About MACAO

Malezi

The Swahili word for the raising of a child. The feeding, the watching, the correcting, the years of it. It is the first word in our name and the reason the rest exists.

Who we are

Malezi AIDS/Care Awareness Organization — MACAO — is a Tanzanian non-governmental organisation working in Ngorongoro District, Arusha Region.

We started in HIV and AIDS care, supporting people living with HIV and the children left behind by it. The work grew into education because that is where the families we worked with said the need was.

Today MACAO runs Bright School, and works alongside Hodari Education Foundation on girls’ education and community outreach across the district.

Our history

Baraka and Juliana

Baraka Eliud was born in Kigoma in western Tanzania and moved to Arusha in 1999 to work as a radio FM programmer for a Swedish company. Juliana Nzuna was born in Sakala village here in Loliondo, went to the local public school, then trained as an electrical engineer in Arusha. She was working in HIV and AIDS education when they met.

Juliana introduced Baraka to Loliondo. They rented a house, and out of it came the idea of a school for Maasai orphans and the most vulnerable children in the region. Bright School opened in 2009 with forty children.

Between 2010 and 2012 they bought land. In 2012 the first international volunteer arrived and never really stopped arriving. By 2016 two classroom buildings were finished and the school was officially registered. In 2017 the first Class 7 graduated.

Founders and co-directors. Juliana also directs Hodari Education Foundation, and is known to everyone as Mama Bright.