It started with one orphan. Now dozens call this Aussie expat ‘auntie’

2 months ago 12

It’s a country blessed with spectacular scenery and wildlife, but Tanzania, in eastern Africa, is also burdened by great poverty.

Melbourne-born Carley Mchome, who runs a home for extremely vulnerable children in Arusha, in the country’s north, about 85km from Mount Kilimanjaro, says electricity and water regularly cut out in the city.

Carley Mchome, second from right, in Port Melbourne with her daughter Eliana and parents John and Ros Andrews.

Most roads are made of dirt, and Arusha can get hot and bustling, with goats vying for space with motorbikes, tuk tuks and market stalls.

But Tanzanians, Mchome says, “are warm, open and giving, with a strong sense of community”.

When she started the Ujamaa Tanzania Foundation in 2010, Mchome wanted to offer its residents not just accommodation, food and education, but love. In Swahili, “ujamaa” can mean “extended family”.

Many of the kids were abused, trafficked or orphaned before arriving.

Carley Mchome pictured in 2025 with residents of the Ujamaa children’s home.

Siblings aged seven, five and three were shunned in their village after their parents died of AIDS.

Helped by donations from Australia, the United Kingdom and United States, 24 kids aged from two to 18 now live in the Ujamaa foundation’s home. They call Mchome “shangazi” meaning “auntie” in Swahili.

Mchome, who married a Tanzanian musician David Mchome (pronounced Mm-cho-may), is in Melbourne to raise funds, have a break at the beach with their children Eliana Mchome, 7, and Marty Shirima, 16, and to fundraise and meet donors. David will arrive later this week.

Mchome says life in Tanzania is “really frenetic, so Australia has a peace to it that I really enjoy”.

Carley Mchome, left, pictured with children’s home resident Irene, around 2012.

“It’s a place where I can come and regroup and refresh and connect.”

Mchome, who has an arts degree from Deakin University, wanted to be a filmmaker but in 2006 she volunteered for six months, teaching and cooking at an orphanage in Mombasa, Kenya.

While it was confronting, and a culture shock, it was inspiring work, and so after a year at home, Mchome flew to Tanzania, and volunteered for three years at an orphanage and on community projects in Arusha.

Then in 2010, Mchome learned that a charity in Arusha had evicted a nine-year-old orphan called Irene.

“I never found out why,” Mchome said.

Irene, now 25, pictured in 2025 at work as a nurse practitioner at a Tanzanian hospital.

Mchome raised funds to house Irene and her seven-year-old brother, Kelvin, and her charity was born.

Irene, now 25, went through school while living at Ujamaa and is currently working as a nurse practitioner at a top Tanzanian hospital. Kelvin, 23, is studying civil engineering.

“I’m incredibly proud,” Mchome said, referring to Irene and Kelvin. “It makes everything we do worthwhile, seeing them succeed in the world, having come from a place of nothing and giving them a home and opportunities.”

A new wing is planned for Ujamaa’s house so kids who become adults can live there while studying or looking for work, or when they visit.

Carley’s Melbourne-based parents Ros and John Andrews, have visited her in Tanzania 25 times.

Ros, who is the foundation’s Australian chairperson, said Carley’s work is “terrific” and that some of the Ujamaa children would not have survived without the foundation’s intervention.