village to the BJ school to learn to read and write, and later joined the bibi program.

4/06 We bought him a hand-pedaled bike, which Juma uses to travel some 25 miles on weekends to sell his boats. Read article.

daughter. Both adults find occasional manual labor (such as sorting grains) at the "go down" (place where people assemble in hope of being picked up for day work). Days they don't find work, they don't eat. Her remaining 5 children are also unemployed and depend on her, along with their combined six children.

Zaini is a chubby, serious girl who likes math, drawing and playing ball. Following the "Aim high" motto on the logo of her school shirt, Zaina hopes to become a doctor or nurse. She seems very sad. Their home is one room, with a window, double bed, couch, coffee table, chest, and a battery-operated clock. They cook outdoors. Fatuma "prays to God to get whatever help God blesses me with."

Salma Mnogwe, 50, Kurusini
Married
Number of Grandchildren:9
1. Suedi Haruna, 12
2. Amiri Said, 12
3. Hamad Haruna, 9
4. Salma Abdallah, 9
5. Kalindo Said, 9
6. Hamis Said, 8
7. Sada Hamis, 6
8. Ibrahim Abdallah, 6
9. Asia Abdallah, 4

Amina owns her her 5-room house, where 8 people live only half the wooden furniture has cushions. No one is employed. Naima is a quiet girl who sis cautiously next to this "mzungo" (white), comparing skin tones. She knows other neighborhood children go to BJ school and wants to go, too. She likes dolls. Fatuma invited her to begin the next day, even without a sponsor. Amina says through a translator: "I give thanks for someone send her to school; school is good. I be happy have a friend."

Pub" in their yard. There is little left for school fees ($250 yearly x 2). Their large living room serves as a storage room, with some furniture, crates of empty bottles, stack of plastic chairs, fridge which doesn't seem to work and whirling ceiling fan.

Sage hopes to become a journalist, while Habiba wants to be a doctor. Their little brother would like to go to BJ school as his friends do. Bibi Tabu wears someone's cast-off University of Hawaii t-shirt. She is happy her husband works, but they can't manage all the school fees.

Salma is actually her two charges' aunt, taking over in late 06 for her older, nearly-blind sister, Sofia. Sofia lost both her daughters to AIDS at ages 20 and 30 in 1994 and 1998. She returned to her village, bought a cassava farm with the help of a sponsor, and sends money to her sister for the two boys' care. That was a huge step forward for the family, which formerly depended on handouts.

Salma is happy to be "mothering" again, and sells food near the local school. She makes mats and food covers in the bibi group and enjoys the friends she's made there. Salma and the boys live in one rented room. A formerly unmotivated student, Mohamed now happily attends and plans to become a taxi driver.

Mkulu isn't capable of caring for the children alone, so lives with her daughter and family (daughter Amina attends bibi group in her stead). As son-in-law Mohamed Likolo, 42, says in English, "She weak in legs, her hands can't catch anything. Every day like you see, stay like that, lose the memory."

The household of five rooms includes 12 people, with Mohamed's old parents, too. Bibi Mwana was already living with her daughter and son-in-law, when Mwanache died. The couple took the two orphans in, too. The family's large living room is ringed with chairs and two wooden sofas shoved against the walls, which are decorated with two calendars and woven items gaily painted by Amina. Admire them and she disappears into a curtained-off bedroom and returns with a woven fan and food cover as gifts.

Mohamed is a driver, renting others' cabs and dreaming of one day buying his own. In the meantime, he struggles to send seven children to school. He obtains government loans, repaying them "slowly, slowly, slowly." Bibi Mwana sits nodding.

Bibi Hatarini's large, rented room sits in a thief-pocked, poor suburb of Dar. Two windows - protected by cyclone wire fencing and wooden shutters admit a little light; magazine pictures of celebrities and sports stars brighten a wall. Four double beds fill the room, along with a rainbow of plastic buckets - orange, red, green, yellow - hold the family's store of clothes, water and food.

