News
Deo Feautured on Humanosphere Podcast
VHW founder and executive director Deo was recently a guest on the Humanosphere podcast. Listen to the discussion online at: Humanosphere
Exchange Program Between Connecticut Montessori School and VHW
Washington Montessori school in Connecticut recently hosted VHW outreach coordinator and president Peter Pro for one week of classes on traditional Burundian music and dance. This partnership was made possible by the school's music teacher, Matilda Giampietro, who visited Burundi in December of last year with several other musicians. The week culminated in a performance which featured Washington Montessori's students presenting the dances and music they had learned. An editorial in the local paper, The Litchfield County Times, wrote, "In a way, on one tense Friday evening when the nation was once again responding to the impact of terrorism, one private school in our region was resolutely laying the paving stones on the path to a better, safer, more peaceful world—and doing it with admirable skill and finesse." Read more about the event here: Washington Montessori School's Brush With Burundi: the Percussion of Hope
Check Out Muscatine High School Students' Strength in What Remains Resource Site
Iowa students from Muscatine High School created a resource site for Strength in What Remains as a means to promote discussion, volunteerism and innovative solutions to the world's problems. See it at: http://www.vhwstrength.org/
Village Health Works and the U.S. State Department Partner in Education
VHW has partnered with the United States embassy in Burundi to launch an English Access Program with 20 eight grade students from the Kigutu area. Read more about the program here: Embassy Launches First English Access Program
2012 Annual Report
We are pleased to present our 2012 Annual Report. Thank you to all our supporters who contributed to this effort. View it at: VHW 2012 Annual Report (For high resolution version, please see: VHW 2012 Annual Report HR)
VHW Featured in 'The Nation'
The current issue of The Nation features an article by advisory board member Wendy Steiner about Village Health Works. Read it here: It Takes a Village
This article was originally published on March 4th, 2013 in The Nation.
Burundi-US NGO To Host First Annual Harvest Day Event
Community gathering to feature presentations and guest speakers on agriculture, livestock husbandry, economic cooperatives, and nutrition
KIGUTU, BURUNDI—Village Health Works (VHW) will hold its first annual Harvest Day today, featuring speeches and presentations by agricultural cooperative members, VHW staff, agronomists and physicians, and the Burundi Minister of Agriculture and Livestock.
Read more: Burundi-US NGO To Host First Annual Harvest Day Event
CNN and Global Health Frontline News
Village Health Works was recently profiled on CNN and Global Health Frontline News by Gary Striker. Footage courtesy of Melinda Binks and GHFN.
View the video below or click here to visit the Frontline News website to read the full story.
Community Events Spotlight HIV/AIDS Education
VHW brings communities together through sports tournament for public health education
Kigutu, Burundi –Village Health Works, an American non-profit organization based in rural, Burundi, has organized a World AIDS Day tournament. Given countrywide antiretroviral drug shortages and climbing infection rates, Village Health Works is dedicated to leveraging its community-based model to disseminate preventative health messages.
Women’s Refugee Commission 2010 Voices of Courage Award
Deo Niyizonkiza Guest Column
Deo Niyizonkiza was one of two refugees honored at the Women’s Refugee Commission 2010 Voices of Courage Awards held Thursday, May 6 in New York City. In the post below, Deo tell us about his organization Village Health Works and why it is important to provide health care to refugee women and children.
Where There is Health, There is Hope
Kalamazoo College
In May 2011, we brought to campus Deogratias Niyizonkiza and Dziwe Ntaba, co-founders and leadership partners of Village Health Works, a community-based health clinic in Kigutu, Burundi that practices and promotes socially just medicine and public health work. Deogratias was already well known in the Kalamazoo community, as he was the subject of the Kalamazoo Public Library's 2011 Reading Together book, The Strength in What Remains, by Tracy Kidder. Hundreds of people throughout the community awaited their arrival because of this, and they were not disappointed!
Burundian clinic founder brings story of help, hope to UD
Sept. 24, 2010----Deogratias Niyizonkiza's incredible odyssey began when he boarded a plane in Bujumbura, Burundi, in 1994, leaving behind a country being ripped apart by genocide and civil war. On the latest leg of this personal journey, Deo, as he is called, visited the University of Delaware on Wednesday, Sept. 22, to share his vision of hope and renewal. His visit was sponsored by UD's First Year Experience program.
From Poverty To The Ivy League: A Refugee's Story
NPR's All Things Considered
Deogratias "Deo" Niyizonkiza, a refugee from the war-torn African country of Burundi, left his homeland in 1993 with little beyond the clothes on his back. When he arrived in New York City, he didn't know a soul there, nor did he speak English. But a series of charitable deeds by complete strangers helped Niyizonkiza transform himself from a homeless immigrant to an Ivy League student — and eventually set up a health clinic back home to help those he left behind.
Alumni Spotlight: Deogratias Niyizonkiza '01
Owl Magazine
“Hell in paradise” is Deo Niyizonkiza’s description of his home country of Burundi, which was named the world’s poorest country by the World Bank in 2006. A place of striking natural beauty, Burundi has endured colonization, decades of misrule by dictators, and, most recently, a 13-year civil war...
Deo to Packed House: ‘You Can Change the World One Person at a Time’
Arcadia University Bulletin
Stiteler Auditorium was packed as Deogratias “Deo” Niyizonkiza, founder of Village Health Works in Burundi, talked about his journey to bring health care to impoverished communities, a world journey that included surviving a massacre at a Burundian hospital and arriving penniless in New York.
Read the full article here.