Your investment in this fund
helps a child with disabilities
attend school, provide teacher
training on child protection
and trauma-informed practices,
bring art supplies into under-resourced
schools, and so much more.
Your investment in this fund
provides family services,
parenting classes, and more
at Family Resource Centers,
train parents in skills that
give economic independence,
and so much more.
Your investment in this fund provides
emergency medical expenses,
nutrition classes in Family Resource
Centers, support for pregnant mothers
and early childhood health interventions,
investment in services for children
with disabilities, and so much more.
Your investment in this fund launches
a social entrepreneur in a business
supporting their work among
the most vulnerable, invests in
job skills training for vulnerable
women, supports digital skills
for youth, and so much more.
Your investment in this fund
plants trees as part of agricultural
initiatives; launches an animal
husbandry project that brings
sustainability, provides gardening
and beekeeping classes at Family
Resource Centers, and so much more.
Your investment
in this fund supports biogas
installation in community
centers and schools,
helps projects transition
to solar energy,
and so much more.
Your investment in this fund
are using music, technology,
and the arts to reach students from
underserved communities and provide
job skills training and intervention,
supporting cultural events in Family
Resource Centers, and so much more.
Your investment in this fund
supports faith-based community
initiatives, funds Pastor
or Sunday School teacher
training through the
Celebrating Children Workshop,
and so much more.
Your investment in this fund
supports a housing fund
for emergencies
or natural disasters,
housing repairs for widows
and other vulnerable community
members, and so much more.
Your investment in this fund
helps a child with disabilities
attend school, provide teacher
training on child protection
and trauma-informed practices,
bring art supplies into under-resourced
schools, and so much more.
Your investment in this fund
provides family services,
parenting classes, and more
at Family Resource Centers,
train parents in skills that
give economic independence,
and so much more.
Your investment in this fund provides
emergency medical expenses,
nutrition classes in Family Resource
Centers, support for pregnant mothers
and early childhood health interventions,
investment in services for children
with disabilities, and so much more.
Your investment in this fund launches
a social entrepreneur in a business
supporting their work among
the most vulnerable, invests in
job skills training for vulnerable
women, supports digital skills
for youth, and so much more.
Your investment in this fund
plants trees as part of agricultural
initiatives; launches an animal
husbandry project that brings
sustainability, provides gardening
and beekeeping classes at Family
Resource Centers, and so much more.
Your investment
in this fund supports biogas
installation in community
centers and schools,
helps projects transition
to solar energy,
and so much more.
Your investment in this fund
are using music, technology,
and the arts to reach students from
underserved communities and provide
job skills training and intervention,
supporting cultural events in Family
Resource Centers, and so much more.
Your investment in this fund
supports faith-based community
initiatives, funds Pastor
or Sunday School teacher
training through the
Celebrating Children Workshop,
and so much more.
Your investment in this fund
supports a housing fund
for emergencies
or natural disasters,
housing repairs for widows
and other vulnerable community
members, and so much more.
