IOP (Ilula Orphan Program) Germany e.V.

About us

The IOP (Ilula Orphan Program) Germany is a registered association that was founded to promote the Ilula Orphan Program of the IOP Tanzania in Germany. The IOP Tanzania is in turn a non-profit organization in Tanzania in the Iringa region. It was in 1998 in the village of Ilula that this organization first offered help, which was the inspiration for the name. It was also founded in 1998 and the organization is officially registered with the Tanzanian ministry. The IOP registration number is SO. NO 12054 August 27, 2003.

Our goal
The goal of this non-profit organization is to help orphaned and endangered children from the Iringa region through various projects. This help is financed exclusively through donations and sponsorship programs.

The mission of IOP Tanzania is to educate the most vulnerable children, young adults and women in the areas of education, hygiene, life and life skills, with the aim of their living independently and in improved conditions. In addition to IOP Germany, there are 7 other foundations spread across 7 countries. Worldwide, all of them support IOP Tanzania with investments in training and various other IOP projects. In total, we now have about 900 students who are currently in the sponsorship program.

Topics
• School education: There are still many children who cannot go to school because their parents are too poor to pay the school fees. School education is the essential foundation, the key to living as a self-determined adult, away from poverty. We see this as our main task: to enable as many children as possible to make this educational change and thus take the first important step towards a better future. IOP Germany currently supports 99 children of different ages in various schools and we would like to increase this number much further. We know most of our sponsored children personally because we visit our project on site every year. We also support several families with food vouchers.
• Education fund: IOP Germany works with an education fund into which the donations flow. These donations can be made as a one-off or by standing order, starting from just 5 euros per month. We use this fund to finance the educational costs for our children. However, if someone would like to support their own sponsored child directly, this is of course also possible. The cost of educating a child is on average 700 euros per year. This also depends on which school the children attend. State schools are cheaper than private schools. However, the differences between the level of teaching, teaching materials and spatial conditions are enormous. If we can afford it, we prefer to send our children to private schools in order to ensure quality teaching.
• Donations: The flow of these donations, which we transfer to IOP Tanzania twice a year, is precisely traceable. The funds are managed in the “cloud” and are visible to all participating organizations. IOP Germany is the administrator of this cloud and can therefore help manage the funds. Thus we can see exactly how much money is going towards school uniforms, shoes, tuition costs, etc. All the money we receive goes entirely to Tanzania. The work we do here on site is voluntary, i.e. everyone who works for IOP in Germany does it for free.
• Chance for education: Our goal is to give as many children as possible a chance for education and thus a better future. With today's sponsorship money, we can unfortunately only support 99 children; we would love to help more and at least double the number of children who benefit. But we are dependent on further financial help for this. Help us to achieve this goal!

Projects:
• IOP Club of 1000: The IOP has launched the “Club of 1000” fundraising campaign to lower the threshold for a donation to a minimum of 5 euros per month. We are convinced that everyone can spare 5 euros per month, and thus 60 euros per year. With 1000 members who donate 5 euros per month (or more), we can finance an education for 30 to 40 children and thus give them a better future.
• Mamahaus: We have found a house for the young single mothers. We are so happy and grateful that we have finally been able to realize this project. We would like to thank our sponsor, the “Zevens Foundation”, from the bottom of our hearts, who made this project possible for us. The house we have rented is not far from the orphanage. It is a solid house built of stone, surrounded by an iron fence that ensures security. The house has 4 bedrooms, a shared living room, a kitchen and wet rooms. The chicken farm built in the garden, which the mothers look after themselves, helps the women to earn their own income.

Irma Jansen-Schouten is the 1st chairwoman and founder of IOP (Ilula Orphan Program) Germany.

On request we can offer other net participants advice, give a presentation, and provide up-to-date information and contacts in the field of our work.