Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy

1Acceptance of These Terms

These Terms & Conditions govern your access to and use of the website of the Youth Alliance for Progress Organization (YAPO) ("YAPO", "we", "us", "our"), available at www.yapotanzania.or.tz. By accessing, browsing, or using this website — including submitting any form, subscribing to our newsletter, downloading resources, or using our chat feature — you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by these Terms & Conditions and our Privacy Policy.

If you do not agree with any part of these Terms or the Privacy Policy, please do not use this website or submit any information through it.

2About YAPO

YAPO is a youth-led non-governmental organization registered in the United Republic of Tanzania in July 2022. We drive digital transformation and gender-responsive development to empower marginalized youth, women, and children across Tanzania through education, economic empowerment, public health, civic participation, digital literacy, and environmental conservation.

Our registered office is at Plot No. 154, Block C, Pwani Street 14122, P.O. Box 13592, Dar es Salaam – Tanzania. You can reach us at info@yapotanzania.or.tz or +255 717 311 984.

3Use of This Website

Permitted Use

This website is provided for lawful, informational, and non-commercial purposes. You may browse its content, read our articles and reports, download publicly available resources, contact us, and subscribe to our newsletter — provided you do so in good faith and in accordance with these Terms.

Prohibited Use

You agree not to:

• Use the website in any way that violates any applicable law or regulation of the United Republic of Tanzania or your own jurisdiction;
• Submit false, misleading, defamatory, abusive, or unlawful content through any of our forms, the chat feature, or any other channel on this website;
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any part of the website, its server, or any systems connected to it — including the staff area, which is strictly reserved for authorized YAPO personnel;
• Interfere with the normal operation of the website, including by automated means, scraping, or any activity that disrupts availability or performance;
• Misrepresent your identity or impersonate any person or organization when contacting us;
• Use the website to transmit malware, spam, or any harmful material.

4Intellectual Property

Unless otherwise stated, all content on this website — including text, articles, photographs, graphics, logos, reports, and design elements — is owned by or licensed to YAPO. The YAPO name, logo, and branding may not be used without our prior written consent.

You may download and use the publications and reports made available on our Resources page for personal, educational, and non-commercial purposes, provided that you do not modify them and that you acknowledge YAPO as the source. Any other reproduction, distribution, or commercial use requires our prior written permission.

5Accuracy of Information

We work hard to keep the information on this website accurate and up to date. However, content — including articles, statistics, and program descriptions — is provided for general information only and may change as our work evolves. It does not constitute professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. You should verify any information that is important to you, and you may always contact us directly for official or current information.

6Downloads and Resources

Documents available on our Resources page (publications, annual reports, impact reports, and financial reports) are provided "as is" and "as available". While we take reasonable care in preparing and publishing them, we make no warranty that any downloaded file is free of errors or that it will meet your particular requirements. You download and use these files at your own discretion and risk.

7Third-Party Links and Services

This website contains links to third-party websites and services — including our social media pages (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X), WhatsApp, and the websites of our partners such as UNESCO, the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), and others. These are provided for your convenience and information only.

We have no control over, and accept no responsibility for, the content, privacy practices, or availability of any third-party website or service. When you click such a link, you leave our website and the third party's own terms and policies will apply. In particular, when you use our chat feature, your conversation continues on WhatsApp and is then governed by WhatsApp's terms and privacy policy.

8Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, YAPO shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or special damages arising out of or in connection with your use of this website, its content, downloaded resources, or any linked third-party service — including loss of data, loss of opportunity, or any other loss — even where we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Nothing in these Terms limits any liability that cannot lawfully be limited under the applicable law of the United Republic of Tanzania.

9Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless YAPO, its board, staff, volunteers, and partners from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, or expenses (including reasonable legal costs) arising out of your violation of these Terms, your misuse of this website, or the content you submit to us.

10Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms & Conditions from time to time to reflect changes in our operations, legal requirements, or the features of this website. The updated version will always be published on this page, with the "Last updated" date revised accordingly. Your continued use of the website after any change constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

11Governing Law

These Terms & Conditions are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the United Republic of Tanzania. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms or your use of this website shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Tanzania.

12Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or complaints about these Terms & Conditions, please contact us at info@yapotanzania.or.tz, call +255 717 311 984, or write to Youth Alliance for Progress Organization (YAPO), Plot No. 154, Block C, Pwani Street 14122, P.O. Box 13592, Dar es Salaam – Tanzania.

1Introduction

At YAPO, your privacy matters. This Privacy Policy explains, in detail, what personal information we collect through this website, why we collect it, how we use it, where and how we store it, who can access it, and what rights you have over it.

This Policy applies to all personal information submitted through this website, including the contact form, the newsletter subscription in our footer, and the chat feature. It does not apply to information collected offline or through third-party websites linked from this site.

2What Information We Collect

a) Contact Form

When you send us a message through the contact form, we collect:

• Your name — so we know who we are speaking with;
• Your email address — so we can reply to you;
• The subject and content of your message — so we can understand and respond to your inquiry;
• Your consent record — confirmation that you ticked the consent checkbox before sending the message (messages cannot be sent without this consent);
• Technical metadata — your IP address, browser type, and the date and time of submission, used for security and abuse prevention.

b) Newsletter Subscription

When you subscribe to our newsletter using the email field in the footer of any page, we collect:

• Your email address — the only personal information required for this purpose;
• The date and time of subscription and your IP address — for security and abuse prevention.

c) Chat Feature

When you use the chat bubble on our pages, we collect:

• The content of the message you type — the conversation is then continued on WhatsApp with our team, and from that point onwards WhatsApp's own privacy policy applies to the conversation.

d) Information We Do NOT Collect

• We do not collect payment information of any kind (no donations or purchases are processed through this website);
• We do not use third-party advertising or advertising trackers;
• We do not place tracking cookies on the public pages of this website;
• We do not require you to create an account to use any public part of this website.

