Watoto Children’s Choir coming to Neepawa

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Published on Tuesday, February 23, 2016

File photo. The Watoto Children’s choir is made up of orphans who were taken in by the Watoto program in Uganda. They performed in Neepawa in 2014.

By Kira Paterson

Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

Watoto Children’s Choir is making its way to Neepawa on a Canadian concert tour that started in January. The choir is made up of orphans who were taken in by the Watoto program in Uganda and now live in the Watoto children’s villages.

Watoto Child Care Ministries is a program that started in 1994 from the Watoto Church that was planted in Uganda. The program builds villages that have education centres that range from nursery schools to vocational training centres, a medical clinic, a water project and a community hall that also serves as the village’s church. Each house in a village has a housemother who will care for up to eight children. The children who live in the villages have been orphaned due to poverty, war and disease. Watoto aims to create the feeling of family for the orphans as well as raise them so that they can make a difference in their poverty stricken world. 

Watoto also reaches out to vulnerable women who have been affected by HIV/AIDS, have been abducted into child armies and escaped or are teen mothers. The program gives women access to health care, education and empowers them with the skills they need to sustain themselves. 

Along with providing homes and care, Watoto also strives to spread the gospel to the women and children in need. Having been started by a Christian church, Watoto brings these women and children to Christ by showing them the love of God and teaching them His Word.

The concert tour travels all over the world, raising awareness about the Watoto program and the millions of orphans and vulnerable women in Africa that it tries to reach. The tour also gives the children in the choir a chance to see different cultures in many countries and share their own personal stories with audiences. 

This year’s concert is entitled “Oh What Love” and is a mixture of modern and traditional African music and dance. The concert will be on Sunday, Mar. 13 at 7:00 pm at the Neepawa First Baptist Church, 219 Highway 5 north. There is no admission, but a freewill offering will be taken up during the evening.