The Ujamaa Foundation

Carley Mchome was born and raised in Melbourne.

After a 3-month volunteer trip to Kenya in 2006, she knew she wanted to spend more time in East Africa, so she moved to Tanzania in October 2007 and has been there ever since.

Carley worked with a range of local NGOs in Community Development and also established a hostel and volunteer program in Arusha, Tanzania from 2008-2013.

Carley established Ujamaa Children's Home in March 2010 out of the need to give kids in residential care a true sense of home and family. It started with 5 vulnerable kids and has grown to a thriving home of 23 children aged between 2-18 years. The focus is on giving children a home where they feel safe, loved, and emotionally supported in a family environment, as well as providing for their personal, educational and health needs.

In 2021 the organisation evolved into the Ujamaa Tanzania Foundation which now has 2 key programs, the Children’s Home which provides long term family style care for vulnerable children and as our kids grow up and complete secondary school they move on to our Forward Together program where we continue to provide for all the personal needs as they go to Higher Education.

Carley lives with her Tanzanian husband and two children but considers Ujamaa as part of her extended family.