3Consent

Your consent is the foundation of our data collection:

• Contact form: before your message is sent, you must actively tick a checkbox confirming that you agree to these Terms & Conditions and this Privacy Policy. If the box is not ticked, the message cannot be submitted — this rule is enforced both on the page and on our server.
• Newsletter: by entering your email address and clicking "Subscribe", you consent to receiving updates from YAPO.
• Chat: by typing and sending a message in the chat feature, you consent to sharing that message with our team.

Withdrawing consent: you may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us at info@yapotanzania.or.tz. We will stop the relevant processing and, where applicable, delete your information, subject to any legal retention obligations.

4How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes only:

• Responding to your messages — inquiries, partnership proposals, feedback, and any other communication you send through the contact form or chat;
• Sending our newsletter — updates about our programs, events, and impact (only where you subscribed);
• Improving our services — understanding the questions and needs of the communities we serve so we can serve them better;
• Security and abuse prevention — protecting the website and our systems against spam, misuse, and attacks using rate limits, technical metadata, and moderation;
• Record-keeping — maintaining orderly records of communications with the public, as required for responsible organizational management.

We never sell your personal information, and we never share it with third parties for marketing purposes. Your data is not used for any purpose other than those listed above.

5How We Store Your Information

Information submitted through this website is stored in a secure, access-controlled data store on our hosting server:

• Submissions are kept as structured records (not in any public location) and are not directly accessible from the internet — the storage folder is explicitly blocked from public access at the server level;
• Only authorized YAPO staff can view submissions, through a password-protected internal dashboard that requires a username and a six-digit PIN to enter;
• The staff area is protected by login rate-limiting (repeated failed attempts trigger a temporary lockout), and the dashboard is served with headers that prevent browsers from caching it;
• File downloads from our Resources page are served through a controlled, validated download endpoint;
• Any files uploaded by staff (such as documents or images) are validated by file type, content type, and size before being accepted.

While we apply careful security measures, no method of electronic storage is 100% secure. We work continuously to protect your information using proportionate technical and organizational safeguards.

6Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We may disclose it only in the following limited circumstances:

• Within YAPO — to authorized staff and volunteers who need it to respond to you or to manage our communications, all bound by confidentiality;
• To service providers — such as our hosting provider and WhatsApp (when you continue a chat conversation there), strictly to the extent necessary to provide those services;
• Where required by law — if a legal obligation or lawful request by a competent authority of the United Republic of Tanzania requires disclosure.

7Data Retention

We keep your information only for as long as needed to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected:

• Contact form messages — retained for as long as necessary to resolve your inquiry and maintain our communication records, after which they may be deleted by our staff;
• Newsletter subscriptions — retained until you unsubscribe or ask us to remove you;
• Security logs (such as rate-limit and login-attempt records) — retained only for the short period needed to protect our systems (typically one hour for rate-limit counters).

You may request deletion of your personal information at any time (see Section 8 below).

8Your Rights

Subject to applicable law in the United Republic of Tanzania, you have the right to:

• Access — ask what personal information we hold about you;
• Rectification — ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
• Erasure — ask us to delete your personal information;
• Restriction — ask us to restrict how we process your information;
• Objection — object to processing based on legitimate interests;
• Withdrawal of consent — withdraw the consent you gave for your information to be processed (see Section 3).

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at info@yapotanzania.or.tz with the subject line "Data Request". We will respond within a reasonable time and, where necessary, verify your identity before acting on your request.

9Cookies

This website uses a minimal, privacy-respecting approach to cookies:

• Public pages (Home, About, Our Work, News & Events, Resources, Contacts): no tracking cookies and no analytics cookies are placed on your device;
• Staff area only: the internal staff dashboard uses a strictly necessary session cookie to keep authorized staff signed in, and — only if a staff member actively chooses "Remember me" — a secure authentication cookie that lasts 30 days. These cookies apply exclusively to staff logins and are never placed on public visitors' browsers;
• Third-party services: if you follow links to our social media pages or WhatsApp, those services may set their own cookies, governed by their own policies.

You can configure your browser to refuse or delete cookies at any time; this will not affect your use of the public pages of this website.

10Children's Data

YAPO's work is dedicated to the welfare of youth, women, and children. Where any personal information relates to a child, we expect it to be submitted only by the child's parent, guardian, or a responsible adult acting on their behalf. We process children's information with particular care, for the sole purpose of the programs and support we provide, and in accordance with applicable child-protection laws and our own safeguarding commitments.

11International Visitors

Our website is hosted on servers operated by our hosting provider. If you access this website from outside Tanzania, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed on those servers. By using this website and submitting information, you consent to that transfer, storage, and processing consistent with this Privacy Policy.

12Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, or legal requirements. Updates will be published on this page with a revised "Last updated" date. Where changes are significant, we will draw attention to them on this page. Continued use of the website after such changes means you accept the updated Policy.

13Contact Us

For any question about this Privacy Policy or the way we handle your personal information, contact us:

• Email: info@yapotanzania.or.tz
• Phone / WhatsApp: +255 717 311 984
• Post: Youth Alliance for Progress Organization (YAPO), Plot No. 154, Block C, Pwani Street 14122, P.O. Box 13592, Dar es Salaam – Tanzania