, establishing their governance procedures and supporting the development of their first five-year strategic plan (2013-2017), entitled ‘Children First’.
We have also facilitated financial management, leadership and governance training for CST’s senior management and key board members. Our organisational development support to CST has allowed them to look inward and focus on the development of internal structures that means CST can improve the services they offer to children and their families. In recent years, enrolment has increased, teachers, staff and trustees have received regular training and CST’s community outreach projects have expanded.
The financial capacity building from Able Child has brought CST to a new level. At the start of the journey, we were managing finances on paper. Now, we have electronic financial systems that we understand, and procedures in place to manage the financial risk of the organisation.
– Noelah Msuya, Director at CST
