Boss Mirriam, 2009

Boss Mirriam, 2022

When HealthEd Connect began, a sweet two-year-old girl named Mirriam captured our hearts. Every decision going forward was based on the welfare of this little one we have lovingly referred to as Boss Mirriam. She has motivated us to do our very best empowering women and children through health, education, and advocacy.

Mirriam was born with HIV, but thankfully she and her mother, Ethel, have diligently followed their treatment plan and are staying very healthy. Mirriam is now in the 9th grade and shows compassion and understanding towards those on the margins, much like our community health worker friends. We're also happy to report that Mirriam is a recipient of our GAP scholarship to support her studies through high school. Her continued education means that she is more likely to avoid early marriage, increase her future earnings, and have healthier children if she chooses to start a family.

Supporting the education and empowerment of girls is essential to building strong communities. We hope you’ll join us in celebrating the growth and unfolding opportunities of our boss!

Mapalo GAP and General Scholars with KIT Coordinator, Mr. Chipyango

The Keeping In Touch (KIT) Club is growing and developing, just like the GAP and General Scholars who are part of it! A few years ago, our sister school leaders held a roundtable meeting to discuss additional ways of ensuring that scholarship recipients would be supported academically, socially, and emotionally throughout high school. After completing grade seven, scholars go to a much larger government secondary school, without the same support system they experienced at our primary schools. As a result, some of the scholars were struggling, and we all wanted to identify ways to help them thrive.

Fast forward, and today you'll see many enhancements to the foundational support provided to scholars through the KIT Club program! A big one is the hiring of KIT Coordinators based at each of our three sister schools to lead tutoring, communicate with students' teachers and caregivers, and facilitate KIT Club meetings. Isaac Chipyango, a trained secondary teacher, is the new KIT Coordinator at Mapalo Young Peace Makers (YPM) school, monitoring each student's academic progress, ensuring 'after hours' access to the computer lab and library at YPM, and supporting extracurricular activities with fellow teachers and Kafwa volunteers. We were thrilled to meet with Isaac and some of the scholars last month, and listen to their hopes for the group and future opportunities!

Teams are working together to support students as they work hard to achieve their high school diploma. Teachers, Kafwa, KIT Coordinators, and YOU, all uplift the education and empowerment of youth!

Happy Zamtan students!

After a wonderful three weeks on-site with our colleagues from Zambia, DRC, and Malawi, the HealthEd Connect staff has returned home and are excited to share many updates! We are full of joy to have shared conversations, meals, and brainstorming sessions and excited for the opportunities ahead to impact more lives. Inspiration and creativity flow as we prioritize new ideas and identify next steps!

Watch for our blogs each week as we spotlight the incredible women, men, and children who lead and make our programs so meaningful.

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After three years, we are thrilled at the chance to reunite with our friends in Africa! We are just a day away from traveling to Zambia and Malawi, meeting with our colleagues and discussing their hopes for future developments. With the Wasaidizi (D.R. Congo community health worker) team coming into Zambia to meet with us, it will be a pleasure to brainstorm with teams from three countries and visit the community centers that have been constructed since the last visit!

Stay tuned for photos, stories, and updates that will surely be coming after our time with our partners.

Our 2021 Annual Report is here and we are so excited to share about the amazing things accomplished through generosity and partnership with our health workers and school colleagues! Pictured are impact statistics from just last year.

If you receive our mailings, this should be in your mailbox this week! You can also take a look at the digital copy here.

Just as we are volunteer-led in the communities where we serve, we are also volunteer-supported in our operations in so many ways! This annual report (and others before it) was designed by a skilled volunteer, and the pieces were prepared for mailing by volunteers. We're so grateful!

We are celebrating the many people, including YOU, who make this impact possible! Thank you!

In Gorkha, Nepal, our health worker colleague Ramprasad plans to start a new phase of latrine building. Over the past few years, Ramprasad has led efforts to build 31 latrines in the region to improve health and sanitation, identified as a top priority in rebuilding efforts following a devastating earthquake. They plan to build 75 latrines in phases. Last week, prior to this new phase of latrine construction, Ramprasad facilitated health camps to continue educating the Gorkha community about the importance of sanitation and children’s nutrition. Nepal team lead, Pinkey, also came to support and teach. These ongoing health education meetings, both in Nepal and our partner sites in Africa, are important for several reasons: new attendees may not have this information, families who attended prior may need to be refreshed on best practices, and all attendees can see and interact with the local community health worker(s) who serves as an advocate for them and their families.

A short video of Ramprasad and Pinkey teaching can be found on our YouTube channel here. We are proud to support volunteers like Ramprasad as they educate and empower their communities!

May 15th is recognized by the United Nations as International Day of Families, stating that: “This day provides an opportunity to promote awareness of issues relating to families and to increase the knowledge of the social, economic and demographic processes affecting families.”

One of the major issues faced in the Copperbelt, Zambia, has been access to education, particularly for orphans and vulnerable children. When surveys were conducted by our community health worker colleagues in 2009, this was the biggest need identified by caregivers. Since then, we’ve been building schools and programs that provide equitable education, consistent meals, grief support for orphans, advocacy for girls, and much more. These issues would not have been addressed without advocacy from families.

We are thrilled that still, twelve years later, the parent and caretaker committees (PCSC) at our sister schools are active and meet each term to discuss the needs and issues children are facing. Today we celebrate the many families who continue to advocate for children in the communities that we serve and across the world!

Mapalo PCSC meeting for 2022 first term