Welcome to our weekly news roundup! Here we share stories from each of our Villages about our Programs, celebrations, children, and staff. If you’d like to receive these updates via email, please subscribe to our newsletter.
This week we welcomed new friends to our family and received a donation of dried vegetables!
Don’t forget to scroll all the way to the bottom to see our photo of the week!
Don’t miss our latest blog:
Read: https://vohafrica.com/blog/2019-04-23/watn-justina
Bulale (Tanzania): Visiting Students’ Homes
Recently at VOH Bulale, our grade one teacher, Mr. Justine, was able to take a day and go around to visit some of the children at their homes in the community. He visited several families and spent time at each home.
The children and their families were happy to see him. It was a great opportunity for Mr. Justine to get to know the children’s caregivers more and to see the children in their home environment.
We appreciate our teachers who go the extra mile for the children!
Bwiza (Burundi): Dried Food Donation
VOH Bwiza is thankful for Christian Life Ministries who recently donated a generous package of dried food. These dried vegetables are very rich and nutritious. Each package contains 17 types of vegetables! We can’t thank CLM enough for their generosity and heart.
Chongwe (Zambia): Meet Emmanuel
Meet Emmanuel from VOH Chongwe. He came to our Village when he was just 5 years old.
Before he came to VOH, he lived in Luangwa district. Sadly, his father passed away when he was just two years old and his mother is ill and unable to care for him.
Now Emmanuel is in school and has a loving and caring family in one of our children’s homes. He likes playing with car toys, he loves drawing at school, and he wants to be a pilot!
Kitwe (Zambia): Boxes of Love Distribution!
This week, VOH Kitwe distributed Boxes of Love for the first time at our satellite location in Luongo! It was an exciting time for the children as they each received a box of love containing gifts like school supplies, toys, treats, and much more.
On this day, we were happy to have Uncle David Brace help us distribute the boxes. It was also very special to have former VOH Kitwe student Blessing help distribute the boxes. Blessing is now a teacher at Luongo.
Many thanks to Christian Life Assembly in Langley and the many churches that partner with them and help pack and send the Boxes each year!
Malawi: New Offices!
This week at VOH Malawi we are happy to announce the successful construction of two new offices for the school! These offices will be used for school administration, a library, and storage for the feeding program.
This is a wonderful development that will be incredibly useful as we continue to offer education and care to the children!
Maramvya (Burundi): Hand Washing!
At VOH Maramvya we teach our children the importance of good hygiene. They know they must wash their hands with soap before eating lunch. This prevents them from germs and protects them from what they call “dirty hand diseases.”
We are happy that we have already seen a big improvement in the overall health of our children since school began in January. Hand washing has become a normal part of their lives, both at school and at home!
Mongu (Zambia): Meet Nalikando
Meet Nalikando, who attends our school at VOH Mongu! Nalikando is in 10th Grade this year and is very good at English, Silozi, and his business studies in school. He is kind and always willing to help out anyone who needs it.
He recently participated in our inter-school track and field day and did so well! Not only did he compete in the races and jumps, but he even competed in javelin and shot put, two sports he had never tried before! He took part in these activities just to see if he could do them and he ended up coming in third in shot put out of all 16 schools!
We love Nalikando’s willing heart and his positive spirit and are so blessed to have him at our school. He has a bright future ahead of him!
Mwanza (Tanzania): Meet Martha and Fabian
Meet a couple of our newest children at VOH Mwanza, siblings Martha and Fabian. Martha and Fabian live with their grandmother. Their mother tragically passed away recently. Their grandmother was looking for help as she was not able to care for them because she isn’t able to find work. Martha is 3 years old and Fabian is only 10 months old.
VOH Mwanza was able to enrol both children in our programs. Martha is in our Toddlers class and Fabian is in our Daycare. Each morning they receive breakfast and lunch through our feeding program. This takes some of the burden off of their grandmother and allows her the time to run a small business in the morning hours so she can better provide for herself, Martha, and Fabian.
We are so happy to partner with grandparents like this in the community who desperately want to care for their grandchildren. Martha and Fabian are both adjusting really well to their new extended family at VOH Mwanza!
Zimbabwe: Youth Training Program
During school break at VOH Zimbabwe, there is a week that the church sets aside to teach and coach youth and young adults on life issues and general career guidance. This break we had over 80 youths attend!
One of the things we covered during the week-long training program was acting. For this activity, the youth came dressed up in costume and presented a skit.
It is amazing to see the creativity of our youth. One of the guys came dressed as an old man and one girl as an old lady. They each put together excellent skits!
We always love giving our youth the opportunity to exercise their creativity and bring out their best talents! The goal is that through these creative exercises, they will gain skills and confidence that will help them as they grow into independent adults.