SANFORD – A dozen people from the Sanford area are headed to the east African nation of Tanzania to build an orphanage.

David Stanton of Waterboro, who organized the trip, said the Tanzanian government has donated 20 acres of land overlooking Lake Victoria for the project, which eventually is expected to house 300 orphaned children.

The youngsters, for the most part, have been orphaned because of the proliferation of AIDS, Stanton said.

Most of the Mainers in the program attend Curtis Lake Christian Church in Sanford. Several, like Stanton and Robert and Fay Haberland of Alfred, have traveled to various countries in recent years to spread their message in a hands-on way.

Stanton quoted a Tanzanian governor for the region as saying the area has an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 orphaned children. When parents die, most youngsters are absorbed into relatives’ families, but others have to scramble for a place to live.

The church’s project, under the name Interfaith Children’s Center, will be built on a site described as farmland and located at 4,700 feet and 100 miles south of the equator. A 32-by-162-foot building will be the first of three buildings to be erected at the site.

A couple has been hired to live at the compound, and people will be hired to run the facility once it is completed, Stanton said.

He said the Interfaith name was chosen because the project is non-denominational. He said the volunteers hope to begin half of the first building on this initial three-week trip. They hope to open that portion of the building by the next trip, scheduled for February.

For the Haberlands, the trip is a chance to do something for someone else. The couple has gone on similar ventures in Siberia.

“Were doing it for the Lord,” Robert Haberland said. “And [the children] need it.”