The charity was founded by Mutani Yangwe, a former secondary school teacher.
Mutani founded and funded Caretakers of the Environment Tanzania (COET) from his teacher’s salary of about $80/month in 2005. Two years later, he transformed the NGO from an environmental club to a children’s rights organisation. Mutani went on to set up a children’s rights centre, which operated as a drop-in centre for street-connected children seeking refuge from the streets. On the 3rd of March 2007, The Caretakers of the Environment Tanzania (COET) became registered as an NGO with Reg. No. 14NGO/1878.
After three years of local funding and support from volunteers, COET started to face financial strain on its continuing operations. Despite the evident and rapidly increasing problem of street children in Mwanza (Tanzania), COET continued to lack any government support to fund its work. COET therefore turned to the northern NGOs to look for financial support and grants.
In 2013, Caretakers of the Environment Tanzania (COET) successfully received institutional grants from DFID, US AID, Comic Relief, BT Sport, Railway Children, Amos Trust and Street Child United – notable institutions from the U.S., UK and Netherlands. These funds successfully reached and impacted street-connected children year-on-year.
In 2017, COET changed its name to Cheka Sana Foundation Tanzania (CST) (No. 00NGO/0009086).
However, the same core principles continue to drive Cheka Sana and remain at the heart of everything we do.
In 2013, Mutani Yangwe gave up his role as an Executive Director to pursue his further studies – a degree in International Relations and Politics at the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom. During this period and after completing his studies, Mutani remained on the Board of Trustees. Mutani then worked for a number of different charities in the UK until 2019, where he left his positions to lead and help set up and establish Cheka Sana Foundation in the UK and Uganda.
In June 2020, Cheka Sana Foundation UK becomes registered and subsequently starts its operation in the UK.
The main objective of CSF UK is to raise funds to provide relief to children and young people in Uganda and Tanzania, who are in conditions of need, hardship or distress and who are living on the streets for public benefit.
CSF sees its partnership and connection with CSF Tanzania and CSF Uganda as a direct way of furthering its charitable purposes. CSF UK does not have its own operations on the ground in Tanzania or Uganda but instead manages and supports CSF Tanzania and CSF Uganda by making financial grants, following its grant-making policy, and providing other non-financial support via its partnership agreement.
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If you believe that no child should have to live on the streets alone and that all children should grow up feeling loved with a sense of belonging, then please donate and support our work.