Healthy Babies

You're only as good as what you leave when you leave the world (anonymous). 

Help HealthEd Connect put smiles on the faces of healthy babies in 2019.  Click here to give an End-of-Year Donation

Seeds of health and hope

In the classic movie, It's a Wonderful Life, George Bailey sees how his small everyday actions impact the lives of others to build a stronger and healthier community. At HealthEd Connect, we are keenly aware of how every seed we plant, every program we promote, every training class we offer, every child we help educate, and every community member we empower, builds stronger communities.  

You may not think about it every day, but your donations to HealthEd Connect make a profound impact on the lives and health of so many people!

New  tire-garden crops

What started with a few vegetable seeds in tire gardens at the schools, has gone viral.  Seeds of health and hope are being planted throughout the communities to bring better nutrition to many.

Community member recipients

Celebration Time!

School is out in Zambia!  As with kids everywhere, the last day of school is a day of celebration.  It is an especially big event at our partner schools, however, since the usual lunch of porridge is replaced with an extra special meal.

The kafwa cooks arrived early to get the charcoal fires burning to cook rice (an expensive and prized food in Zambia), sausage (meat of any kind is a rare treat), and vegies (always a welcome food).  To top things off, each child received a a special yogurt-type Super Shake drink.  

Mumba Emmanuel, one of the teachers reported, "a party was held to celebrate the accomplishments we have attained together in the year 2018 as a team. ... alot of activities were lined up to make the event more colourful. Such things like sketches,songs,poems .It was really a wonderful moment for all of us!!

Kasompe End-of-School Celebration

Similar celebrations were held in Kasompe and Zamtan where the children were equally as excited!!

Honored Again!

   

        Thanks to our fans, we won a 2018 Top-Rated Award!

One of our supporters wrote:
This is really a great non-profit. With only two paid positions, most of the money goes to helping the women, children and communities. They provide health education to enable more children to grow to adulthood. The volunteer workers in the various communities where it is established have been recognized by their governments.

Another said:
HealthEd Connect has impacted (and continues to impact) so many lives. I was able to track the HealthEd Connect team on their latest trip to Zambia and Malawi through a Garmin satellite communicator. It was really neat to follow them during their trip. I was even able to see the schools in Zambia via satellite imaging. Amazing what HealthEd Connect has done!

Still another wrote:
I am a farmer in the great food basket of Iowa. I was so please to see how instructors @ Health Ed were teaching the value and use of greens by tire gardens. The students are able to harvest much needed additional food and at the same time receive a first hand demonstration how it is produced.
Thank You.

And finally:
I am so proud to be a sustaining donor for HealthEd Connect because of the strength and impact of its programs — in particular, the data-driven methodologies for addressing health needs in the communities it serves. I also appreciate how well-informed HealthEd Connect keeps me about allocation of funds across the different programs.

Thanksgiving Prayer Beads

Kafwa paper-bead necklaces

Our amazing kafwa are providing comfort and encouragement far beyond their own villages and communities.  Their reach is far and wide.
On Thanksgiving eve I received a forwarded message from a friend I have yet to meet.  She's going through a difficult chemo journey and wrote the following to a friend who gave her one of the paper-bead necklaces made by the kafwa health workers in Zambia:

I have been very remiss in sending a thank you.... for your very thoughtful gifts of the beautiful necklace from Africa via HealthEd Connect (a very impressive organization providing much needed support)...  The necklace is in my chemo bag and accompanies me to my treatments. Such tokens feel both powerful and comforting, and I love your idea of counting my friends and family in its links. 

Our amazing kafwa are providing comfort and encouragement far beyond their own villages and communities.  For the kafwa and their far-reaching ministry, we give thanks. 

Back to School

Jane assisting with immunizations

Jane has long dreamed of becoming a nurse.  She began working toward that goal last month by enrolling in the 10th grade on her way toward the high school diploma required for admission to nursing school. 

Jane brings health and hope to countless people in her rural community in Luapula Province, Zambia.  She is the quintessential health worker!!  As she makes rounds in her village carrying a bag of guava leaves she'll use to make an effective antiseptic for open wounds, Jane keeps a log of the 30+ people she's seeing who have leg ulcers and need treatment.

She tirelessly weighs babies, walks moms in labor to the clinic to give birth, provides in service demonstrations at the local hospital, shares love and stories with the orphans, and makes innumerable home visits -- all while diligently caring for her own two children.

Supporting her little family as a single mom, it is often difficult for Jane to provide food and school supplies for her own children much less funds for her own schooling.  Thanks to the support of HealthEd Connect donors, Jane is now able to pursue her own dream of acquiring the education that will prepare her to better serve her community.

A Team with a Dream!

During this fun, festive season of sports, everyone has their favorite team to root for. My favorite team is this colorful, energetic, and caring group of women in southern Nepal who recently attended a training to learn life-saving health information. The captains of our dream team, Pinkey and Sangeeta, tell us they are selecting women who will make a  “devoted team by their dedication towards the community, which can bring our dream into reality.” 

The 2018-2019 Dream Team

Many of these ladies will become volunteer community health workers and will teach good health practices to their communities for many, many years to come. I’m betting my donor dollars on this dream team and I KNOW that they’re going to be winners! 

Trainees practice sewing washable sanitary pads while learning how to teach hygiene to village women.