12/06/2025
Happy Holidays from The Caia Connection and Kuwangisana
We have much to celebrate and be grateful for this holiday season. This has been a momentous year. In June, the Getting’ Higher Choir and Wavelengths Community Choir held the special fundraising concert, Honouring Siobhan!, as a tribute to our co-founder and inspirational musical leader Siobhan Robinsong. The concert was a beautiful success, with many friends and choir supporters from years present and past. A generous silent donor offered to match funds raised and we had our greatest year yet, raising a total of $63,000 with cost matched funds. We would like to thank all the supporters, the choirs and Siobhan’s family.
These funds will help our communities in Mozambique move forward with solar panel training, school, health, other important programs, and emergency response. Nearly every year an unpredictable event, like cyclones and drought, requires emergency food, shelter, and repairs. Just this past October, the Kapasseni Primary School was damaged by heavy rainstorm and strong winds which required significant roof repairs on two classrooms.
We have a special success story to share as well, from one of our scholarship students. Domingos Semente is a second-year computer science student who sent this message to Perpetua in English, “I made an achievement in college and I won computer, which will also help me.” Perpetua followed up to hear the happy story:
Three months prior, Domingos signed up for a very competitive inter-universities Computer Science Scientific Journaling competition, with more than 500 competitors. “The task is very challenging. One has to be accurate, no mistakes, the task has to be complete on time, under watchful eyes of a large audience. For those reasons, one cannot help not to feel nervous!” he said.
He shared that the day before the competition he felt butterflies in his stomach and doubted his abilities to compete with other students. Some of them come from very well to do families and are self-assured. His own situation was the opposite. On the day of the competition, he joined fellow students and waited patiently for his name to be called among the participants. They were all given the same task to perform. As he began to work, unconsciously a thought of his unfortunate family history sneaked in. He immediately stopped for a second. He felt emotionally defeated. Then he remembered to take a deep breath, clasped his hands and closed his eyes. This helped him to redirect his attention to the task at hand and to think positive.
With a new wave of unflappable confidence, the Caia Connection’s support became his mantra! He worked fast. His figures tickling the keyboard. Voila! He finished on time, demonstrating graphic design and network programming.
After a few weeks, the news of the 2025 Computer Science Scientific Journaling Championship spread like fire. Only two students won. Domingos was one of them. He received many varied gifts and a brand-new computer, which he is extremely proud of!
He’s truly appreciative of the help he is getting from The Caia Connection. He is humbled by all the financial support to pay for his university tuition, room, and board. And for psychosocial support. Without that help he would not have had the chance to win a computer. He considers himself lucky to be receiving the post-secondary education support.
Congratulations to Domingos and thank you to all of our supporters who make achieving an education possible for our students in Mozambique.
We wish you all a happy holiday and blessed New Year.
To donate to The Caia Connection, please visit our Canada Helps site: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/41838
We can accept E Transfers to [email protected]
Cheques can be mailed to: The Caia Connection, 560 Boblaw Place, Victoria, BC V9C 3Z1
Give a donation as a gift and we will send you a digital photo card or pick up a print version at choir.