Several weeks ago, we received a message from Sypora, Loom’s Early Childhood Education Service Coordinator. She had traveled to Pokot, Kenya to teach a Celebrating Children Seminar with Jordan, another Social Innovator. “Pokot is dry, dusty, remote, [and] hot but God’s people live here,” Sypora wrote. “I had a ministry with girls on Tuesday and…
This past week we received an update from John Mukolwe, a Social Innovator who has been part of development work in a village called Engikaret. For years the Engikaret clinic has been operating only when they could afford to bring in a doctor and supplies. Women and children would walk for five or six hours…
In 2021, we and many of our partners saw hopes deferred again and again due to COVID-19 and many other delays. It was a year of much learning, creative thinking, and listening to those on the ground as they shared with us their struggles and their insights. As we enter now into a new year,…
Over one year later, the first ever Vuka Small Business Start-Up Cohort has learned much. Starting a new business during COVID was extremely challenging, but we celebrate how each participant creatively addressed those challenges and all they have learned. Many of the small businesses are still running and providing much-needed income for projects among the…
From the very beginning, Loom’s goal was to equip CCW Alumni to creatively contextualize what they learned within their own unique cultural and professional situation. As leaders recognized the need to break the 4-week CCW into shorter, more regular trainings to fit the needs of busy pastors, teachers, and community leaders, the Celebrating Children Seminar…
Lotet Julius is a Social Innovator working in Northern Uganda among refugees fleeing South Sudan. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they saw greatly increased incidents of violence erupt among the camps. This caused them to create the Reconciliation Gate Foundation, which promotes grassroots reconciliation, peace and development. Here is Lotet’s story, in his own words: Among…
“This teaching has changed me.” Over and over again, this is the feedback that Celebrating Children Workshop (CCW) Alumni are hearing as they run their own seminars across East Africa. Since October 2020, 16 facilitators have successfully launched 28 seminars in various locations in East Africa. These 16 facilitators have trained 1311 beneficiaries – pastors,…
“Everything that I am doing now has changed my life.” – Gemma, Vuka Small Business Owner It has been one year since Loom launched the Vuka Small Business Start-Up Course with a training in Arusha, Tanzania. Since then, twenty-eight leaders have completed the course and have launched their own small business in their community.…
Bosco Tuli is a social innovator working near Lira, Uganda in the wake of Northern Uganda’s civil war. His goal is to give the youth of Uganda an opportunity to rebuild their future through education and job skills training. Northern Uganda is recovering from over two decades of armed conflict, which resulted in the displacement…
When looking back over this past winter, it’s not hard to see how the math adds up. In 2019, Loom had begun conversations with leaders in Uganda who wanted to co-host a Celebrating Children Workshop (CCW) in 2020. As we talked further about a CCW Uganda, everyone agreed that 70 participants was the maximum number…
Creativity might just be one of the most important skills a teacher has, especially in this season of remote and distance learning. In Loom’s Celebrating Children Workshop’s Facilitator training this Spring, we discussed the role of a teacher and what it means to help students learn. Just like in the CCW, this meant using creative…
As the six-month incubation period of Vuka small businesses comes to a close, we asked both Loom coaches and business owners what their highlights from this new initiative were. “Moving from an unknown stage to a ‘Aha!’ That is my experience with coaching my clients. I grew in my ability to be an active…
We start out at dark, and first light becomes a crimson streak across the sky. The sound of our van lurching along the rocky terrain is mingled with cowbells and braying goats. We are in Engikaret, the “place of thorns,” in a Maasai region outside of Arusha, Tanzania. We are here to experience what it…
Ten years ago, a small team of international trainers walked up a red clay path and entered a classroom in Kigali, Rwanda. Inside sat fifty pastors, teachers, caregivers, Sunday school leaders, and nonprofit workers who would become the first-ever participants of the Celebrating Children Workshop. The month-long workshop was the product of two and a…
“It’s not a training, it’s a transformation.” Mary, one of our partners, spoke these words when we asked her how the Celebrating Children Workshop (CCW) has changed her work with vulnerable children. In the past four years since she first took the CCW, Mary has not only continued her work with 85 children at risk,…
“They will take this and make it better.” From the launch of Loom’s Celebrating Children Workshop (CCW) ten years ago, our goal has always been to get the training into the hands of those who need it most. We knew this would mean that we couldn’t just be satisfied with doing a few trainings on…
For generations, their families have never gone to school. Now, these two grandmothers won’t stop until their community has the chance they never did. Several weeks ago, we had the privilege of sitting down with two extraordinary leaders who are tenaciously changing the future of their communities. These leaders are visionaries: they have the gift…