Welcome to the home of a future president of Tanzania.

Zuberi at 10 is Hatarini's oldest grandson. Four are orphaned, while the mother of the other two have simply vanished - probably into prostitution and/or drug addiction.While other children in the village aspire to become cab drivers but will probably wind up as something far less honorable, this straight, proud boy announces in English, "I will be president. I will send all people to school." His face is determined above the ragged blue polo shirt celebrating the Minnesota Twins.

Each morning, Bibi Hatarini sells cassava - a root staple - to bring money for her large family. She is a comfy, mother-hug of a woman with an orange and black bandana covering her hair. Lovely in white and lavender kangas wrapped about her waist and draped over her head, Tatu has finished 7th grade. The girl longs for more education, but there is no money for school fees and uniform. She especially likes math, and would like to become a secretary. In spring 2006, she gave birth prematurely after a difficult pregnancy; the baby lived only a couple hours.

This grandmother says of a potential sponsor: "Thank you for her or him. I want money to save my grandchildren because I don't have any income. Thank you for coming here."

3/07 Family moved into the BJ house after becoming homeless.

Number of Children: three dead of AIDS 1998, 2000, 2005

Hawa lives in one small room. She works as housekeeper to nearby traditional dr., who is also her landlord. She was suffering from malaria when I visited, yet forced herself to go to work. She is a member of the Bibi Jann Women’s Group, cooking and making crafts. Eric and Jann send Abdu and Safinia to BJ preschool since 2003, buy medicine and give them money occasionally. Life is hard for her, and she seems depressed. The oldest girl appears retarded.

4/05 We bought her a sewing machine to start a business. Landlord has promised larger quarters. Abdu’s scabied left hand was treated and seemed better.

1/06 This bibi and grandchildren moved into their own 4-room home built by a sponsor who who asked all her friends to help! They raised over $3000!

2/07 Third room newly finished, herd of ducks for sale to restaurants occupy 4th (unfinished) room.

3/07 Zainabu marries and moves out

"My name is …," say the three little boys politely in English as they shake hands. The clothes they wear are their only possessions. They are obviously hungry. With their grandmother Miramu, they've ridden a dilapidated jitney and walked several miles to wait all day in the hopes an interview will secure someone to help. Bibi Miramu wears a black scarf over her head. It matches her skirt, topped by a bright pink blouse. She isn't working because she is often ill. She and the boys rent one room, and she can't afford to school the oldest grandson, or to buy shoes and school uniforms.

Through a translator, she matter-of-factly states her case: "I need school fees. I am sick with AIDS and need medicine. I need food and clothes for the children. That is the only clothes they have. When I die, there is no one to help. I go to my brother for money for food. He said, 'I don't want to see you because you have AIDS. If you come here I will kill you.'"

The three little boys' faces brighten only when they are invited to eat.

The family moved into the BJ House, March 2007, after becoming homeless.

died at 34 and 41, one daughter at 18. Two sons, 18 and 40, live together and help their mother.

Bibi Doris is a determined woman with a bottom front tooth missing. She makes mats for sale, and savors the prospect of doing that with other grandmothers in the group. She also hopes to raise chickens. She owns her own house, where the livingroom is furnished with two couches, four chairs, a table and refrigerator. A fruit motif hanging, FEEL AT HOME, welcomes visitors.

She manages to keep the children in school through loans, obtained using her home as collateral. "But I don't have anything for food, school fees or clothes for the children," she worries. The oldest granddaughter, Doris, says, "I like to study hard and want to become a doctor." Her bibi says, "Tell my friends I need money for business to save life of the kids." Gratefully, she grabs at a proffered$10 bill with repeated thanks.

