Jeanette's Mission

  Valentine's Day is all about love (ok, and maybe about a bit of chocolate too!) so with Valentine's weekend upon us, I thought I'd share an experience I had last week that reminded me of love. I had a pastor from Toronto visit who wanted to see the work of Villages of Hope in Tanzania. I took him around the main location near Mwanza, and then we went to the satellite center in Bulale. It is about 45 minutes from the center of town, and in a very poor community area. It was a great visit - we saw the children playing, having their tasty lunch and the grade 5 girls were getting vaccinated (some of them sure didn't like the needle!) Then we visited a couple of the classrooms. As we did, the children decided they wanted to sing to us. First, we were in the reception class, and later we went to see the children in grade 5. Without any coercion or pre-planning, both classes decided to sing the same song. Guess what they sang? .... Jesus loves me!  To me, this is what the Go...

Here's a short video I made for you to kick 2023 right. Take 60 sec to watch!     It's going to be a great year! I sense it. I value your partnership and the ongoing prayer support. I feel it.  Here's a few Prayer Requests : Strength to complete VOH Program Audit reviews - I'm halfway there! I have done 5 of the 10 centres, and will finish the rest in the next 3 months. Pray that God helps me to do this work (it’s tiring!!!), that He helps discover what can use some improvement and that us celebrate all the great things that are being done! Financial support – pray God does help me find new partners. I'll be coming home in June to meet with churches and individuals. If you have friends I should meet, let me know!  My walk with God – Pray I continue to grow in “TRUST” this year, to live in real time trusting Him BEFORE the answer appears, not only AFTER He shows Himself faithful! Amen.  Looking forward to walking the journey with you this coming year! Many b...

  ... I literally gave water to children who had none. I've spent most of my updates talking about the great work VOH is doing and the impact it has in the lives of children. But today I want to share 2 life changing experiences I recently had and what God is speaking to my heart. Here's the 1st story: It was in a remote area of Tanzania, the heart of Masi country, where families survive on herding goats and cattle. I wasn't prepared for what I saw. It was so dry, there were dust tornados in the air. The cattle were so skinny, with bones protruding; some carcasses were already lying on the ground. There had been no rain since last February. Many people were walking miles and miles every day just to find water. Children we drove by were not only holding out their hands for food but asking for water. I've had children ask me for food before, but never in my life have I had a child ask me for water. We ran into a Masi father, with his 2-year-old son, wanting a ride to go f...

  VOH aspires is "to bring hope to children in need" but is it happening?  I can answer with a resounding "YES!"!  Over the last 2 months, I've been conducting reviews in 5 of our 10 VOH Centres including.... Conducting  over 50 1-1 interviews  with program leaders Reviewing  countless documents, child records , and Leading  17 focus groups with over 130 children! It's been exhausting!! For those of you who know me well, you know I have a lot of work stamina, but every time I was finished for the day, I was tired! But it's been amazing too. I've never been more convinced of the impact VOH is having on the lives of children. It's FAR too much to explain in a short update, but here are a  Fe w Highlights: Children in VOH schools have higher overall grades and success than those the government schools  The feeding programs are providing much needed nutrition - and the children love it! Children are cared for physically, including ...

  As I live here in Africa, I'm reminded how much I have to be thankful for. This past week, in the child focus groups, I had children tell me how thankful they are for VOH - because they now have an education, food, clothes and shoes, and without coming here, their family couldn't afford it. I honestly don't know what it's like to be thankful for any of these things, as in Canada, I've never had a day when they weren't easily available to me. The children are so thankful.  As I think of all the Goodness of God in my life this Thanksgiving weekend, I include you. I'm truly thankful that you are on this journey with me through your giving, thoughts and prayers. Thank you. When I finished one of the focus groups, I asked if anyone wanted to say something to the donors who support me in my work at VOH. Sharon, a girl in the teen group, wanted to sing a song of thanks she wrote. In it she says: I want to say thank you for the things you have done, I want yo say ...

  I have 2 exciting things to talk about today - something that just happened last week, and something that is about to happen next week! First, what happened last week - the "Keeping Children Safe" Conference. This is an annual 3 day (online) conference with NGOs and professionals around the world who care about child safeguarding, ensuring children are safe and their rights are known and respected. This year, there was a session that featured some VOH children who talked about the Child Safeguarding policy and practice in their VOH centres. They shared what they learned about the VOH child safeguarding policy, how it impacts them, what can be done to improve it and more. It's really exciting for me (and I hope you too) to see children understand their rights as children, feel empowered to take action, and report they feel they safe when they come to VOH school everyday.  My favourite parts were when Blessing said she learned what her rights are, she realized VOH childr...

  It's one thing for me to say VOH does good work, but it's always nice when someone else sees it for themselves and makes comments on what they observe. This happened to us at VOH Mwanza last month. The Prime Minister of Tanzania likes to give vulnerable children something to celebrate on a special holiday once a year. The government selects different centers or children’s homes and prepare gifts for the children.  This year VOH Mwanza was one of the centers selected! The PM sent the District Commissioner to come on her behalf to give the gifts to the children. They brought 80 kilograms of rice, 20 liters of cooking oil, lots of potatoes and bananas, and 2 live goats. A few hours later .... they had a big barbeque and feast for the children (not so festive for the poor goats)! The children invited some of their schoolmates to join them. They ate to their heart's content and had so much fun. Plus, they had lots of food supplies left over for the next month or two. The event...