Happy girls at the community center

In the Kikungu village of D.R. Congo, there’s great excitement! After a generous gift of land from the chiefs, the Wasaidizi health workers and Kikungu community members joined together to build a community center to serve the children and mothers of the area.

After an traditional groundbreaking ceremony, the group encountered their first major obstacle: the truck hired to transport bricks to the site could not pass over the dike due to heavy rains. Seeing that this could mean significant delays in construction, women in the community volunteered to carry the heavy blocks! One woman would bend down while others would stack the blocks on her head, and then walk nearly a mile to the site where volunteers would help to unload them before doing it over again.

Thanks to their hard work, the community center walls went up in a matter of days, and now the roof is being framed while the floors are prepared and the outside of the center is receiving its first plaster coating. All of this has been accomplished in just a few short months!

One of the project coordinators, Musans, wrote: “The Kikungu center is an event of the century…[The community says] a miracle is done in Kikungu… to show their joy, everyone who visits the works contributes with his strength…the children, young people and parents.”

Community centers like these are only possible thanks to teamwork from coordinators, community members, and supporters like you! To see an abbreviated version of how this project has progressed on-site, watch our Youtube video here. You'll be amazed! 

Kasompe students patiently waiting for their meals

It’s an exciting time for our sister schools in Zambia as they celebrate a successful school year completed! Early in the morning, the Kafwa and school cooks join together to cook a very special meal for the students. Nshima, rice, meats like sausage or chicken, veggies, and special sweets are all on the menu, and take several hours to prepare.

The excitement, gratitude, and joy on the student’s faces make the hard work worth it! The children are very happy, and can take the leftover food home to their families to enjoy. We are so proud to support the teachers, school boards, and kafwa that make each school day an opportunity to educate and nurture.

Special days like these are made possible by you, friends! Thank you for blessing others generously, and uplifting health care, education, and advocacy for orphans and vulnerable children at our sister schools!

Students happily saying “End of year party”!

Thresah, Kafwa community health worker, excited about the latrine development in Mulundu, Zambia

How often are we grateful for our toilets? If you have one, it may be easy to overlook how important it is to your daily life. However, 3.6 billion (yes, with a "b") people do not have access to safely managed sanitation.* Without safely managed sanitation, our health, environment, and dignity all come into jeopardy. Time and hard work are of the essence if we want to protect each other and meet goals to have toilets for all by 2030.* (*World Toilet Day)

HealthEd Connect includes sanitation education in community health worker training, and we're grateful to support and partner in efforts to provide access to safe sanitation systems in communities. In the rural area of Gorkha, Nepal, Ramprasad has built 31 latrines with the help of the families who will benefit from them. Their new access to safe sanitation facilities is cause for community celebration! At our partner school in Kasompe, Zambia, the new ablution (toilet) block is completely finished and in use thanks to a Rotary grant focused on WASH (water, sanitation, hygiene) in schools. And in Mulundu, Zambia, a latrine is being built next to their new community center. The community, and the environment, is healthier because of these sanitation facilities.

So, today we celebrate toilets! Moreover, we advocate for the importance of effective sanitation education and systems to maintain good community health.

Facilitators (left to right): Ramprasad, Nikita, Pinkey, Pabitra, Sara, and Sangeeta

Last week, the volunteer community health workers from Gorkha, Rai village, and Kathmandu, Nepal, gathered for training! Coordinator Pinkey helped to facilitate, joined by site coordinator Ramprasad, site coordinator and professional nurse Sangeeta, and nursing students Pabitra, Nikita, and Sara. This team of six helped to refresh the volunteers on WHO community-based care practices and led a new training about women’s health. The facilitators also explored topics of aging populations, pre and post-natal care, and the current Dengue fever crisis affecting Nepal. A similar training will take place next month in Biratnagar, so the volunteers in that area can also benefit from these classes.

Seeing this partnership of volunteer community health workers and professional (or future professional) nurses is exciting! This is empowerment and advocacy in action; local trainers like Ramprasad, Pinkey, and Sangeeta speak and understand the local language, culture, and issues, and they are preparing the next generation of trainers like Pabitra, Sara, and Nikita by involving them as facilitators!

