Our Mission

Shade is a Christian organization empowering children, families, and communities affected by albinism and other vulnerabilities in Tanzania.

Our Vision

People with albinism and other vulnerabilities are accepted and respected in their communities and live as productive citizens, safe and free from persecution.

Our Core Values

  • Inclusion: We believe everyone is profoundly loved by God.
  • Faith: We serve with the heart of Jesus.
  • Empowerment: We invest in people.
  • Excellence: We work with integrity and passion.
  • Humility: We value cultures and people.
  • Courage: We stand against injustice and discrimination.

Spiritual Values

  1. We are made to seek, find, and know God; we realize that we can experience intimacy, communication, and friendship with Him in His presence. We believe that we become better equipped for ministry when our lives are grounded in prayer and worship, and we are focused on intimacy with God.
  2. It is only through grace—the infinite, undeserved love of God for us and His ongoing transformative power—that we are able to love and walk in righteousness. We live in complete dependence on grace, which sustains us.
  3. Our lives are meant to be laid down in radical love for God and for people. Denying self and living for love is only possible with the realization that we are in need of nothing when found in Him. Love and sacrifice always go hand-in-hand, and learning to love requires a willingness to suffer for the sake of righteousness.
  4. We have been adopted into God’s family, so we purpose to create family among the lonely and abandoned. (Psalm 68:6)
  5. We live to see “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10), realizing that we partner with a God who is at work everywhere in the world. We invite heaven to invade earth among the poor, broken, and lowly, and live in radical hope and joy as we focus on God and His advancing Kingdom.

Statement of Faith

Our statement of faith aligns with the Nicene Creed.

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Biblical Mandates

Isaiah 61:1-4

God has anointed us to “preach good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” We will carry the grace of God in which there is empowerment for Tanzanians that they will “rebuild ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.”

Matthew 22:37-40

Our mission is a tangible response to the greatest commandments of Scripture: “Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Psalm 68:6

Our mission is agreeing with the Lord’s work in creating family, where there are no orphans, rather sons and daughters: “God sets the lonely in families.”

1 Peter 1:3-4

Our mission is continually being renewed and sustained by the work of Christ unto the living and active hope of His reconciliatory work that was completed on the cross and is at work on the earth as His kingdom is expanded: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.”