Author Archives: Chris Collins

The 3 things NOT to do on your next missions’ trips to Africa

How your missions team can be a blessing and not a burden when visiting Africa, or anywhere in the world. With COVID-era travel restrictions all but gone, missions’ trips are back in full swing. This year, hundreds of thousands of church members will hop on planes to visit poor countries all around the world. And […]

The odds were against Cirilo. He found a way to overcome them.

He grew up in one of the world’s poorest countries. As a child, he nearly died from malaria. But this dad found a way to work for a brighter future. Cirilo was born in Guinea-Bissau, a country where most people earn less than $2 a day. As a child, he suffered from severe malaria and […]

The behind-the-scenes story of how we opened the Bissau campus

We all know it takes three things to start a fire: heat, fuel and oxygen. It also takes three things to turn a dream into reality: faith, a great team, and people like yourself who invest in the vision early on. Just like a fire, if you don’t have all three, you’re left with nothing. […]

How international nonprofits use your donations to help people in poverty

When you click “donate” to buy school supplies for a kid in Africa, to help a woman in India start a business, or to help feed a poor family in rural Guatemala – where does your money go? Nonprofits usually try to give donors a simple message: Donate $50 now to help someone in poverty. […]

How to help people in poverty: Donate to nonprofits that give OPPORTUNITY, not CHARITY.

For a long time, nonprofits have tried to help people in poverty through charity – by giving them things for free. Free meals, free clothes, free electricity-generating soccer balls. Free anything. The reason is simple: unlike businesses, nonprofits are not funded by the people they serve (the homeless don’t pay for shelters, for example). Instead, […]

‘None of us are professors, secretaries or doctors – but I thank God for the profession he’s given us.’

Cirilo welding student at WAVS Vocational School in West Africa

Cirilo grew up in a country where most people live on less than $2 a day. As a kid, he dreamed about becoming a doctor or lawyer. With a career like that, he thought, he’d leave his life of poverty behind. Now as an adult, Cirilo shows up to work every day ready to direct […]

Impact of the coronavirus in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa

WAVS students and staff have been proactively cleaning and disinfecting the school in anticipation of the coronavirus outbreak.

For the latest number of cases in Guinea-Bissau click here. September 14, 2020: The WAVS Schools resumed classes, with extra protocols in place like wearing masks, for those students who were enrolled in the Spring term that was cut short by the state of emergency which closed all schools. These classes will go until September […]