Village of Hope Mwanza

We had a great visit at Village of Hope Mwanza.  Village of Hope is an amazing organization that gives help to vulnerable children by providing education, nutrition, healthcare & housing (when needed). They currently have 9 locations in 6 African Countries (Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe & Burundi) and provide help to 3,000 children.

We were very impressed with what we saw at the Village of Hope Mwanza.  Not only do they house 86 children ranging in age from 3 years old to early twenties, they also have about 200 kids from the community that come each week day for school & nutritious meals.  All of the older children go to community high schools as VOH Mwanza currently offers classes from pre-school through Grade 6.

In total they have 10 houses, each with 8 to 9 kids and one house mother.  Every house has both boys & girls as well as mixed ages which feels more like family to the children. The kids are also required to help with chores such as laundry, cooking & cleaning so that they learn the skills they will need to be independent. The meals are cooked in a traditional Tanzanian outdoor kitchen.

There is also one large outdoor kitchen where all of the house mothers cook a mid morning & mid day meal for all 250+ kids who go to school on-site.  Watching them cook was very fascinating which may deserve a blog post on its own!

The grounds were well cared for and kept clean both by the kids and staff.

One room is set up for sewing as well as a dedicated man who does beautiful beadwork.

There is also a large garage/machine shop where many pieces of equipment, large & small, get fixed.

The kids were a lot of fun to meet! Huge smiles, happy greetings and a lot of silliness 🙂

We will be back!