Faith Songwe, BSCN

We are so proud to announce that one of our PNA nursing scholarship recipients, Faith Songwe, has graduated and passed her licensure exams! She is officially Faith Songwe, BSCN.

When notifying us of her achievement, she had this to say:

“I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you and the team that I have completed my studies at the Lusaka apex Medical University and I have passed my exams am now a confirmed degree nurse. I don’t how I can say thank you to you, had it not being for you I would have not completed my study. I thank God for you people, thank you so much.”

Join us in celebrating Faith’s accomplishment! She is joining the ranks of compassionate, healing nurses around the world!

In Lubumbashi, D.R. Congo, coordinator Josephine and her team of Wasaidizi have been chipping away at local misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine. Concerns regarding efficacy and safety have spread quickly. Many families in the area believe that the vaccines being distributed in Africa are meant to kill them; a rumor that would make anyone think twice before voluntarily taking it.

Josephine and her team have visited 325 local families in the last month in order to combat these rumors. While assuring that the COVID-19 vaccine is safe, the Wasaidizi also encouraged the families to watch news stories about other African countries that are vaccinating.

Times like these are when it is most important to be grassroots-led. When local communities fear the worst, people they know and trust can work with them through misinformation and doubts. We are proud to partner with advocates like the Lumbumbashi Wasaidizi team!

Our community health worker colleagues make BIG impacts! From prenatal to palliative care, the Kafwa in Zambia work tirelessly to help their community members.

In Mapalo, a 37-year-old woman named Tanti is living with tuberculosis and HIV. Due to her conditions, she has to travel to the local hospital regularly- an expensive and exhausting routine to receive treatment. After being “adopted” by our Kafwa friends, she has received food to keep up her strength and financial assistance to continue traveling to the hospital. After realizing that the woman was not taking her medications correctly, Kafwa women set up counseling sessions for her. Since becoming a client of the Kafwa, Tanti’s health has vastly improved, along with her quality of life. 

Tanti’s story showcases the life-changing impact that advocacy can have! Because of the love and support shown by the Kafwa, Tanti’s life improved significantly. Thank you for making their empowering and healing work possible!

We hope you enjoyed our first post sent through Follow.It! To learn more about their service, go to: https://follow.it

As a nonprofit in the digital age, we are constantly evolving the tools we use to share our uplifting stories of empowerment! After our recent website update, we are going a step further to improve our blog distribution. If you receive our blog updates via email, nothing should change on your end - only the format may look a little different.

If you have no idea what an RSS Feed is, you can skip the rest of this post. We will look forward to sending out a blog post next week through our new blog service! However, if you have been using our existing RSS Feed to view our blogs, you will need to make a change. We are changing our RSS service from Feedburner to Follow.it, and the identifying links can be found below:

Feedburner RSS Feed Address: http://feeds.feedburner.com/healthedconnect

Follow.it RSS Feed Address: https://follow.it/blog-healthed-connect

If you prefer to use the native RSS Feed on our website rather than a syndication service, it can be found here: http://www.healthedconnect.org/blog?format=rss .

We anticipate making this change next week. Please reach out to regan@healthedconnect.org if you have any questions or issues. We look forward to sharing our stories through Follow.it from now on!

Students enjoying a healthy lunch

Amazon Prime Days are nearly here!

Online shopping has become a necessary part of our lives, but by shopping through AmazonSmile, your deals send smiles to Zambia!

Make your purchases and make a difference during the Amazon Prime Day deals on June 21 and 22, or anytime you shop on Amazon! Simply shop at smile.amazon.com/ch/27-1115162 or with AmazonSmile ON in the Amazon Shopping app and AmazonSmile donates to HealthEd Connect.

It's said that there's no such thing as a free lunch, but we disagree...your shopping provides lunches for orphans and vulnerable children attending HealthEd Connect schools. Combating hunger improves health and concentration in classes, empowering our students to succeed!

Thank you for ensuring that we can provide nutrition and support to women and children throughout the world. Keep shopping and keep smiling!

Kasompe teachers and board members in front of the new ablution block under construction

At the Kasompe Community School of Peace, the new ablution block is nearly completed thanks to a generous Rotary grant. In addition, the sponsored iWASH (integrated Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) curriculum has begun! Students from grades 5-7 and teachers are being taught the basics of water contamination and how to prevent it, safe water collection and storage, and maintaining the new and improved sanitation facilities on campus!

Student curriculum also emphasized the importance of turning taps off to conserve water, cleaning and caring for the new block, and leading by example for younger grades. This addition to campus is a wonderful opportunity to foster responsibility and community, while providing safe and accessible sanitation facilities!

New water storage at Kasompe Community School of Peace.

May 15 was recognized by the UN as International Day of Families. On this day we recognize the impact of family on how we view the world and communicate with others. We also want to recognize that family can look very different to different people!

Our Zambian colleagues see blended families often, with grandmothers, aunties and non-related caregivers taking care of orphaned children after the heartbreaking loss of their parents. They are the reason we have community schools in three Copperbelt communities. Caregivers advocated for the children to be educated, seeing a brighter future if they could have a chance to learn. The schools now serve over 1,400 orphans and vulnerable children, and the PCSC (caregiver and teacher group) meetings are highly attended! Students’ families are still invested, involved, and inspired when it comes to education! Orphaned children attending our schools are also invited to join the Kafwa-led “Isubilo” (meaning hope) grief support group, where they can share their feelings with other children in a loving environment, play, and create a whole new type of family together. We are proud to have programs that celebrate and uplift families in Zambia! 

Let’s celebrate the diverse nature of families - related or created - and the love that is shared!

Volunteer cook serves lunch to young student at Kasompe Community School of Peace, 2010

"You cannot learn on an empty stomach." It's a simple fact, verified by numerous research studies. This is why it is a priority for HealthEd Connect to provide lunch to all students at all three of our community schools every school day. For some, this may be their only meal of the day.

Recently, Emmanuel Mumba, our head teacher colleague at Mapalo Young Peace Makers Community School, shared this note about the impact of the school lunches:

“First of all on behalf of the children we are so grateful for the meals being provided to learners during this difficult time of our times! You may wish to know that meals have impacted learners attendance and performance in general positively and consequently the good performance at grade seven level...The hunger situation in our country is pathetic and receiving food like this is a huge relief on the side of the family.”

Mapalo Kafwa, Joyce Ngosa and Joyce Songwe echoed the importance of lunches for their learners, saying:

“We had a very good exercise to weed our garden to prepare it for the healthy growth of vegetables which in turn has a positive impact on our learners…Thank you for being our effective partners in an effort to provide support to initiatives that allow learners who are most vulnerable to access a decent meal while at school.”

Thanks to your support, students are nourished in body and mind, eager to learn and play! On behalf of the more than 1,400 orphans and vulnerable students at our three schools in Zambia, we share a sincere and heartfelt "Twatotela sana!" (We thank you!)