About us

Angela Zimmermann, Founder and visionary behind HOPE & WONDER

What are important milestones on the way to the project?
That's a difficult question and there have certainly been a few events in my life that have shaped me and thus also influenced me to start the project.
An important point is certainly my childhood and how I grew up. I grew up as the eldest of 6 children in a large family and have two foster siblings, both of whom are disabled. They shaped me a lot and taught me a lot.
Another reason is my first big trip to the Philippines in 2011 to visit my great aunt. She was a nun and worked in the mission. We were on one of the islands in the mountains with the local residents ("mangyanen"). They live without electricity and running water and I was able to get an insight into the very simple life - some of the families only have a bamboo hut and in the hut there is a pot, the parents each have a knife and the woman a large basket. Each family member has one more item of clothing - that was all they owned. This trip moved me a lot and sparked the "travel fever" in me. Since this trip I wanted to do more and help out in different projects in different countries for about 4 weeks during my summer holidays: In 2012 I spent four weeks in a Maasai village in Kenya and taught and trained the teachers there; in 2013 was I was in India, Calcutta, in a slum school and helped there; in 2014 I was in Rwanda in a school for the disabled.
There were a lot of exciting things to experience and learn in all of these projects, and I thought about doing something like this for a longer period of time or even starting my own project.
But I didn't trust myself to take this big step and I didn't know where and what a "sensible project" would even be. How could I help as many people as possible and do something meaningful? How do you start something like this? So, I decided to look for a project where I could spend a whole year and thus have time to gain more insight and find out if it's really something for me. Because being in a project for only four weeks is too short and you only get superficial knowledge.
I took a year of unpaid leave, looked for a project and ended up in a children's home for disabled children in Tanzania. The children's home is run by a small German association and was reopened shortly after my arrival. I was the in charge for a year and ran the day-to-day operations.
During this time, I was able to learn an incredible amount and gain a lot of experience. Unfortunately, it wasn't all positive as we were mugged four times in the night, and I was robbed and beaten. My stay there was not always easy and after this year the thought and dream of my own project was gone and I definitely couldn't imagine starting something of my own.

How did it come about that you started the project despite these negative experiences?
In the children's home I grew very fond of a girl, Neema. Back in everyday life, I missed her very much and wanted to have her with me and tried to adopt her. Unfortunately, that's not so easy and I had to give up this plan.
In February 2018, during a church congregation conference, I had the feeling that God had commissioned me to start a project after all. I liked the idea of starting a very small project, very manageable with only 6-8 children and therefore little staff and management effort, and I suddenly believed I could do it.

Why did you build a home for disabled children?

There are several reasons why I open a home for disabled children. For one thing, disabled children are the weakest link. Superstition is still widespread in Tanzania. Families that have a disabled child are considered cursed. They are often excluded from the family or from the village. To avoid this, many families abandon a disabled child or hide them from the public (there are always frightening stories of children being kept in chicken coops or in a hole in the ground with bars over them, or if they are "lucky" they are hidden in a room, but never see the light of day and never come out).
Another reason why disabled children are abandoned is that poverty is very high and all family members (both parents, often the children as well) have to contribute to the livelihood. That's the only way they can survive. Now, if there is a disabled child in the family, someone needs to take care of the child, care for it, feed it, etc. However, this again means that there are two family members (the disabled child and someone who takes care of the child/the mother) who cannot contribute to the livelihood and thus the family slips even further into poverty.
Abandoned disabled children are usually taken to the hospital first (because of their poor health). There they try to place them in a children's home. However, there are hardly any homes for disabled people in Tanzania. And "normal" children's homes often don't want to take in disabled children. And if they are admitted to such a children's home they perish there. One caregiver is often responsible for up to 50 children and the children all live in one room. The food is often just placed by the bed of each child so that whoever does not manage to eat and take care of themselves simply dies at some point...
Therefore, the need for better conditions for disabled children is certainly the greatest.
My job and expertise as a special needs teacher are important reasons. I can pass on my knowledge here, exemplify how to deal with disabled children and try to support the children in the best possible way.

What challenges did you face when founding the children's home?  
There are many challenges, still almost every day. After the idea of really starting and founding a children's home, a lot of hurdles had to be overcome. As a foreigner, I have no chance in Tanzania without the help of the locals. So first I had to find local people willing to start such a project with me. It is difficult to find people in Africa who you can trust, who are serious and not just after your money.
After I found some good employees, we had to find a property. That was also difficult, because whenever I showed up and they saw me as a white person, the property prices suddenly doubled. Even if I wasn't present at the official viewing appointments but later looked at the plots on my own, some neighbour would always rat me out and so we were unable to get many of the plots of land available to us.
In order to officially work in Africa, we had to set up an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization). As a foreigner, I'm not officially allowed to be a member there either and it was also very difficult to get the license for it. The bureaucracy, the corruption and the different lifestyle made me almost despair at times.
Once we had a plot of land and the NGO license, construction began. In Tanzania, almost everyone builds just like that, without a building permit. The danger that someone from the office will come and there will be problems, especially when they see that a "white woman" there, is very high and that's why we had to obtain an official building permit. That also turned out to be very difficult. When we finally had a building permit, we could start building, but there are no architects or construction managers/companies who build houses. We had to find every construction worker, negotiate the price with them and monitor that they were working every day and progressing.
Since I was still working full-time in Switzerland and was only in Tanzania during the holidays, it was very difficult to balance the two worlds. Every day someone had to go to the construction site and send me pictures. I tried to review, negotiate and correct from here. It was not always easy and a lot went wrong.
The culture, working methods and way of thinking is simply very different in Tanzania than in Europe. Punctuality, cleanliness, orderliness, accuracy - to name just a few generic terms - are interpreted very differently there. Some examples: "If I don't come today, I might come tomorrow - or not", "Meeting scheduled for 10 a.m., the first ones appear at 3 p.m., the rest only a day later" "Just measure by eye" "The material/money is yes not my own so I can be lavish with them” “White = very rich/millionaire”

What are your long-term plans/visions for your project?
My long-term goal is to be able to educate families about disabilities and give them tips and advice on how to support a disabled child. I want to show them that every child can make progress and is capable of learning and that it is worth giving children love, care and encouragement. I want to become a centre for advice and support around disability. As a white person, simply coming to a foreign country and giving advice is very difficult and is usually not accepted. That's why I want the children’s home to be an example and a place to go. Families and those interested can come by and see how we deal with the children in the children's home; how we support them; and what progress they can make through support. Thus, we can help other affected people.

There are no schools for the severely disabled. There are a few schools for the mildly disabled in the country. But they are very expensive (only very rich families can afford them) and it is a condition for enrolment that the children can move independently, wash themselves and feed themselves.
This, in turn, means that hardly any disabled child goes to school and the parents receive no other support. So as a parent you are on your own 24/7. That is exhausting.

Rahel Actor, Member of the board of the association HOPE & WONDER Switzerland

Veronica Oberholzer, Member of the board of the association HOPE & WONDER Switzerland

Michaela Germann, Vorstandsmitglied Verein HOPE & WONDER Schweiz

Melissa, Vorstand Verein HOPE & WONDER Deutschland e.V.

Christin, Vereinsmitglied HOPE & WONDER Deutschland e.V. und Patenschaftsverantwortliche