This week we painted murals, gave out HPV vaccines, and laid the floor on a new high school building!
VOH Africa: Christmas Hope Packs
Hope Packs are targeted fundraisers in the form of care packages designed to meet specific needs within the VOH community. We first launched them in 2020 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, we’ve distributed food Hope Packs, school Hope Packs, and now Christmas Hope Packs!
Christmas Hope Packs contain toys, candy, and other items for the VOH children and will be distributed over the holiday season.
We’ve raised over $2,500 towards Christmas Hope Packs so far! Thank you to everyone who has supported this campaign!
Give a Christmas Hope Pack today for only $25 and put a big smile on the face of a VOH child!
VOH Bulale (Tanzania) Update: HPV Vaccines for Girls!
In Tanzania, the government requires young girls aged 9-14 receive an HPV vaccination to prevent Cervical Cancer. The government put this requirement in place in response to research that indicates that the best way to prevent health issues later in life is by getting vaccinated young.
This week at VOH Bulale, we shared this information from the government with the girls and their parents and offered to facilitate the vaccine for anyone interested.
The parents were so grateful for the opportunity, and over 20 girls received the vaccine from the medical staff here at our centre!
VOH Bwiza (Burundi) Update: Participating at Church
At VOH Bwiza, our children love participating in our church services. Our kids consider it a great privilege to be involved in the service, and we give them the opportunity on a regular basis.
The holistic care we provide includes caring for their spiritual well-being. We are facilitating the children’s spiritual growth by allowing them to share their talents with their church family.
Some of the ways our kids take part in the service include leading worship and praise time, welcoming those that attend and showing them to their seats, interpreting the service from English to Kirundi, and singing and dancing.
It’s always a day of great joy for our children when they participate in the service, and it’s a special joy for the church attendees who get to experience the potential in our children.
We are so thankful to our local church for letting our children be involved!
VOH Chongwe (Zambia) Update: Grace’s Story
VOH Chongwe would like you to meet Grace. Grace lives in a youth home at our centre. She joined our VOH family in 2017 when she was only nine years old and in grade 5.
Grace was brought to us by Social Welfare, and we have been happy to provide a safe and loving home and family for her to be a part of.
We are delighted to report that Grace completed her grade 12 exams last week, and we are confident she will receive excellent results. Her academic performance has been outstanding since she joined our school seven years ago.
Grace’s dream is to become a medical doctor, and we are happy to help make that dream a reality!
If you would like to sponsor a child like Grace, visit sponsorship.vohafrica.com
VOH Kitwe (Zambia) Update: New Highschool Building Construction
Construction of our new high school at VOH Kitwe began late last year, and when complete, the new building will include ten classrooms and offices for our department heads.
This week has been very busy. The contractor was at the site with his men to cast the first floor. They are working tirelessly to complete this portion of the job before the rains come.
We are thankful for the generous donors who help make projects like this possible, and we can’t wait for construction to be complete!
VOH Luongo (Zambia) Update: Meet Patience
Patience joined VOH Luongo when she was in grade 2 and is now in grade 6. She is happy to be part of the VOH family and enjoys having a cup of porridge every morning before class.
Patience loves reading and is confident that with the end-of-year exams they just completed writing in school, she will do well and proceed to the next grade.
When she grows up, Patience wants to be a medical doctor. We can’t wait to see this dream become a reality!
VOH Malawi Update: Child-Focused Classrooms
This week at VOH Malawi, we are excited to share the new mural paintings in our preschool and kindergarten classrooms!
We are always customizing our buildings with a child-first focus. For example, windows and chalkboards are lowered in the youngest students’ classrooms so they can see outside and reach the board.
This week we painted the classes with child-focused artwork. The teachers can also use the new murals in their lessons. We painted numbers, weeks, months, and the letters of the alphabet on the front and back walls.
The kids loved seeing the mural for the first time when they returned to school; it was an exciting surprise!
We continue to strive to make VOH an environment that kids love and look forward to coming to each day!
VOH Maramvya (Burundi) Update: Welcome, Anicet!
Meet Anicet, our newest VOH Maramvya teacher, who will teach our new grade 5 class! At VOH Maramvya, we add a grade and hire a new teacher each year to accommodate our students who have moved up to the next level.
Since he arrived a few weeks ago, Anicet’s students and our other teachers already appreciate his contribution. Everyone says that he is very dedicated to his work, loves God, and wants to share his faith with his students as he helps them grow academically and spiritually.
Welcome, Anicet; we are happy to have you as part of our VOH team!
VOH Mongu (Zambia) Update: New Chicken Coups!
This week at VOH Mongu, we completed two new chicken coups for our farm!
We are so happy with how our sustainability projects have progressed, thanks to our hardworking and dedicated team.
Our farm staff is incredible in managing and caring for our chicken hatchery, fish ponds, and vegetable gardens. They work hard each day to ensure that our farm runs smoothly.
We are thankful for their hard work and the excellent results we continue to see!
VOH Mwanza (Tanzania) Update: Keeping Our Grounds Clean
With the amount of rain we have been experiencing in the past few weeks here in Mwanza, our VOH Mwanza environmental staff have been hard at work slashing the grass, pruning the flowers and collecting garbage to maintain a safe environment for the community at large.
We are so proud to see that some of our older students are even helping out in their spare time during their school break!
We love to see how our older children take pride in their surroundings and are willing to work hard to ensure their environment is kept in good condition and safe for everyone!
VOH Zimbabwe Update: Welcome, Nyasha
This week at VOH Zimbabwe, we welcomed a beautiful 18-month-old baby girl named Nyasha.
Nyasha was found abandoned at a busy food court in the city and was picked up by well-wishers who took her to the police, who, in turn, took her to Social Services.
After having no success in locating her family, Social Services brought her to us so she could have a safe and loving home.
We gladly welcomed Nyasha to our VOH family, and at church on Sunday, she was prayed for by Bishop Zowa.
We are privileged to be entrusted by God to bring hope to this young girl, and we trust that with the care she receives at VOH, she will grow to be a young woman full of love and hope.
Welcome, Nyasha!