In June, our sponsored children in Masisi completed the 2006-2007 school year. All of the children studied very hard and out of the 64 children sponsored to attend school, 58 were successful in passing their grade level. The six who were not successful were sick during the mandatory exams at the conclusion of the school year. In the school system in Masisi, children only have one chance to complete these end of the year exams. If a child is unable to complete the exams when they are administered, regardless of the reason, they cannot pass to the next grade level. Unfortunately, our six children will be required to repeat the same grade level during 2007-2008.

During the past year, the families of our sponsored children were trained in income generating activities, and were given a grant to enable the family to begin a small activity of their own. To encourage the families to save money, and to teach them the value of using their resources wisely, we required the families to put $1 into a savings account every month. To date, 100% of the families have been successful in doing this, a staggering number in comparison to the success rates of other programs. We are excited by this accomplishment and are encouraged that the families are motivated to work and save money for the future.

Families of our sponsored children were also given rabbits so that they could begin breeding the rabbits to eat or sell. Families were trained on breeding rabbits and were required to give one rabbit from their first set of offspring to the Nehemiah Committee in Masisi. This not only teaches the responsibility of caring for the community, but it also enables the Nehemiah Committee to continue to influence and support other struggling communities of people. At the end of July, we received word that 12 rabbits had been given to the Nehemiah Committee.

In July, HEAL Africa brought in an independent consultant to analyze the effectiveness of all HEAL Africa sponsorship programs. The consultant spent 10 days in the field with multiple program coordinators and made some very good suggestions on how we can improve our sponsorship programs to make a greater impact on the families, the school and the communities.