“I’ve never sat in better training, ever.” – Jane Brenda, Uganda “It’s one of the best trainings I’ve ever done. It opened my mind. I learned so much about trauma-related issues and their impact on children.” – Helen, Kenya “This training filled a void that I had and it is not to me alone but…
While we were in East Africa last month, we sat down with social innovators working in a variety of community development projects and asked them one question. From animal husbandry to education to job skills training, here is what they have learned. “It is good to start small with a business like this…
By Eugenie Adamah-Tassah A few days ago I was getting ready for work. I got my children fed and ready to go to school and was drinking my hibiscus tea before heading to the car. While I was half-way through my cup of tea, I spilled the rest on my white shirt. Frustrated by…
Who was in your circle? Who was it who taught you resilience, who taught you how to express and regulate emotions, and what it meant to be a healthy adult? Who was it who taught you how to live out of a heart of peace? Some of us can easily identify who was part of…
“I am totally surprised, puzzled, shocked to learn that child-related issues are global/universal!” (India) “I leave this room a different mother, employee, and child of God.” (Kenya) “I’ve become more aware of children’s inherent dignity.” (Thailand) “I will want to call together my fellow pastors to the task of our responsibilities towards children.” (Benin) “I…
In April 2016 Karen Del Rio and her husband, who ran the Joseph Project in South Africa, went to Burtingy, Switzerland to participate in our Celebrating Children Workshop. “It was a life changing course, both personally and professionally,” says Karen. “To be in an environment with other like-minded professionals, and be cheered on by the…
As we enter the final weeks of the year and reflect on all we have seen and done, we rejoice at the privilege of working with people of wonder and power. We’ve seen it in the ministry of Bartholomy and his wife Miriam to forgotten children on the streets of Bukavu, Congo; in the faces…
Last month we taught the first week of the Celebrating Children Workshop in Salem, Oregon. Twenty-three participants spent time discussing the care and protection of vulnerable children around the world. We asked our summer intern, Eugenie Adamah-Tassah, to share what she learned and experienced during that week. When I first heard about the Celebrating Children…
In November of 2016, Loom took our first Woven trip of friends to meet with partners on the field in Tanzania. It was there that Ike Kim, who is now a member of the Loom staff, had a vision of partnership through the many medical needs he saw there. Sixteen months later, the first Woven…
It’s been over a month since the team returned from East Africa, and we thought it might be time to share some more moments and stories with you! As we thought about what to share, there were so many stories we could tell. We could tell you about attendees who arrived from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda,…
In 2013, we joined with a core team of practitioners in Dhaka, Bangladesh to finish the last two weeks of the Celebrating Children Workshop. A year earlier, we had met Jeet and Seppi. This couple exemplifies what it means to see potential in hidden places. They had started a school in a garbage dump in…
In October 2012 the Celebrating Children Workshop team from Loom International arrived in Johannesburg anticipating seeing a group of participants with whom we had become old friends. We had met these 35 Methodist Church volunteers in April of 2012 during Part One of the CCW. Many of them had other jobs and careers but used…
In March 2014 and 2015, Loom ran Celebrating Children Workshops in Constanta, Romania. In a very cold and grey place, we met wonderful, warm people, many of whom had grown up in orphanages themselves, devoted to the wellbeing of children. It was an honor to meet and work with individuals who were committed to changing their…
This is Robert Wafula Sakwa. He is a teacher at the New Vision Primary School in Arusha, Tanzania. Robert says he is the “business of multiplication,” passing on what he learns to other leaders in his community. We had the pleasure of meeting him when he attended our two week Celebrating Children Workshop (CCW). It…
Juarez, Mexico has the unwanted distinction of being one of the most violent places in the world—in fact, at one time it was known as the murder capital of the world. Thankfully, today the city has become much safer, but still, children growing up there are in incredibly vulnerable situations. As a result, there are…
When we made the decision to run the Celebrating Children Workshop in Portland, we weren’t sure what participants to expect. But very quickly, the word spread and we had applications from India, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Cambodia (to name a few). We could not have been more excited. It was truly an honor to have…
ReNew was created because we saw caregivers around the world pouring themselves into the smallest, weakest, poorest and most vulnerable but never have time for their own rest and restoration. The HIV/AIDS epidemic across eastern and southern Africa affects millions of individuals. Many of the Local Experts we partner with in the region have devoted…
What do the cities of Salem, Oregon and Pune, India have in common? At first glance, not much. But, this past January we discovered people from both cities shared the same vision to serve women and children at risk and the results were exciting. Here at Loom, our goal is to partner with Local Experts…
