About us
17 years in the same communities.
Zainab Ansell founded ZARA Tanzania Charity in 2009. It works where it started — Moshi, Karatu, Ngorongoro — with the same communities, long enough to be held to what it promised.
Founder, ZARA Tanzania Charity
How we work
Communities decide. We fund and stay.
Nothing starts without the community asking for it
Every project begins with a request from the community that will run it, and a committee from that community that owns it afterwards.
We budget for year five, not year one
A water point without a maintenance fund is a photograph, not a project. Every build carries a running cost and a trained local person paid to do it.
We publish what we can prove
Figures on this site carry the report they came from. Where we do not yet have the evidence, the number says so rather than being quietly published.
The travel businesses subsidise the overhead
Our sister safari and lodge companies carry a share of the running costs, so more of each donation reaches the programme.
In her own words
“Every journey has the power to change a life. By sharing opportunities, investing in communities, and working together, we can create a future where every child and every family has the chance to thrive.”
Zainab Ansell — founder
The team outside the Moshi office.
Zainab Ansell founded the charity out of Tanzania Wildlife Adventures, having spent years welcoming visitors to Tanzania and seeing what the tourism economy did and did not reach.
Partners and sponsors
Who we work with, and what they actually do.
Mount Kilimanjaro Porters Society
Porter welfare and mountain cleanup crews
Action for Persons with Disability
Disability inclusion in outreach programmes
Friends Together
Community development partner
Chamäleon
Travel partner funding community projects
Tourcompas
Travel partner funding community projects
Origins Accessories
Retail partner for women's craft output
What we work on
Six areas.
Education
School support, learning materials, scholarships and early-years classrooms for children who would otherwise not be enrolled.
Healthcare
Access to clinics, health education and nutrition for children and mothers in communities far from a district hospital.
Women's empowerment
Skills, tools and start-up capital so women earn independent income and hold decision-making roles in their communities.
Community development
Water points, solar power and infrastructure chosen by the communities themselves, then built and maintained with them.
Environmental conservation
Tree planting, mountain and coastal clean-ups, and environmental education across the Kilimanjaro and Ngorongoro regions.
Sustainable tourism
Turning safari and trekking revenue into community funding, and giving travellers a way to see the work they paid for.
Governance
Board names, roles and declared interests are published on the impact page alongside the accounts.
Safeguarding
No identifiable image of a child appears on this site without documented consent from a guardian. Volunteers working with children are background-checked before placement.
Part of the Zara family
The charity sits alongside Tanzania Wildlife Adventures and Tanzania Wild Camps. The travel businesses fund overhead; the charity keeps its own board and its own accounts.