VPR News: Vermont Educator Directs AIDS Program In Africa

VPR News: Vermont Educator Directs AIDS Program In Africa

Authors@Google: Dr. Susanna W. Grannis

The Story of One Exceptional Mother

This Mothers Day I want to tell you the story of Immaculate, a woman that touched my heart.

I am always honored to meet the mamas of the children CHABHA supports. Due to the AIDS crisis in sub-Sahara Africa, several children are taken care of by grandmothers, aunts and neighbors. I have met some remarkably strong women who provide love, and security for these children under very difficult and challenging conditions. On this recent trip to Burundi, I had a chance to visit with one of these women.

Immaculate, is the only surviving child of her family. She cares for her 10 nieces and nephews that have been orphaned by AIDS. She is a beautiful young woman with a welcoming smile. She has never married and has no children of her own. She lives with these children in her 10 by 12 foot one room home. On the day we visited Immaculate she was dealing with a collapsed roof of her small home, and it was about to rain. A man was trying to provide a temporary solution and all the sleeping mats were stacked outside of the home. After a quick inspection, the leaders organized the children to move the mats into another unit. During all of this, Immaculate quickly welcomed us into her mother’s home and instructed the children to make the proper introductions with the rain pouring into her home next door.

With the house temporarily secured and the children inside, the afternoon quickly became an opportunity to share about the children’s recent report cards and success in school. We also discussed in great detail the new business Immaculate has started with the assistance of a micro finance loan from CHABHA. Immaculate created a business of buying goats and selling them to local restaurants in Bujumbura at a profit of about $8.00 per goat. The income from her business has provided food for the children and some security for the future. This success has allowed her to pay back the loan to CHABHA which qualifies her for a larger loan from a microfinance institution in Burundi, that will assist her in growing her business.

This Mothers Day in honor of all the exceptional mothers around the world please donate in honor of your exceptional mother to help CHABHA continue our important work in Rwanda and Burundi.

Tutoring and movies at IWACU

It is Good Friday morning and the children would not miss a day at IWACU for tutoring.

During the school holidays the children enjoy coming to IWACU to read books from Susanna Grannis Library and get tutored in all subjects. This holiday we also had the new projector that was purchased with money raised from our long time friend of CHABHA Karen Johnson and her friends in Colorado. The children have been enjoyed watching the wonderful dvds from Suzanne Abruzzo on the new projector.









The AMAHORO Association is working with a film maker from the UK on a documentary about AMAHORO and last week using the new projector had a preview. I look forward to sharing this wonderful documentary with all of you soon.

AJESOV Life Skills Workshops and Home Visits.

This trimester break the Ajesov Association conducted a one day Life Skills Workshop for the beneficiaries. The topics taught and discussed by the leaders and consultants were on education and development, HIV prevention and Child Rights. The association anticipated 150 children for the all day program that included a lunch. That morning we had heavy rains that delayed the start of the workshop and prevented only a few from coming. The walk for some children can be two hours. The leaders also collected the report cards of the children to document this last periods results.

I was able to make two trips to Nyamata for home visits with Ajesov this month. The focus of the home visits was to access the kitchen garden project Ajesov implemented last year. The leaders worked with the heads of the households to develop sustainable food projects for the households and potential income generating. The challenge in Nyamata or the Bugasera District is the weather, it can be very hot and dry depending where you are. The poor soil and lack of water forces many homes to plant cassava that does well with these. However cassava has limited nutritional value and the demand to supply is very low.

CHABHA Rwanda is looking at creating partnerships to train households in developing the cultivating projects in all the associations.