VOH Bwiza (Burundi) Update: Thank You, Sponsors!
At VOH Bwiza, we are thankful for everyone who sponsors one of our children! Many of our children receive special gifts from their sponsors at times like Christmas or for their birthdays or graduation. They are always so excited when a gift arrives! We are so grateful for your large and generous hearts!
If you would like to sponsor a child, visit vohafrica.com/child-sponsorship
VOH Chongwe (Zambia) Update: Providing Medical Care
At VOH Chongwe, we provide care for children who come to our gates from the neighbouring community to receive help. We are so happy that our vision to help children in need overflows into the surrounding communities whether they are a part of our program or not. We provide medical care to the children in our programs as well as those in the surrounding community. Our clinic works in partnership with the local government, who supplements our medical supplies. They have also assigned us a nurse, Mr. Mwanza, to work with us. We are so grateful for this assistance from our local officials!
VOH Kitwe (Zambia) Update: Keeping Families Connected
This week VOH Kitwe would like to share about three children who live in one of the homes at our center. They were brought to us by the local social welfare department after the death of their father. Their aunty asked social welfare to help them because their remaining family did not have the resources to care for them. In keeping with our goal to keep families connected, we offered to take the children to visit their home village during the December break. When we picked them up, they were in good health and good spirits and very excited to be going back to their home with their housemother and friends at VOH Kitwe. We thank all of our friends and partners for their love and support that make stories like these possible!
VOH Luongo (Zambia) Update: Distributing Toys
Here at VOH Luongo, most of our children from the surrounding rural areas don’t have toys to play with during playtime. This week we were able to distribute dolls and wooden toy cars to the Grade 2 and 3 children. The children were so excited to receive them because now they have something to play with. It is such a joy to see the children go home with smiles on their faces!
VOH Malawi Update: School Closure
Here in Malawi, COVID-19 is spreading quickly. In response, the government of Malawi has required all schools to stop in-person learning. Fortunately for us, we’ve done this before and we have a plan. The announcement was made late Sunday night. Monday morning we pivoted to our contingency plan and are working hard to continue our high level of care despite the changing environment. Teachers have been working hard preparing homeschooling packs for students to complete and return each week. Our nutrition program has shifted to providing high nutrition porridge for families to take home and cook themselves. This change puts a hard strain on our nutrition budget as it triples our costs. However, we’re determined that the health and vitality of our students should not be compromised. Many of our students started the VOH program as very malnourished and we do not wish them to return to that state. As I write this post a large emergency delivery of high nutrition porridge has arrived and is being offloaded into our storehouse right now.
If you are able, please consider donating to our Hope Packs campaign to help support the cost of these nutrition packs during COVID-19: https://vohafrica.com/hopepacks
VOH Maramvya (Burundi) Update: Gardening
It’s the rainy season in Burundi and at VOH Maramvya we always like to take advantage of the rains to grow different plants that don’t always grow well when it gets hot and dry. Our vegetable garden is really beautiful to see. Many of the vegetables are ready to be eaten like eggplants, cabbage, amaranth, onions, and more. We also planted some fruit like watermelons with great success. We give balanced food to our children because we want them to have good health. We would like to thank our gardener Mutama because he takes such great care of our garden!
VOH Mongu (Zambia) Update: Youth Homes
VOH Mongu is so proud of Isaac, one of the first kids who have grown up in our children’s homes to complete secondary education. We are so thankful that a foundation has provided the funds necessary to build youth homes, one for boys and one for girls, where our young adults like Isaac can stay while they complete their education and prepare for their future careers. It is amazing to see how our kids grow into wonderful, loving, hardworking, and kind young men and women, ready to contribute to their communities. We pray and believe that our kids will accomplish their goals and become great leaders in society!
VOH Mwanza (Tanzania) Update: Back to School!
It’s our second week back to school in Tanzania at VOH Mwanza and Bulale. Everyone is excited and ready to learn. We are happy to provide new books and uniforms, backpacks, and school supplies for our students. After a three week break for the Christmas holidays, all of the kids are so excited to be back! We have some new faces in our classrooms, too! Many thanks to all of our donors who make this continued care possible through your support!