After Bekka Ross Russell got her undergraduate degree, she was trying to decide what area of international development she wanted to study for her master’s degree. In order to decide, she planned to spend four months in Tanzania and four months in South America.

“I ended up spending six years in Tanzania instead,” says Bekka. “I started teaching at a school, but it was so corrupt. I was also going the local orphanage one day a week. I loved the kids and wanted to see them, but I couldn’t imagine being there full-time because it was too sad.”

After a few visits to the Nkoaranga Orphanage, Bekka began going there every day, working closely with Mama Pendo—pendo means “loves” in Swahili—who had been working at the orphanage since just before Bekka was born.

Bekka realized how much she could help as there were two staff, called mamas, to 30 children ranging from newborn to five years old, including premature babies. The mamas not only had to care for the children, but cook, clean, and do laundry as well.

“Mama Pendo gives her whole heart to these kids and it amazes me that with so many passing through her care that she has the ability to love that deeply,” says Bekka. “We had similar ideas of what needed to be better.”

Seeing how much water was needed for cooking, cleaning, and laundry—including cloth diapers—quickly led Bekka to her first fundraiser. Because of problems with the local system, the orphanage was without water a day or two each week.

“The mamas were spending half their day walking to the river with bucket on head,” says Bekka. “With another volunteer, we fundraised $10,000 to build a well.”

Bekka was pleasantly surprised with the fundraising efforts. She credits part of the success to the blog she was writing that introduced people to the children at the orphanage and the struggles that they faced.

As Bekka spent more time at the orphanage, she began to form bonds with the children. She became so attached that she canceled the second part of her trip to South America and stayed on in Tanzania for a total of nine months.

Her parents came to visit for the last two weeks she was scheduled to spend there before moving to the UK to attend grad school at the London School of Economics. They founded The Small Things (thesmallthings.org), an East Haven non-profit focused on ensuring happy, healthy, loving childhoods and access to opportunity for all children in the Arusha District community of Tanzania. The Small Things partnered with the Nkoaranga Orphanage and has continued to help over the years.

During her parents’ visit, Bekka also introduced them to Zawadi and Saimoni, two children from the orphanage she planned to adopt. At the time, Bekka was just 23 years old and regulations stated that people cannot adopt until age 25.

“We made a deal and they said, ‘After grad school, we’ll do everything we can to help you adopt them’,” says Bekka, who spent all of her school breaks in Tanzania. “It was a sacrifice, but my kids were growing and I had to be there. They were both really sick when I met them, but as they started to get better, these enormous personalities emerged.

“Zawadi chose me and would wiggle across the floor to me, pushing other children aside to get to me,” adds Bekka. “My son is this gentle, wonderful soul. They are the best thing that’s ever happened to me by an enormous margin.”

During grad school, Bekka met her future husband. On their second date, she told him that she had two children in Africa and she was moving there at the end of the year.

“The poor sucker stayed and here we are,” says Bekka, now 28 and living in Branford with her husband and their children, who are now 6 and 8. “He moved with me for three years.”

Over the years, Bekka and The Small Things have seen their fundraising make a difference, not only in the orphanage, but in the community as well. The organization started by raising money to hire more staff and create procedures, policies, and handbooks for volunteers.

Another issue the orphanage faced was taking care of premature babies. Because there was a shortage of staff, it was difficult to devote care to premature babies. Now there is a one-to-one care program that designates a staff member to premature babies and children with special needs.

“During my first trip, we lost a little boy and it’s very, very difficult to see,” says Bekka. “It really brings it home that this is not your world. This is a world where babies die because there aren’t enough caretakers. That shouldn’t be happening. Now we’ve had three or four kids go through that program who had a high chance of not making it had that program not been in place.”

Shaping the Future

In 2013, after many conversations with Mama Pendo about what could most benefit the community, The Small Things began to work toward bigger goals. The Nkoaranga Orphanage only housed children through age five when they were then sent back to their village where they were often abused and neglected. Eventually it changed so that when they aged out of the orphanage, they were sent to boarding school.

“That was an improvement, but these were amazing, beautiful, vibrant kids and they were coming back broken,” says Bekka. “They were coming out as adults and not knowing how to live in a home of their own or in a community.”

The organization created Happy Family Children’s Village, which has family-style homes for up to 30 children aged 4 to 11, and plans to expand to have room for 45 children soon. Each home has a mama, who helps teach children about living in a home as a family and how to be a part of the community.

“We did a lot of research-based reform and wanted to create the best childhood possible for these children,” says Bekka. “It’s a place where they’re safe and loved and taken care of.”

Another key part of The Small Things is its Family Preservation Program. In Tanzania, many of the children at the orphanage actually have family members, but they were brought to the orphanage where they could receive better care and regular meals. The Small Things works with families to provide resources to families to prevent children from coming to the orphanage and to reunite families.

In recent months, The Small Things opened its Community Center, which houses a daycare and library and offers adult education classes. Bekka saw the Community Center open and is happy to provide even more services to the local community.

About two years ago, The Small Things had one employee, but when times got tough, the hospital that had headed up the orphanage asked The Small Things to take over full funding of the orphanage. Now the organization has 50 staff members and there are 130 children in the various programs.

Over the past six months, she has been working to transition the day-to-day operations of the organization to her staff in Tanzania, who are doing a “spectacular job,” as she and her family moved to Branford in August. Now that she is stateside, Bekka will focus on fundraising and raising awareness.

“Being near family is such a blessing,” says Bekka, who will travel to Tanzania this winter on her own and visit with the family next summer. “I want to get our local community as involved as possible, try to help people see things outside of what they’re exposed to on a daily basis, and break down the stereotypes of what orphan kids are.”

Bekka noted that while The Small Things receives money from family organizations and grants, about 50 percent of its money comes from small donors.

“We’re really proud of that because our whole ethos is about small actions resulting in big change,” says Bekka. “It’s amazing how far the money goes on the ground in Tanzania. It’s a cup of coffee here, but it can buy food for a day for a kid there. We’re able to do so much with the funding we get. The amount one person, one group, or one school gives makes a tangible, concrete difference, which is something that’s very powerful about working with small non-profits.”
For more information or to donate to The Small Things, Inc., visit thesmallthings.org.