Boycott Corridor Springs Hotel

Bishop Thomas Laizer of the ELCT-NCD

ELCT-NCD General Secretary Israel Ole Karyongi

Corridor Springs Hotel in Arusha, Tanzania is owned by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania- North Central Diocese (NCD). NCD carries $4 million dollars in debt for Corridor Springs Hotel and has failed to generate enough cash flow to pay the loan. The hotel is now valued at less than what’s owed, the NCD is using humanitarian projects such as donor-supported hospitals and schools as collateral for the debt.  As they struggle to service the staggering debt on this failing hotel, the NCD has stolen over $6 million worth of property and foreign aid donated for educating orphans and vulnerable children in Arusha.

On November 26, 2011, the NCD General Secretary Karyongi falsely enlisted police armed with assault rifles to illegally and forcibly seize Peace House Secondary School (PHS), a tuition-free school for orphans and vulnerable children. PHS was built near Arusha in 2006 by Peace House Africa, an international NGO dedicated to educating Tanzania’s poorest children.  The NCD was the local partner but did not contribute one shilling to the cost of constructing, maintaining or operating PHS.

Peace House Africa invested over $6 million dollars in building PHS.  It stood as one of the finest secondary schools, ranked 7^th out of 320 in the region, and housed over 250 orphans and vulnerable children. These children, who otherwise had no hope for a secondary education, must not be made to suffer for the corruption and greed of NCD leaders. NCD has no intention, much less the financial capacity, to provide free education to 278 children on a 100-acre, 22-building campus. For them, this exceptionally developed parcel of land is far too valuable to merely benefit the most defenseless and desperate citizens—impoverished orphans—instead, NCD will use it as an opportunity to steal “bread” from the mouths of destitute children. Whether they attempt to sell PHS or use it as collateral for their debt, it will ensure they sustain their “piggy bank”(without audit or accountability) in Corridor Springs.

Doing business with Corridor Springs Hotel supports this corruption and enriches the criminal structures that destroy efforts to help the poor and vulnerable; it is the moral equivalent of buying blood diamonds. Help us stand up for what’s right.

Don’t accommodate corruption—boycott Corridor Springs Hotel.