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Vision & Mission
Vision
Village Health Works seeks to be a center of excellence and the premiere teaching organization for community-‐driven global health and development groups in Africa and beyond.
MISSION
Our mission is to provide quality, compassionate health care in a dignified environment while treating the social determinants of illness, disease, violence and neglect in collaboration with those we serve.
Strength In What Remains
Strength in What Remains, the incredible story of VHW's founder, was called one of the best books of the year by Time, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, and Publishers Weekly.
In Strength in What Remains, Tracy Kidder gives us the story of one man’s inspiring American journey and of the ordinary people who helped him, providing brilliant testament to the power of second chances. Deo arrives in the United States from Burundi in search of a new life. Having survived a civil war and genocide, he lands at JFK airport with two hundred dollars, no English, and no contacts. He ekes out a precarious existence delivering groceries, living in Central Park, and learning English by reading dictionaries in bookstores. Then Deo begins to meet the strangers who will change his life, pointing him eventually in the direction of Columbia University, medical school, and a life devoted to healing. Kidder breaks new ground in telling this unforgettable story as he travels with Deo back over a turbulent life and shows us what it means to be fully human.
Sunday Book Review
"Strength in What Remains" is Deo's story. And what a tale it is, opening from a passenger seat in an airliner in war-torn Burundi, where Deo, then 24, is leaving behind what once seemed a promising life in Africa as a third-year medical student. It was 1994. Burundi and neighboring Rwanda were exploding in civil wars, in which Hutu and Tutsi were slaughtering one another in one of the 20th century’s most horrifying conflicts. With the help of the privileged family of one of his med-school friends, Deo is able to escape the carnage, bound for America.
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Deo’s Story
Deogratias (Deo) Niyizonkiza, VHW's visionary founder, is a leading advocate for the most impoverished people in the world. His compassion, expertise and life experience have made him a key voice in global health and development.
An American citizen, Deo was born in rural Burundi where he attended grade school and part of medical school. Arriving alone in the US, his incredible courage, determination and ingenuity led him to Columbia University for his undergraduate education. He went on to study at Harvard's School of Public Health and Dartmouth Medical School.
In 2006, Deo traveled back to Burundi to establish Village Health Works. Deo's passion rallied the southern Burundi community of Kigutu into action. With community-donated land and an army of committed volunteers, the clinic opened in December 2007. Deo's success in building an entirely community-driven health and development organization is unprecedented, and makes Village Health Works unique among NGOs.
Deo’s extraordinary story is told in Tracy Kidder’s most recent work, Strength in What Remains, a New York Times best seller named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune.
A frequent lecturer on global health, Deo is the recipients of multiple awards including the 2011 International Medal Award of St. John’s University and the 2010 Women Refugee Commission’s Voices of Courage Award.
