Geoff Knight, Jenny Peck and their children Tukelye and Twilumba in Mufindi.

Geoff Knight, a Kansas University graduate, met with women in Mufindi, Tanzania, who make baskets to earn income. These women are either HIV positive or caring for children who are orphans because of HIV.

Jenny Peck, a Kansas University graduate, is holding Melania, one of the children at the children's village in Mufini, Tanzania. They were at a clinic where Melania was getting tested for HIV/AIDS. She was negative.

When Jenny Peck and Geoff Knight arrived in Tanzania in 2006, their area’s HIV rate was about 35 percent but virtually no one was seeking treatment for it. Less than 10 years later, they say, 2,500 people are in treatment.

That’s just one of the milestones the Lawrence couple count as a point of pride for Mufindi Orphans, a charity for which they are the directors and bridge to resources from the United States. They are in Lawrence now giving presentations about their efforts in hopes of drumming up financial support, medical volunteers and other partnerships.

“There is great, great need,” Peck said. “The social network when we arrived had been disintegrated and destroyed by this HIV virus…. We’ve seen what a little bit of money can do in a small community. It can go so far.”

Knight, 33, and Peck, 32, met while attending KU and moved to a remote part of the Mufindi district of Tanzania after graduating. They married in 2009 and have two children, daughter Twilumba, 4, and son Tukelye, 3.

Peck joined the Peace Corps and was assigned to the area and Knight found a job teaching English nearby. After Peck’s Peace Corps stint was up, they stayed.

Some British expatriates who’d lived in Mufindi for decades asked Peck to manage their charitable organization, Foxes’ Community and Wildlife Conservation Trust, as it took on efforts to help orphans whose parents had died of HIV.

They decided their approach would have to go beyond building an orphanage. Mufindi Orphans focuses on child care, health care and education.

“Without addressing the long-term problem, we really wouldn’t be getting anywhere,” Knight said. “It’s really grown into this huge safety net for children and even adults.”

It seemed an entire generation, parents in their 30s, was being wiped out of the community by HIV, Knight said. That left grandparents struggling to care for young, orphaned children. Little access to education limited young people’s opportunities. Residents who weren’t able-bodied were unable to farm, the most common occupation in the area.

And thirty miles from the nearest paved road, even if someone wanted treatment for HIV it would entail a four-hour bumpy bus ride that most could not afford to reach the nearest hospital, Knight said.

Forming partnerships with the Tanzanian people has been critical to achieving what Mufindi Orphans has done so far and ensuring its sustainability, Knight and Peck said.

In addition to building an orphanage, they helped get a medical care and treatment facility built in the district, which is staffed by the government.

Next, they want to build staff housing so that when the Tanzanian government sends medical staff they will have a place to stay. Also, they need money to build up the hospital, plus international medical professionals to volunteer there.

They also want to find ways to improve education for children in the area.

Peck said she and her husband never imagined that they’d be where they are today. She’s proud that the “seedling of an organization” has grown into one that is enabling an entire community to grow stronger and survive.

“Geoff and I can be a great bridge between them and the resources,” she said.