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 received support from surrounding communities, got new shoes, and welcomed a new grade!
Events: We’ll be at Missions Fest Vancouver this weekend!
Stop by our booth at Missions Fest Vancouver this weekend on Friday, January 31st and Saturday, February 1st. View the location and schedule of events here. We hope to see you there!
Don’t miss our latest blog:
Bulale (Tanzania): Recess Fun!
Recess is an important part of the day and the students at VOH Bulale love it. It is a time when the kids get to know the new students better and a time to expend all their extra energy. It’s a time to practice and learn new skills and time just for fun!
Some of the students’ favourite activities during recess are soccer, swinging, playing on the playground, and chatting with friends.
Playtime is so important, especially for young children, and we are grateful we can offer these kids a safe and fun environment to just be kids!
Bwiza (Burundi): Thank You, Moms!
With everyone back to school after the break, it is great to see our team of moms at VOH Bwiza preparing meals for the children.
Our children attend different community schools and come back to Bwiza Center for lunch and extra lessons.
We would like to take this opportunity to recognize these moms’ hearts as they give back so generously to VOH and these kiddos!
Chongwe (Zambia): New School Shoes!
VOH Chongwe Children celebrated the new school term in style!
These children who needed school shoes were surprised with a brand new pair gifted by an anonymous and very generous local man.
For some of the children, this was the first brand new pair of shoes they have ever received.
The children were happy and thankful to the donor for the timely gift!
Kitwe (Zambia): John’s Story
VOH Kitwe would like to share John’s story. John came to our VOH school in 2013. He comes from a vulnerable family; his father is unemployed and his mother does piecework to support the family.
When he came to VOH, he was placed in a “SPARK” class. This is a multi-grade class where children are tutored before placing them in different grades according to their performance.
John did very well in this multi-grade class and was placed in grade 7 and wrote the grade 7 exams last year. He passed and has now moved on to grade 8!
He is very happy to be in a new grade to learn new subjects. He has pledged to work hard and finish school so he will be able to help his family.
Soon John will start attending our Youth Empowerment program, too!
Luongo (Zambia): Enrolling New Students!
VOH Luongo was excited to enroll new children into grade one for our 2020 intake. Parents and guardians brought their children for orientation and to get advice on how they can work together with the teachers for the benefit of their children.
The children were so excited to become part of the VOH family.
The parents and guardians shared their appreciation for the work VOH is doing in the community. Before we came, they had given up hope that their children would start school by age 7. They pledged to support the work of the school and encourage other community parents to embrace this blessing.
The children were very excited and couldn’t wait to start learning!
Maramvya (Burundi): Joint Location Staff Meeting!
Thanks to our new facilities, VOH Maramvya was blessed this week to host our 1st joint staff meeting for 2020.
VOH Bwiza and VOH Maramvya staff and volunteers meet regularly, and for our first meeting of the year, we discussed how to prepare ourselves for the year ahead. We are always reviewing our procedures to ensure we continue to provide the best care possible for our children in both locations.
We had an opportunity to refresh ourselves on Child Safeguarding while we were all together.
We set some new goals and we look forward to pursuing them. We realize that achievements can not be accomplished if we do not work together as a team, so we will strive to work together so we can meet our goals for the year.
We are excited to see all that happens in our children’s lives during 2020!
Mongu (Zambia): First Grade 12 Class!
We love seeing the passion of our kids at the VOH School in Mongu as well as the creativity of the teachers. The second week of school is off to a great start with our grade twelve students who are extremely excited about their new grade!
Not only are our grade twelve students excited, but our entire team is elated about our first-ever grade twelve class! It is a huge blessing to offer this final grade and we can’t stop thinking how great it is to see our kids learning and changing the direction of their future and becoming infinite confident individuals.
We’re so honoured that we get to invest in this next generation of leaders!
Mwanza (Tanzania): Canadian MP Visits!
Recently at VOH Mwanza, we welcomed a group of visitors that included a Member of Parliament from Canada! Lianne Rood happened to be visiting Mwanza with a couple of other people from an advocacy agency in Canada, called Results Canada.
They heard about VOH Mwanza through other Canadian volunteers in Mwanza and because they were visiting charities and organizations with Canadian ties they made time to stop by. We were very happy to meet Lianne and her team and show them around the Centre.
They were excited and impressed to see all that our amazing team does to serve our kids. It also happened to be break time so the children were very excited to meet Lianne as well!
We’re thankful for this connection and grateful to always be expanding our network, allowing more people to hear the stories of how VOH Mwanza is bringing hope to vulnerable children in Tanzania.
Zimbabwe: New Desks!
It’s out with the old and in with the new this week at VOH Zimbabwe!
School started this past week and noticed some of the furniture needed to be replaced. The staff went all out to fix the desks and make them usable again, starting with the ones that had already been brought for repairs.
The neat thing about this was watching the children bring their old desks for replacement. They came in twos with a little struggle here and there, but they managed to move them on their own.
It was exciting to see them smiling after receiving their new desks!