A restaurant with a garden in Mianzini, creating income for women from our project community.
Mama Malaika is our restaurant with a large garden in Arusha, Mianzini — just a few steps from our project houses. It is becoming a place where more than cooking happens: community is lived, confidence is strengthened, and income is created for women from our project community.
The restaurant is being shaped together with women from our former Family Friends project, who actively contribute their ideas, skills and wishes.
Construction is underway
The garden has been prepared, the building freshly painted and initial structures put in place. Step by step, a place with outdoor seating areas, new sanitary facilities and a warm interior design is taking shape.
The name Mama Malaika stands for warmth, community and hospitality. Already our sign is drawing curious neighbours who look forward to "chakula kitamu" — delicious, fresh and local food.
Open – and still growing
We officially opened the restaurant in October and November 2025. It is coordinated by Lena Lingen and Marion O’Donnokoé. To be honest, the start was harder than hoped: results fluctuate and have partly been negative, among other reasons because the regular guests from the Villa Viva volunteer community fell away.
Since around July 2026 a small chicken-farming side project supports the restaurant’s income and its economic stability.
