This week we held a Board meeting, received gifts from a local business, and spent Christmas money!
VOH Bulale (Tanzania) Update: Happy Memories!
As we power through the new year, we remember one of the happiest moments of 2021: our kindergarten graduation! All of our Centre’s children celebrated the first graduation of our youngest students. Everyone collaborated to perform in different languages through singing and poetry. There was also lots of dancing! As you can see, the room is filled with many bright and happy faces. We look forward to many more happy moments like this in the upcoming school year.
VOH Bwiza (Burundi) Update: Gifts from Sponsors!
At VOH Bwiza, the children recently used the Christmas gift money they received from their sponsors to purchase beautiful clothing and shoes! It’s a great joy to see our children feeling loved and cared for. We are so thankful to our sponsors for their love and support!
VOH Chongwe (Zambia) Update: New Preschool Class!
VOH Chongwe is excited to add another class of preschool children to our school! It’s terrific to see some of the off-site feeding program children become old enough to join this new class. Our off-site feeding program caters to children from the surrounding community who are not old enough to attend school but still need extra care. Once they are old enough, they will attend our school, which is the case with these new students. The children are thrilled to be in school finally!
VOH Kitwe (Zambia) Update: Guidance from the Board
VOH Kitwe is grateful for the relationship we have with our local Board. Whenever we need to consultation of any kind, our Board is always there to offer guidance and encouragement. This week we invited them to review the 2021 grade 7 results, and they were happy to hear that all of the children passed with good marks. They also helped with some planning specific to the needs of our grade 8 students. We also enjoyed good conversations around the overall well-being of our Centre. We were so pleased they were happy with what they saw, and we appreciate their wisdom and support!
VOH Luongo (Zambia) Update: Visit from the Board
This week, VOH Luongo is happy to share that our Board came to visit for the first time this year. The VOH Kitwe teaching staff and the VOH Kitwe/Luongo Director, Everlyn Chitente, also visited us. The group toured the classrooms and our garden and said they were delighted with everything they saw. The local board members interacted with the teaching staff. They were happy to see that we are following the Zambia Ministry of General Education curriculum, and they applauded our teachers for their hard work. They were also delighted to hear our students have already learned how to read and write!
VOH Malawi Update: New Smartphones!
At VOH Malawi, we value communication. Therefore, we have allowed all staff access to a small advance loan to purchase a smartphone. Communicating by phone has proven to be one of the easiest and most reliable ways to communicate. Setting up groups of different departments and sending one message that reaches all of the intended individuals at once ensures nobody misses out on important meeting dates or other plans. Some of our staff have been missing essential communications because they did not have any way to access the internet; they had to rely on fellow staff members to keep them updated. We are careful to train everyone about the importance of security and privacy. They only use their cell phones to communicate general information, nothing private or sensitive. Using this means of communicating is far less expensive than making phone calls, as every call is charged by the minute. We believe that making it possible for all staff to have the same access to a smartphone is one of the ways we can show them we value them for their work as they serve VOH Malawi kids.
VOH Mongu (Zambia) Update: Thank You, Whence Financial!
This week at VOH Mongu, it was great to have Whence Financial Services visit our school and extend their generous kindness towards four of our school kids! They have sponsored four kids by providing school uniforms, books, shoes, and stationery. We are so glad to have such generous businesses in our community! Their desire to help the younger generations have a brighter future is a real inspiration. We are thankful for the many people who are a blessing to our kids. Thank you, Whence Financial, for your generosity and support!
VOH Mwanza (Tanzania) Update: Putting our Skills to Use!
VOH Mwanza has seen many positive changes over the last three years! One of these changes is the success of our reunification program. The goal of this program is for our child welfare staff to find the families of the children in our shelter program, and where appropriate, support them in being reunited. The success of our program has left some of our housemothers with extra time on their hands as their families are now smaller. With this new free time, they have offered to join our sewing team and help make uniforms for the children at our VOH Mwanza and Bulale Centres. We are so grateful for their desire to support the VOH children in any way they can!
VOH Zimbabwe Update: Returning to School
It’s back to school again at VOH Zimbabwe! After the December break, schools were supposed to reopen on January 10th, but they had to stay closed longer due to increased COVID-19 cases around the country. It was a relief when things improved, and the government allowed children to return to school. The children and their parents are delighted for schools to be open once again. There was so much joy as friends were reunited! We wish all of our students a great year and pray there will be no more interruptions to their education this year.