Bread and Water for Africa® wants to take this opportunity, on International Volunteer Day 2012, to say a huge and heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone – volunteer board members, staff and our African partners – who have contributed so much to making volunteering and volunteerism such a powerful force for good in the world we live in.

Bread and Water for Africa^® wants to take this opportunity, on International Volunteer Day 2012, to say a huge and heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone – volunteer board members, volunteer staff and our African partners – who have contributed so much to making volunteering and volunteerism such a powerful force for good in the world we live in.

The act of volunteering goes to the heart of what it means to be a human being and a good neighbor– to give your time, your skills, your knowledge, and your enthusiasm for the benefit of others whom you may never meet in your lifetime and who will never pay you back in any form.

Below we profile the work of three of our volunteer partners in Africa and their unimaginable sacrifice every single day to make their community a better place for so many children and families.

There are so many volunteers across Africa that we at Bread and Water for Africa^® have the privilege to work with, and today we’d like to take a moment to honor just a few! Read about all of our partner programs.

Rev. Francis Mambu, Faith Healing and Development Organization, Sierra Leone

Reverend Mambu’s warm smile conceals the horrors and hardships that moved him to develop the Faith Healing Development Organization. During the early 1990s, civil war broke out in Sierra Leone causing many citizens, especially medical experts and educators, to flee for safety, leaving many without access to healthcare and other crucial infrastructure. Through support from Bread and Water for Africa^® and many local Sierra Leonean volunteers , Reverend Mambu’s grassroots initiative helped restore basic healthcare for pregnant women, newborns, and children under five through their emergency clinics and community outreach . Moreover, this visionary also established a flourishing educational and vocational center for destitute women and children. Reverend Mambu’s agriculture and food security program has also fed thousands of women and children with freshly grown vegetables, grains and rice.

Angela Miyanda, Kabwata Orphanage and Transit Centre, Lusaka, Zambia

Angela Miyanda is no stranger to the plights facing her fellow Zambians. As wife to the country’s Brigadier General, she regularly confronted the tragic realities of HIV/AIDS within Zambia, where one in four children are orphaned by HIV/AIDS. In 1998, she partnered with Bread and Water for Africa^® to open the Kabwata Orphanage and Transit Center (KOTC), which gave defenseless children nutritious meals, fresh drinking water, and a safe place to rest their heads. This humanitarian went on to open The Early Childhood Learning Center in Lusaka, which gave orphans from the KOTC and other nearby, underprivileged children a safe refuge from Zambia’s streets and a secure place for them to learn and develop life skills. Through her partnership with Bread and Water for Africa^® she was also able to create a mobile clinic that travels village to village spreading the message of HIV/AIDS awareness to thousands of Zambians.

Mrs. Esther H. Ndichafah, Hope Services, Cameroon

Mrs. Esther H. Ndichafah created Hope Services in 1994 with the mission to meet Cameroon’s people’s needs with God’s love. After witnessing the hardships of war, she partnered with Bread and Water for Africa^® to help better her country. Her program has provided thousands of refugees and orphans with basic healthcare, medical treatment and educational tools. Hope Services has lived up to its name; it has restored serenity to the troubled souls of Cameroon.