Stories

Imagine starting your year believing that life, with all its little trials, will continue as planned.   Your family will remain in-tact, happily and healthily and your home, community and all the details that make up everyday life will continue as normal. And then it starts to rain. And it doesn’t stop for days and days

Every one of us remembers a time in school where a physical situation resulted in teasing.  Perhaps you fell and someone laughed, or you were too tall, too short… children tend to tease and the resulting shame can have long-lasting implications. This could have been the story of a young boy called Vincent in the

Many boys who skip school do so for social reasons, perhaps they prefer playing with friends or visiting exciting sights in their city. For Mohammed in Sierra Leone, his truancy was driven by something far simpler. Hunger. Mohammed’s mother left him with his grandmother at age one.  Whilst his grandmother did her very best to

JAM and LEGO toys have recently implemented a project at Bocoio hospital in which the therapy room, used by Dr. Francisco Celestin, a Clinical Psychologist who works with patients needing social support at the hospital, has been equipped with a range of LEGO toys.  Dr. Francisco has been utilising the LEGO toys to diagnose and

Water preservation and water shortage have been hot topics in recent times, but for most of us reading this article, the reality of living without an easily accessible, clean water source is not something we have a great deal of experience with. For the community in the Cheline village in Mozambique, a lack of clean

When JAM was founded in 1984, the dream of our founders, Peter and Ann Pretorius, was to break the cycle of poverty.  A simple enough mission statement, but the practical implementation of this vision has resulted in a variety of powerful partnerships with like-minded organisations all over the world as JAM, with the help of

After her father was killed in South Sudan conflict, a young teen called Agnes fled to the Imvepi Refugee Settlement in Uganda with a neighbour while her family remained behind. For a year Agnes lived uncertain whether her mother and siblings had survived the conflict as she struggled to come to terms with her new

Anna Nyawichar of Unity State is one of 22 women who is changing the face of farming in South Sudan.  Following conflict in Unity State when Anna fled her home and became a refugee at the Protection of Civilians (POC) site being run by United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), Anna has now returned

When you were five years old, what did you tell your parents you would be when you grew up?  Perhaps a teacher, or a fireman? For little five-year-old Jordan Stevens, his dream is to be a policeman so that he can “help people”.  But it’s only recently that Jordan has had the energy to even

“My name is Aminata, I am seven years old, and my life has changed completely in the last few months.  Up until now, I lived with my mother and father and had a happy and safe home.  My father was a leader in our community, a missionary, who worked very hard in the building of

Many of you know the incredible story of how JAM started in 1984 when Peter Pretorius, JAM founder, was left stranded in Mozambique in the midst of a famine where he helplessly watched children dying of starvation daily.  We think it is fitting that this incredible success story is based in Mozambique. Inácio Thumbo spent

Most 10-month-old babies are full of energy and the kind of wriggly joy and curiosity that only babies have. But when little Albertina arrived at the nutrition clinic near Ganda in Angola, she was listless, painfully thin and very near death. Albertina lives with her mother and father in a small mud shack in a

Health and wellness don’t seem to fit into the dire circumstances that accompany refugee camps. JAM International is taking a longer-term view of the refugee camps and utilizing them as an opportunity to change hygiene habits that impact the longterm health of refugees. Juan, a 35-year-old mother, fled to Uganda from South Sudan as internal

Perhaps you have a monthly amount that you donate to JAM International, but when you look at it in the context of your own expenses, you wonder how it could possibly make a difference. This article is a real-life example of a widow whose life is being changed month by month through the contributions made

The JAM International team would like to introduce you to Kadiatu. She is a nine-year-old little girl in year 4 at her school, the Seventh Day Adventist (S. D. A) Primary School in Mafay Village in Sierre Leone. Her parents are subsistence vegetable farmers and reliant on seasonal rains and access to precious resources such

Mozambique is a hot tropical country on the Eastern side of Southern Africa and many rural communities are plagued by inferior educational resources. Many of the schools in Mozambique operate in the shade of some trees with students sitting in the dirt, learning without stationery or the benefit of a blackboard, and no learning aids

Little two-year-old Cecelia sits happily on her mother’s lap, nutritious fortified milk dribbling down her chin as she grins at the JAM International team. This smile is a welcome sign of health, which just a few days ago was impossible for little Cecilia as she lay fighting for her life. Her mother, Angelina, can’t stop

At JAM international we are privileged to see how seemingly small contributions and projects can change the way an entire community functions for the better.  No story illustrates this better than a water well that has been installed through the JAM international clean water projects funded by the German Rotary society. Londimba is a community

There is a familiar saying. “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a life-time.” For Fabien Uwitonze a 17 year-old young man from Rukaza Village in Rwanda, the JAM Vocational Training Centre where he is currently enrolled on a bursary

Without having lived as a refugee, there are certain assumptions about the hardships that refugees endure.  Most refugees arrive at the reception centres in new countries having fled war, terrorists or natural disasters, having lost everything they have ever owned.  Many only have the clothes on their back. Over 2.3 million refugees, 80% of them

Mabinty Sankoh is just ten years old, yet in her very short lifetime she has had more hardships than most people experience in a lifetime. Instead of growing bitter, she speaks of her experiences with a smile, not because they weren’t difficult, but because she now has hope. Mabinty Sankoh in her school uniform When

As a parent there is nothing more distressing than the hungry cries of your child when you have no way of feeding them.  For Ngaricho Kadai, a young mother who had fled severe flooding in Thangajon in Pibor county, losing everything she owned, the situation became life-threatening when her almost 3year old toddler, Jiji’s health

We call for the end of senseless conflicts that lock the children of Africa in the vicious cycle of displacement, poverty and hunger. We call on African governments and humanitarian organizations to ensure equal access to assistance for refugee and migrant children, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic. After approximately six years of civil war, more than

The JAM school feeding programme operating in Angola, along with the Lego 6 brick and Tom’s shoe distribution programmes have become motivating factors that see students coming back to school again and again. The promise of a hot meal every day, a privilege many in the community go without, along with the care clearly visible

For many people reading this story, access to clean, safe water is something that is easily taken for granted.  With just a twist of a tap, clean water is available for drinking, household cleaning and sanitary uses. In Mozambique, in the village of Bobiane, Morrumbene, the Adventist Church water point, a closed well, was the

For many people reading this article, the promise of a bright future is an assumption made based on resources and the family we were raised in. But what if that family was living in poverty and starvation had hounded you your whole life?  Would you still be where you are today? At JAM we have

When JAM was founded in 1984, the vision of fighting hunger in Africa was one that would lead the JAM team thousands of kilometres away to a primary school in Masakong, Sierre Leone where children would take up this vision and provide food for their community. This story is about how one small action like

Ngangdong is a four-year-old little boy in South Sudan who was rescued by the JAM international team when his desperate mother, Koliwa Lou, brought him and his six siblings to the JAM nutritional facility in Pibor county. Ngangdong’s little body had painful swelling all over it, some of it typical to malnutrition, but with other