It’s been a day packed with everything: maize flour, eggs, rice, beans, matooke, children falling asleep on the porch, bank issues, distribution issues, fixing of all problems, and above all, lots and lots of love.

Beautiful children, happy with their food, joyfully expressing their gratitude. May their parents be blessed always!

We started our week with quite a bit of work. We are slowly-slowly getting back to our routine, after the holidays. Each day, we organize our work in two stages – one in the morning, which consists in planning our activity, calling the children for food pick-up and ordering products that are necessary for distribution – and one in the afternoon, when children are coming and the actual distribution of food is starting. 

Things do not always go according to our plan – sometimes, products are out of stock, and sometimes it rains hard, preventing children from coming; but each day we try our best to find a workaround and to deliver good, high-quality work.

Of course, sometimes it may happen to make mistakes, but they are… just mistakes. We acknowledge them and we fix them. Mugoya and myself apologize to each other ten times a day, and together to the sponsors, when we do something we shouldn’t have done, or when we forget something. To make errors is to be human; to fix them, is to be a better human. So we always strive for that. 

What else are we currently working on? We have had quite a few people choosing to leave HOCT at the end of last year. Such is life; people come and go. We hold all of them in our heart. 

We try to find new sponsors for those children, and it is not always easy. We do not force anyone’s hand at coming to HOCT, or at staying if they do not like it. HOCT is free of pressure.

And last, but not least, these days we are working to complete the roof of our school. I can’t wait to get this done! We are working very diligently, but more discretely, towards this goal, in order not to make people tired and in order to maintain the focus of the people where it should be: on the children.

At the end of each day, our friend Mihaela takes a few pictures and makes a collage. She puts so much love in this work. We get to show the children in a happy, colorful context, and to also display their beautiful names. 

HOCT is a good place, and everyone works with all their heart.

Well, this is our story for the day. 

Each day, when the children come to pick their things, we get to see them showing a whole rainbow of emotions and sensations. Some are happy, some do not know how to smile; some are chatty and some are very shy. We allow the children to be themselves, and we never force them to “smile for the picture”. If they do, they do; if they do not, we will not love them any less (even though, we’ve had sponsors give up for the mere reason that the child was not smiling in photos).

Each day, we do our work with gratitude, and each day we learn to love more.

It is January 3. We worked with love and gratitude 🙂 Tashera fell asleep: Kibila is looking at us with his astonishingly blue eyes.

I am so happy today. The first day of work for 2024 has finished. We did not do much, as we are still recovering after the massive work we had to accomplish at the end of 2023. But we welcomed our children with love, we wished them all the best for the New Year that has begun, we discussed about their dreams for the future and about their present situation.

At HOCT, we are growing a little bit each day, and it is beautiful and inspiring. We are not in a hurry; we are not in competition with anyone. We do our part, in this forgotten corner of the world, and we hope that it matters.

Have you seen the movie “Schindler’s List”? In one of the last scenes in the film, as Schindler prepares to flee from the Allies, Schindler is given a golden ring, engraved with this quotation from the Talmud: “Whoever saves one life saves the world entire.”

It goes the same for HOCT.

Happy New Year, beloved Friends, Partners, Sponsors and Long-Distance Parents! Happy New Year, wonderful children!

Here’s to another year of hard work, beauty and splendid achievements together!

We have worked very hard today, to finish the distribution of Christmas gifts and food items, as many children have gone on vacations. We wait for them with love and patience.

We always allow the children to be themselves in photos. If they want to smile, they smile; if they want to be serious, they are serious. A photo is just a frozen slice of time. The children are happy and grateful, they’ve had an amazing Christmas and, most of all, they felt your love.

Merry Christmas from the HOCT Family and Friends! We have resumed work today, and we did what we could, as many shops are still closed, as well as the banks on all countries.

We are so happy to work, to be with the children and to do our part in this world.

We thank all the people who feed the children and who help in so many other ways.

Blessings to you!

Work lovingly done by Veronica and Mugoya

Media by Mihaela

It has been an incredibly long, hard week for us, HOCT coordinators. We have distributed hundreds of tons of food (very literally and without exaggerating), and after having finished this task (at around 9 PM each evening) we spent other countless hours working on reporting and the distribution of photos towards the long-distance parents.

But at the end of the day, we are so happy! Children have food, toys, even meat and juice, they will prepare a good Christmas meal that will be filling and nourishing, so it was all so well worth.

I would have never thought to have so many children registered in the system, when I first started coordinating HOCT. But here we are, years later, nearing 700 children and managing to also feed about 100 others through one-time donations from HOCT’s good friends. I am happy and grateful and honored by the people’s trust. HOCT was founded on mutual confidence, and the results are showing. Needless to say, we are not perfect, and we also do our share of mistakes, but we acknowledge them, and we fix them. At HOCT, we work with love, we learn how to do things better each day, we cherish each other, and we build.

It has been an incredibly long day which is far from over 😆 We worked on delivering food and Christmas gifts to about 100 ++ children, and the next two days will be the same. Just enjoy their happiness and be glad that such kindness exists in our world.