Marafiki wa Afrika e.V. - Freunde für Afrika e.V.

Sobre nosotros

Personal contact through various trips was the decisive factor leading to the founding of the non-profit organization "Marafiki wa Africa - Friends for Africa" in Germany in 1993. In Tanzania, too, an NGO "Marafiki wa Afrika Tanzania" was founded in 1995. Through our decades of cooperation with East Africa, we now have great expertise in intercultural learning and international cooperation. Nevertheless, each year we continue to learn and share our knowledge with others, e.g. with our volunteers.

We want to sensitize people in Germany to the situation in Tanzania and help them understand the global context. Our goal is to sustainably improve the living conditions in our partner projects. The overriding basis for this we see as the support of educational projects of all kinds (from Montessori kindergartens to farmers' evening classes), in those places where these are in short supply.

The association promotes friendly cooperation between people in Germany and Tanzania. The focus in both countries is on intercultural exchange and raising awareness of global social, ecological and economic contexts.
This is realized in particular in the following way:
• posting of volunteers
• mutual visits
• Educational events in Germany and Tanzania
• Financial support for projects
• Collaboration with other organizations

Marafiki supports the following projects in Tanzania, both financially and materially through donations, as well as personally and professionally through our contacts and volunteers.
• Aprofi (Agricultural PROduce fellowship for Family Improvement / NGO) is a self-help organization of smallholders in the Kagera region of northwestern Tanzania, established in 1991. Primarily through support from private individuals in Germany and Marafiki it has been possible to set up a pre-school that works according to the educational principles of Maria Montessori. The "food security program" sponsored by Marafiki has recently enabled the farmers at Aprofi to store maize pesticide-free in safe containers and later to sell it at higher prices.
• Baramba Girls Secondary School: The Baramba Girls Secondary School was founded in 1999 in the Ngara district in northwestern Tanzania as a boarding school. It was started by our partner association "Marafiki wa Afrika Tanzania" and we have supported it since its foundation. Its sponsoring association, "Marafiki wa Afrika Tanzania" also promotes womens' groups by offering microcredits.
• Mavuno (NGO): Many farmers around Ihanda did not always manage their fields successfully and did not know what they were doing wrong. To change this situation, the Mavuno Assistence Learning Centre was founded in Ihanda in 1994. The goal was and is to gather and use knowledge gleaned from various people and thus to improve the standard of living through agricultural programs (sustainable agriculture, beekeeping, greenhouses, biogas plants); In addition, Mavuno has launched other sub-projects over time: environmental projects (solar installations, afforestation projects); Water projects (construction of rainwater tanks, solar water pumping and drilling facilities, water analyses, construction of sanitary facilities); Food and seed control (education / training, seed storage); Small loan project and educational projects (Needy Children Project, Girls Middle School). Marian Kretschmer (freelance artist) runs an ongoing art and education project at Mavuno.
• Sponsorship programs: These allow girls to attend primary school and, increasingly, secondary school.


Christine Albrecht is responsible for public relations. Cordula Riener-Tiefenthaler and Franz Pointner are CEOs of Marafiki - Friends for Africa.

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.