Saturdays making crafts with the other bibis. Their two rooms are mostly bare, with just two beds, two chairs, a TV and jugs of water. She assumed care of the three older children after her elderly roommate, Asia, died 9/06.

at a primary school. "I want a friend to know all my problems: food, school fees, clothes and shoes. I don't have anything!" She and the four grandchildren live in one rented room with two beds. All the children do well in school.

Fatuma makes and sells sambosas and vimbua (a sort of filled dumpling) for sale in the village. She cooks bending over a jiku, a tiny, three-legged charcoal stove outside the doorway. A 4-year-old visiting granddaughter watches, her ragged dress's pattern nearly invisible with washing. "You see me - I don't have anything!" Fatuma says simply. Even before official enrollment, she has been coming to the bibi group and weaving mats to sell while she awaits a sponsor who might help. She worries about little Issa, whose ear has been running for two years and seems to have damaged his hearing.

grandchildren to school.

Like the other bibis, money is scarce for food, school fees and children's clothes. But she's been coming to the school every Saturday to make table mats and is learning to create batiks.
"I feel happy because the group change my ideas from other bibis. Now I know how to make batik - before I didn't know," Mwanaidi says through a translator. She is the youngest grandmother in our program; her daughter gave birth at 15.

"Tell my friend I have problems: a young child who needs care. I don't have relatives to save me. I need money to start a business like cooking." She enjoys coming to the bibi group and weaving mats. She's willing to work and reasons that she "can learn more in group."

MWAJUMA MOHAMED NJOPEKA, 65, Temeke
Husband dead
Number of Grandchildren: 1
1.F Suwazuri, 14, 7th grade

Number of Children: six children, 4 have died of AIDS.

Bibi Mwajuma is colourful in a red, white and black kanga over her head. She and her granddaughter live in two rooms rented from the government. She has bad knees and it's hard for her to walk, and thus does not work. She gets some help from her two remaining children, and her granddaughter likes school. This bibi likes weaving mats at the Saturday bibi meetings.

Bibi Amina, her husband and the grand-children are living with relatives. She wears a tan and brown kanga, and crochets an olive green doily and she talks. She enjoys working during the bibi meetings, turning out the doilies so prevalent here on sofa and chair backs in homes which have furniture.

RAHMA KIHEDU, 43, Kizinga
Husband, who works in a small shop
Number of Grandchildren: 3
1, F Juliana Aseli, 12, 5th grade
2, M Sefu Aseli, 6
3. F Nasra Aseli, 10, 4th grade

Number of Children: four, but 2 have died.

Bibi Rahma runs a business renting out kangas, the colourful skirt-and-shawl combinations which cost only $3 to buy new - so her customers are poor indeed. She enjoys helping the other bibis make batiks, and proudly says she do any work asked of her.

HADIJA SELEMANI, 55, Mbagala
Divorced
Number of Grandchildren: 5
1. F Hadija Abdala, 14, 7th grade.
2. F Sina Abdala, 13, 7th grade
3. M Hasani Abdala, 11, 4th grade
4. M Bakari Abdala, 6
5. F Tatu Rashidi, 12, 4th grade

Number of Children: six, but 4 have died.

When I ask about her children, Bibi Hadija breaks down into tears. I hold her, and soon I'm crying too. Not only is she deep
in grief, but she and the grandchildren have no place to live. She's trying to keep the kids in school, but needs school fees and uniforms. She enjoys making batiks with the other bibis. Moved into BJ House March 2007.

needed, they were thrown out and now sleep "anyway, everywhere - even in a bar!" she says through a translator. She likes making batiks in the group.¨ Moved into BJ House March 2007.

AZIZA SALUMU, 56, Mbagala
Long divorced

# Grandchildren: 1
1. F Kuruthumu Salumu, 14, 5th grade

Priority level: *
# Children: 12, but 10 dead of AIDS

Bibi Aziza owns her own 2-room house and sells fish at the ferry landing - good business if she can get the capital to buy fish to sell. She knows how to weave and is confident she can work well with the other bibis.