WATOTO CHILDREN’S CHOIR from UGANDA will perform at ASCS gym on Feb 26 at 6:30 pm. Free will donations will be taken and handmade items will be available for purchase. Save the date!

A choir carrying a message of pure hope is coming to All Saints Catholic School in collaboration with Christ the Redeemer parish as the highly energetic Watoto Children’s Choir returns. This particular choir is currently on tour across Canada with their show titled “Better Days: There is Hope” to share their message of God’s unfailing love and raise money for women and children in Uganda and South Sudan.

The choir itself is one part of Watoto — the Swahili word for ‘children.’ The overall goal for Watoto is to provide a safe place for vulnerable women and children in Uganda and South Sudan, tracing its roots back to 1984 when Canadians Gary and Marilyn Skinner began the Watoto Church in Kampala.

“The choir performance is really sharing the hope that has been brought into their lives because of Watoto,” explains Johanna Cousineau, Choir Co-ordinator with the Watoto Canada team. “Most of the children have been abandoned or orphaned, and so Watoto has taken them and given them a home with a mom and siblings. It is a permanent home for them, and it raises them all the way through.”

Children in Watoto receive all the necessities to grow including love, education, and medical care. Some of the children also audition to be part of the choir where they sing, dance, and share their story and hope for the future.

“Their greatest need right now is for sponsorship,” Cousineau says. “Sponsorship is an ongoing commitment for the raising of the children. It goes directly to running the household and providing their education.” 

While in Swift Current, they will stay with local families who generously opened up their homes.