For a decade now, UNICEF has been celebrating the Day of the Girl to promote issues that threaten girls’ rights, opportunities, and safety (UNICEF). The COVID-19 pandemic and global warming have hindered advancement and undermined previous successes made in recent years (World Economic Forum, All Africa), and now we must try to regain ground and work to close the gender gap. UNICEF’s goals for 2022 to 2023 include:

• Supporting the leadership of adolescent girls

• Increasing resources for and investments in adolescent girls

• Improving access to and uptake of inclusive adolescent girl-centered services

We are proud to have frameworks in place to support these goals! The Kafwa health worker volunteers, along with invested teachers at our schools, are involved in initiatives that advocate for orphans and vulnerable children, with particular sensitivity to the rights and protection of girls. The weekly Girls Achievement Program (GAP) for girls in grades 5-7 provides a safe space to learn about their bodily development, the importance of staying in school and avoiding early marriage, as well as learning life skills. Our high school scholarships for girls help to further their educational journey. And starting last year, two GAP high school graduates were awarded our nursing scholarship, preparing them for a rewarding career!

We are grateful to our supporters who make these programs possible. By continuing to find new ways to empower girls, we are preparing the next generation of empowered women!

First two pages of the Nonprofit Times article

We feel honored to share this exciting news! In June, The Nonprofit Times and Yearly held an annual report contest for nonprofits across the United States, with categories for small, medium and large organizations. HealthEd Connect won the small organization category, and we have been featured in The Nonprofit Times September issue! We are thrilled that our mission, the work and stories of our colleagues, and program impacts have been recognized with such an uplifting review. And we extend a special thank you to our extraordinary volunteer graphic designer, Ruth Seagraves, who brings our articles, photos, and lists into a cohesive report that looks beautiful! You can find our article here, on pages 12-14.

Thank you to our generous supporters investing in empowerment of women and children through health and education. Your partnership uplifts lives, and we celebrate the joy of this recognition with you!

Frank Kamanga at the Mazembe Sinkhani Community Center

In Mazembe, Malawi, the second of three Sinkhani community centers stands proud, ready to host weighings for infants and children, counseling moms, and new youth programs. A garden has begun next door, serving as an outdoor classroom and providing extra nutrition to the mothers who visit. Tending to the building, garden, and plot is a man named Frank.

Frank came to help at the community center during construction. After seeing his dedication and his need for a safe place to stay, the Sinkhani invited him to become the official caretaker! Frank was born with albinism, and persons with this condition may face abandoment, discrimination, and even danger due to false beliefs. Frank faced these dangers too closely, but the Sinkhani are looking out for him and his family. Our health worker friends challenge culture regularly, educating mothers and families to sort out fact from fiction related to health and wellbeing, and their advocacy is exemplified in their empowerment of Frank. Now a valuable member of the Sinkhani team, Frank shares ideas for programs at the center, showing particular compassion for the wellbeing of children.

We had the pleasure of meeting Frank in July, and are thrilled he is there to support important community programs led by the Sinkhani. We hope you’ll join us in welcoming Frank to the Malawi Sinkhani team!

After months of waiting and several attempts, we were able to deliver some very special items to our friends in June! Thanks to a generous donation of soccer gear from World of Children, we were able to take jerseys, shorts, socks, and more to support sports programs for orphans and vulnerable children! Students, teachers, and health workers alike were THRILLED and have already put the gear into action!

Our photo above is from the girls’ soccer team in Mapalo, Zambia. We’ve also linked a couple of short videos for you to share in the excitement! One is from the orphans’ support group in Lubumbashi, D.R. Congo, facilitated by Wasaidizi health worker, Jenny. Another is from Zamtan Community School of Peace, where students were cheering with joy as they saw teachers and fellow students sporting the new gear!

We are incredibly grateful for this gift made by World of Children, and are enamored with the photos and videos being shared of the children in their new uniforms, looking so proud to show their team spirit!